Thank you so much for supporting us this past year, and all those years before it.
We have achieved so much with your help and encouragement and we are so proud to be making a difference in the small way we can. Together, aside from what we've done below, we're showing and helping other businesses become more responsible and lead with passion and purpose.
So what have we done in 2019?
Our Purpose
Our purpose is to help everyone make better choices and everything we do stems from that and is backed by our 8 values.
This year we have grown our business in a few ways to help get better, kinder choices out there.
In July we opened our very first store in North Rocks. Over 1000 of you attended and it was an amazing day supported by many beautiful brands and by you, our customers. We've also been a regular fixture at Sydney Vegan Market and in December had a pop-up store in Darling Quarter.
Our North Rocks Store Opening
We’ve introduced lots of new brands so we now have over 7000 products at F&F, all vegan and cruelty-free and the majority introduced this year have had better packaging whether that be compostable or made of glass or recyclable metal. Brands like Viva La Body, Ethique, Amor Luminis, Dearest Lips, Woohoo, Sunbutter and so many more are all making a difference when it comes to packaging.
We've also grown our own Green + Kind range which is focused on plastic-free alternatives to things we use every day. A BCorp brand making a difference with no plastic packaging.
A huge project for us was moving our website which happened in October. This is the biggest thing we’ve ever done but phew we’re out the other side! This means it's faster and more scalable so means we can get to more people easily.
And, of course, we still write our handwritten notes and this year we've written over 200,000 of them.
Our team planting native trees with Greenfleet
Our Environment
We continue in our quest to lead the way when it comes to running a sustainable business. We've made more steps this year to tread softly and we've helped and coached other businesses do the same so, collectively, we can improve our world and how we live.
By using recycled minimal packaging and not using plastic satchels we’ve saved over 10 tonnes of plastic from going to landfill this year
In March we changed our systems in the warehouse and moved to a digital system away from paper. We’re now saving over 1.3 tonnes of paper annually, this year it will be 2 tonnes.
In June we partnered with Greenfleet to regenerate forests and offset the carbon produced in our business from deliveries, our internal operations, travel and even team cars. We offset all your parcels and counted back to the start of F&F when it comes to offsetting deliveries.
In November over Green Weekend we planted 5637 trees with the orders you placed – thank you!
We have recycled close to a tonne of your product packaging with Terracycle and our recycling scheme helping to keep plastic out of landfill.
Team
Over 20 new people have now joined our fantastic team making a difference and growing our little business. Two of our team have got engaged, a few have finished their University degrees and we have also introduced baby Woody to F&F, now 10 months old.
Charity
We continue to be focused on charity partnerships and doing everything we can to support charities whether that is raising awareness or donating much-needed funds. This year we have donated close to $30k to charity and a split is listed below.
We continue to work with the amazing Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary raising funds and selling their merchandise. We like to be very transparent on funds raised. It's crucial when a few businesses have claimed they donate but don't. You can be assured with us if we say we're doing something we do it however large or small. This year, with your help, we have raised...
- Port Macquarie Koala Hospital = $1,000
- Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary = $7,803
- Sea Shepherd (in selling merchandise) = $11,198
- Down Syndrome Australia = $658
- One Tree Planted (Planting Trees in Tasmania) = $8,267
Tom & Woody meeting some of the Where Pigs Fly Animals
Awards
We’ve had a few awards in our time and this year we picked up a few more.
In Feb we won the Punching Above Our Weight award at the Power Retail All Star Bash and I, Julie, was named No. 1 Person in eCommerce in Australia in 2019 - very humbled!
In November we were listed as No. 9 in the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 and No. 3 in the Deloitte Tech Fast Female.
