Following our invitation, Suma was pleased to welcome the visit on the 5th August of the new Conservative MP for the Calder Valley area, Mr Craig Whittaker.

Hosting the visit for Suma were Alex Stappard, Bob Cannell and Rob Sherwell.

We explained to Mr Whittaker that Suma is a major wholesaler/distributor specialising in natural, vegetarian, organic, fairly traded and animal cruelty free food and non-food products.

We showed Mr Whittaker a short presentation explaining the many benefits of the highly successful Suma co-operative working methods followed by a departmental tour of our radical business.

During the discussions we were keen to explain the ethical manner in which Suma does business, in its methods and product range, and the high importance it gives to customer service, product credentials and quality.

We pointed out that Suma was the UK’s largest independent worker’s co-op and the largest equal pay organisation in Europe and that it had continued to grow year on year despite the recession, expanding its workforce and turnover and introducing more exciting new products to market.

During the visit Mr Whittaker showed great interest in the fact that Suma have recently launched the world’s first recycled and recyclable rPET pre-pack range and we all agreed that local authority’s recycling plants needed to move fast to catch up with this innovation. No doubt other companies will once again follow Suma’s lead in promoting this new technology.

Not surprisingly the subject came up of the Coalition government’s recent announcement to support and encourage new Co-op start ups. It was encouraging to hear Mr Whittaker say that although this would initially be for public sector workers, he believed that government support for new Co-ops would be rolled out into other areas of business within a couple of years.

We look forward to welcoming Mr Whittaker back to Suma again soon.

Popularity: 1% [?]