Riverford Organic Farmers doubled its profits last year as Brits’ desire for organic and sustainable produce helped the vegetable box company beat sales expectations.
Turnover was up 11% to £110m, while pre-tax profits hit £5.3m in the year to 4 May 2024, up from £2.6m a year earlier.
Riverford’s staff will now share a payout of £1.3m after the company completed the full transfer to employee ownership in June 2023.
“Financially this was one of the best we have seen, with record revenue and profit outside of the two Covid impacted years,” the company said.
Riverford saw sales boom through Covid, peaking in 2021-22 as it made up to 200,000 deliveries a week. While sales then fell back as lockdowns eased, its latest results mark a return to its high water mark.
Riverford grew its proportion of UK produce by 3% last year, helping cut transport emissions by 7%. Around three-quarters of Riverford’s produce was now home-grown and used 82% less plastic than comparable items in major supermarkets, the company said.
It has farmed organically since 1987, though said it now recognised the need to go “above and beyond. This doesn’t just mean avoiding the negative impacts of farming, but maximising the potential benefits,” it said.
“Our goal is to be the best example of ‘agroecology’ – creating a landscape with: rich biodiversity; strong resilience to climate change; high levels of sequestered carbon; healthy soils; restored water quality. All while producing nutritious food for our customers.”
It planted 10,000 trees into its agroforestry systems last winter, with plans to integrate more trees with livestock grazing across three local farms.
Over 30% of Riverford’s delivery trucks are now electrified and it is targeting over 80% by the end of the year. This target has been cut from 100% due to the need for flexibility in its fleet.
Its total emissions ratio fell around 15% to 10.7 tonnes of carbon per £100k in revenue.
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