(Crewe, 12 December 2022) In parallel with the company’s financial successes this year, Bentley’s very own extraordinary ‘Flying Bees’ too have had an exceptionally fruitful season. Following the productivity levels of their human colleagues, the bees have produced an estimated record 1,000 jars of honey from Bentley’s very own Excellence Centre for Honey Production.
A colony of 120,000 indigenous honey bees, taking up residence in May 2019 as part of Bentley’s #GOTOZERO sustainable strategy have now grown to an impressive 600,000 strong swarm across ten active bee hives at the company’s headquarters. This is just one of many initiatives undertaken by the British marque to promote biodiversity around the expansive campus.
Working together with ‘Buckley Bees’ – Bentley’s beekeepers, the vacated honey supers have broken new records by producing more honey than ever before at the company’s Excellence Centre for Honey Production. Here, each frame, overflowing with the precious liquid gold, is spun to extract every last drop and then the honey is carefully drained and filtered before being decanted and individually jarred.
The jarring and packaging process then takes place with the greatest attention to detail and excellence as is expected of the Bentley brand. This special touch means that in addition to sharing this honey with Bentley colleagues, the elegant jars will also make unique gifts for VIP visitors and guests to the Bentley headquarters in Crewe.
The Excellence Centre for Honey Production is just one of many initiatives realised to improve site sustainability at the factory. Other activities include handmade bird and hedgehog boxes dotted around the campus by Bentley colleagues, 100 trees planted around the factory grounds and an impressive ‘seed bombing’ effort which saw more than 5,000 bulbs of daffodils planted across the campus to enhance flora and fauna onsite which have yielded extraordinary benefits for the local environment.
Peter Bosch, Bentley’s Board Member for Manufacturing, comments: “Not only are these amazingly hard workers contributing to our local biodiversity, in my opinion, they are also the producers of some of the finest quality honey in the world, taking inspiration from their counterparts in our Excellence Centre for Vehicle Finish.
“Next year, we are celebrating five years of carbon neutrality for our site in Crewe, and biodiversity plays a part in this success. While we celebrate this, we don’t rest on our laurels and constantly strive for new initiatives to improve our environmental impact even further, to ensure our site and end-to-end business operations reflect our ambitions to become the leader in sustainable luxury mobility.”
