Co-founder James Robson says Fallow is “going from strength to strength” as his London restaurant announced it is now B Corp certified.
Fallow’s B Corp process began around two years ago, in which time James and chef duo Jack Croft and William Murray have also launched two new ventures in Roe and FOWL.
Situated in St James’s Market since November 2021, having initially started as a pop-up the previous year, Fallow champions sustainability, using often discarded British ingredients with a root-to-stem and nose-to-tail approach.
How does the B Corp certification process work?
Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab Europe who meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. There are now more than 2,000 in the UK, across various industries.
It is a rigorous process, evaluating a company’s practices and outputs across five categories – governance, workers, customers, environment and community.
Speaking to The Staff Canteen about the B Corp process, James said: “I was a little bit skeptical at the beginning, because you see all the big firms with it, rather than the smaller independents.
“But we learnt a lot, there’s no doubt about it. It’s been incredibly intensive. It was a real deep dive into all of our practices.
“One of the things that sticks in my mind is we do a lot on the diversity side, working with a lot of different associations and partners. Whether this is people coming out of jail, food banks or local authorities.
“They literally held us to account on the postcode of the people. They asked how many we were employing from the closest boroughs that have got underprivileged people. Something like that I’d never thought about before.”
He added: “It was a little challenging from an independent perspective. But I would recommend that any company did it (B Corp process). I really would, because it focuses in your thinking.”
However, something which has frustrated James is that neither Roe nor FOWL are B Corp certified.
He explained: “We are an independent chain and just because we call our other restaurants different names and they’re slightly different concepts, apparently I can’t call them B Corp.
“It’s okay if I’m a bank or skincare brand or steak chain, I’m allowed to open up as many as I want and call them B Corp. But because we’re a genuine independent, that’s got the same ethos across our group as we expand, apparently I can’t call them B Corp.
“It was a kick in the teeth they didn’t grant it to our other restaurants.”
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