ABOUT BELU
Belu is a drinks business and social enterprise. We put the environment first, always, and invest in people and planet. Since 2011 we have given 100% of net profit to our Impact partner, WaterAid – to help transform lives worldwide with clean water.
We work with the UK hotel, restaurant and catering sectors, providing British mineral water and filtered still and sparkling water with the lowest carbon footprint possible.
Learn more about how we do business below.
We're a social enterprise
We’re proud to be a Social Enterprise. It’s why we carry the ‘Buy Social’ logo on all our products and support Social Enterprise UK, the membership body which raises awareness of social enterprises. As a social enterprise, we demonstrate that we invest our profits back into society.
We're foundation owned
Belu’s commitment to social and environmental impact does not depend on the existence of the Foundation. The business has a long history of directing profits towards impact and could continue to do so without a separate charity. However the value of The Belu Foundation is not simply in where profits go. Instead it’s having an independent governance body whose primary responsibility is public benefit and charitable purpose. This provides an additional layer of stewardship, challenge and accountability beyond the management and governance of the trading company itself.
The Foundation’s role is to help ensure that purpose remains protected over the long term, particularly through future leadership changes, different commercial circumstances and changing strategic priorities. It provides a mechanism through which purpose can be considered independently of the day-to-day commercial interests of the business.
We're Transparent
We work in the most transparent and sustainable way possible, holding ourselves and our partners accountable for ensuring our ethics are not compromised. We’re not afraid to be different from other organisations and many times have found success comes from countering instead of following. Every year we publish the headlines, key data and stories of our environmental footprint, new initiatives, employment and social impact in our annual impact report.
A history of hospitality
From the very beginning, Belu built strong partnerships with hospitality venues, becoming a trusted name across restaurants, hotels, and bars nationwide. Under Karen Lynch’s leadership from 2010, we expanded rapidly, creating a national network of hospitality customers committed to sustainability. In 2020, Natalie Campbell MBE stepped in as CEO just weeks before the pandemic, and later that year, Charlotte Harrington joined as Co-CEO to accelerate our filtration strategy and take Belu global, starting with Belu Hong Kong.
WORKING WITH OUR SUPPLIERS
When Encirc, our bottling partner created the world’s most sustainable glass bottles in a ground breaking biofuel trial we jumped at the chance of being involved.
We worked hand-in-hand with our water source partner MSW, to create a 100% recycled plastic bottle, way before it was mainstream. When we realised that the carbon impact of cans and cartons was too great for us to justify a switch, MSW became a leading light, tackling plastic waste with us and turning +90m bottles into new Belu bottles.
Caring is part of our culture
Every Belu sale makes a positive difference. We do not shy away from the fact that we sell products and generate revenue because this positively impacts communities far and wide. If something we do had a detrimental impact on a person, community or collective, we would not continue with it. We set a culture that means we all show up with our ethics and principles in action. We make sure everyone we work with and sell to knows who we are and what we stand for. Most importantly, for the next ten years we are inviting people to join the pursuit of our purpose: to change the way the world sees water.