Scott Davies established Hilltop Honey in 2011 and since then the company has seen exceptional levels of growth with turnover increasing from £234,000 to more than £4m.
Scott founded Hilltop Honey as a ‘hobby’ in 2011 in the back garden of his parents’ house in Mid Wales. Hilltop Honey was successful in the first round of the Food Business Investment Scheme through the Welsh Government Rural Communities-Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the Welsh Government and the European Union.
This was one of the first projects to be approved under the scheme with a grant award of £240,000. A total investment of £600,000 was to purchase a new industrial processing unit, internal works to upgrade building to food production grade and processing equipment.
Hilltop Honey is now stocked by a number of the major supermarkets and many independent farm shops. The business has moved to a 14,000 sq. ft headquarters in Newtown, Powys and a number of other honey products have been developed, including British, Speciality, Organic, Manuka and an Organic Fairtrade honey all available in reusable glass jars and 100% recyclable bottles.
Hilltop Honey was the first company to go to market with an organic Fairtrade honey. All the honey for the Fairtrade range is sourced through certified beekeeper co-operatives in developing countries, transforming the lives of farmers and local communities by contributing their sustainable future.
The business commits to recruiting local talent and developing them through their inhouse training programme.
Hilltop Honey runs their own ‘Adopt a Bee’ campaign in which consumers can learn further about the importance that bees have on the environment. The business donates 25% of the profits from this to the very deserving Honeypot Children’s charity.
The company also created the ‘Save British Bees by Planting Seeds’ campaign, teaming up with Tesco and Ocado to encourage consumers to create bee-friendly gardens by using a free pack of seeds that came with each purchase of a jar of honey.
Scott’s hard work continues to pay off and in an announcement by the First Minister on 14 February it was confirmed that Hilltop Honey is a finalist in the St David Award 2019 Enterprise category.
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