Black Bee Honey Sustainability + Brand Strategy
“We'd highly recommend working with The Good Crowd. We started working with Catherine on our B Corp certification back in 2021. Her expertise in sustainability & B Corp, industry connections and insights have really helped us develop our business. We certified B Corp last year, and have continued to work with Catherine as our Sustainability advisor, bringing her onto our Board last year. We've also tapped into The Good Crowd's Brand strategy expertise, working with Natalie to develop our marketing strategy. They really get what we're about and are great to work with”.
Chris Barnes, Co-founder
About Black Bee Honey
Award Winning. Single Origin. Raw British Honey.
Black Bee Honey is named after the British honeybee, which after nearly dying out, are slowly making a comeback. Founders Chris & Paul met in an office 15 years ago, but their interest in beekeeping led them to London’s rooftops and gardens where they cared for over a million bees. It was a life changing experience, but they weren’t content. In fact they were annoyed. Annoyed with all the tasteless honey they found on supermarket shelves. They wanted to share their love of honey straight from the hive with everyone, so Black Bee Honey was born.
Why The Good Crowd?
Catherine met Paul back in 2021 when he had recently left London and set-up home in Catherine’s local town of Bruton, Somerset. Catherine was instantly drawn to the ethos and values of the business, and Paul and Chris’ mission to promote British honey and British beekeepers.
Paul & Chris had embarked on their B Corp journey, believing it to be a great fit for their business. As is often the case, other business priorities had taken priority, and so in 2022 Paul reached out for our expert help to move them forward.
What we did
We quickly reviewed where they had got to on their B Corp journey, getting under the skin of how their values and mission aligned to their improvement plan. We then supported them all the way to certification, giving advice, guidance, tools and policy templates to implement their improvement plan. Catherine also led the B Lab verification audit process, ensuring the right evidence was provided. Black Bee Honey successfully certified B Corp in May 2023 with a score of 93.9 points.
We continue to work with the team on an ongoing basis advising on Marketing plans to communicate the brand message through their founder story, and also as their Sustainability advisor and non-executive Director. The highlight so far may have been getting involved in selling honey and talking to customers at the Bath Christmas Markets!