Honey firm buzzing with ideas
An award-winning Mid Wales honey company is buzzing after launching a campaign to save British bees.
Hilltop Honey, which was recently expanded to a new 14,000 sq ft production base in Newtown, giving away a free packet of flower seeds with every jar or bottle of its honey sold in Tesco stores in August and September. Online buyers through Ocado or the company's own website are already receiving their seeds.
The environmentally conscious company wants customers to "Save British Bees By Planting Seeds" in their gardens.
“The campaign is aimed at raising consumer awareness of the importance of bees and how we are trying to support them,” Josh Owen, Hilltop Honey’s sales and marketing director said.
“British bees are in decline and we see it as our corporate responsibility to try to do something about it.
“ We hope that our bee-friendly flower seeds will be a first step to help them and that the public will get behind our campaign.”
Hilltop Honey has already formed a mutually beneficial partnership with Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust which has agreed to host 10 hives on three of its nature reserves. The bees pollinate plants on the reserve and surrounding land while producing Welsh wildflower honey and the company makes a monthly donation to the trust to support its work.
The first nature reserve apiary was established in 2015 and was such a success that Hilltop Honey has located two more on other undisclosed reserves this summer.
Company founder, Scott Davies said the partnership was a perfect marriage.
“The nature reserves are brilliant sites for wildlife and producing honey as they have protected wildflower meadows for the bees,” he said.
“The main things we look for when establishing an apiary are good forage, south facing if possible and good access without being seen in remote locations. All three nature reserves meet those criteria and have great honey making potential.
“In return, I enjoy supporting Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust which is doing positive things to help bees and other wildlife. The partnership works well.”
Wildlife trust chief executive, Clive Faulkner, said: “It’s brilliant that the reserves are producing something that is useful and worthwhile in addition to all that fabulous wildlife. Bees are pollinators and it all fits together really well.”
Having started the business in his parents’ kitchen six years ago, Scott now employs 12 full time staff and supplies Welsh, British and European honey, comb honey and bee pollen to major High Street, online and international customers. His ambition is to become the number one honey company in the UK.
