Waitrose Duchy Organic

Waitrose Duchy Organic
Product type Organic produce
Owner Waitrose
Country United Kingdom
Introduced 2015
Markets Grocery
Previous owners Duchy Originals
Tagline Good Food, Good Farming, Good Causes
Website Waitrose Duchy Organic

Waitrose Duchy Organic[1] (formerly Duchy Originals from Waitrose and earlier simply Duchy Originals) is a brand of organic food sold mainly in Waitrose stores in the United Kingdom, and small independent stores.[2] The brand is a partnership between Waitrose and the Duchy Originals company, a company set up by Charles, Prince of Wales in 1990 and named after the Duchy of Cornwall estates that are held in trust by the Prince of Wales.

History

The first product of the Duchy Originals brand, oaten biscuits, were grown on the Prince of Wales Highgrove House estate. During the 1990s Duchy Originals products were mostly stocked in farm shops and independent delicatessens.[3] Expansion during the 2000s saw a selected range of Duchy Originals products becoming widely available in most major UK supermarkets. However, Waitrose was the brand's largest customer and in September 2009 it was announced that Duchy Originals had agreed an exclusive deal with the supermarket. From August 2010 products were relaunched under the Duchy Originals from Waitrose brand and the then range of around 200 lines has been expanded to over 300.[1] Since then Waitrose has the exclusive licence to originate, manufacture, distribute and sell Duchy products within the UK through its stores as well as via third parties.[4] The tradition of donating royalties to charity has continued and the Prince of Wales has continued his involvement with the brand.[5][6][7] By 2013 the brand was selling in 30 countries including Australia and Japan.[3][8][9] In the summer of 2015 the brand name was changed to Waitrose Duchy Organic.[1]

The brands

The company Duchy Originals originated the Duchy Originals brand in 1990 as a premium organic food and drink brand. It also created two other brands, Duchy Selections and Duchy Collections. Duchy Selections was a range of premium free-range (but not organic) pork and fish products and mineral waters, and Duchy Collections was a range of high quality non food products. The Duchy Originals company has never sold the goods that carry the brand names, and other than the short-lived Duchy Originals Food company venture it has not manufactured them. Instead Duchy branded products have been sold and manufactured by a number of different retail companies, all of whom have paid royalties to the Duchy Originals Company.

Financial information

By the end of the 1990s the brand had an annual turnover of around £1 million.[3] This had grown to £4.86 million by 2006/7. Administrative expenses came to £3.31 million, giving an operating profit of £1.53 million.[10] The company was badly hit by the recession in 2007 and started making a loss.[3] For the financial year 2008/9, the company failed to make any profits and turnover dropped to £2.2 million, with an operating loss of £3.3 million, compared to the previous year's operating profit of £57,000.[11] Fortunes improved after the 2009 Waitrose arrangement, and by 2013 annual profits were £2.8 million.[3]

The Duchy Originals Food company

Duchy Originals' only venture into manufacturing has been the Duchy Originals Food company. This was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Duchy Originals company and it opened a factory in Launceston, Cornwall in 2006. The factory was a bakery making both sweet and savoury pastry products. The venture suffered financial problems, with the factory making a loss of £447,158 in the financial year 2006/7.[12] In 2009 the Duchy Originals company decided to sell the bakery, with one-off costs from the sale contributing towards Duchy Originals making a loss for 2009-10.[13]

Herbal medicines

In 2008 Duchy Originals partnered with the alternative medicine company Nelsons to produce a line of herbal remedies.[14] This led to controversy, in which leading UK scientists said that Duchy Originals promoted its herbal remedies with scientifically unsound claims. Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary medicine, said Duchy Originals detox products were "outright quackery".[15] Subsequently the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency ruled that healing claims were misleading and required the company to amend an advertising campaign promoting two herbal medicines.[16]

Mineral water

The Deeside Water Company produces some of its bottled mineral water, which originates from a spring on the edge of the Balmoral Castle estate,[17] for the Duchy Originals brand.[18] In 2010 Waitrose began to brand the product as Duchy Originals from Waitrose[19] and in 2016 the supermarket repackaged it as part of its Waitrose One premium range.

Garden tools

Gardening tools were produced under the Duchy Originals brand by the Lancashire company Caldwells until it went into administration in 2009.[20]

Charitable giving

The company Duchy Originals Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary company of The Prince's Charities Foundation and donates to the charity from its profits. By 2013 the brand had raised £11 million from its profits for the Prince's Charities.[3] In the same year profits from Waitrose sales gave the Prince's Charities £2.8 million[5] increasing to £3 million in 2014.[4] In Canada the proceeds from sales of Duchy Originals products are donated to the charities associated with The Prince's Charities Canada. By 2012 more than one million Canadian dollars were being raised annually in this manner.[21]

The Duchy Future Farming programme

The Duchy Future Farming programme was set up in 2013 in partnership with the Soil Association to provide advice and support to UK farmers and growers in conducting research into organic farming methods. Participants are encouraged to carry out experiments in their own fields, and over 3000 farmers had been involved in this by 2015. A research fund offering up to £25,000 is also available.[1][22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Waitrose Duchy Organic". www.waitrose.com. Waitrose. Retrieved 19 July 2015. Waitrose Duchy Organic is our flagship organic brand
  2. ↑ "Duchy Originals - Where to Buy". Duchy Originals. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Why Prince Charles's Duchy Originals takes the biscuit". The Daily Telegraph. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 Bridge, Sarah (10 January 2015). "Duchy Originals contributes £3m to the Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation". This Is Money. UK. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 English, Rebecca (3 January 2013). "Waitrose gives £2.8m to Prince's charities: Record sales of Duchy Originals fund bumper contribution". Mail Online. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Charities to benefit as Duchy Originals joins forces with Waitrose". Duchy Originals. 2009-09-09. Archived from the original on 27 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  7. ↑ "Duchy Originals has joined forces with Waitrose". Waitrose. 2009-09-09. Archived from the original on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
  8. ↑ "Praise for the Prince of Wales for spearheading a food revolution". The telegraph. 11 September 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "21 years of Duchy Originals". princeofwales.gov.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Duchy Originals Ltd Accounts 2006/7.". Archived from the original on 29 June 2008.
  11. ↑ Harry Wallop (2010-02-10). "Telegraph.co.uk - Prince of Wales's Duchy Originals slumps to loss". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  12. ↑ "Duchy Originals Foods Ltd Accounts 2006/7.". Archived from the original on 29 June 2008.
  13. ↑ Dean Best (2010-02-11). "Just Food -UK: Duchy Originals reports loss as sales slump". Aroq Ltd. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
  14. ↑ "Prince Charles' Duchy Originals food firm launches herbal remedy range". Daily Mail. UK. 16 December 2008. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  15. ↑ Prince Charles detox 'quackery', BBC News, 10 March 2009
  16. ↑ Jones, Aidan (21 March 2009). "Prince's firm told to amend ads". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  17. ↑ MacRae, Fiona (15 January 2009). "The spring water that really could hold back the hands of time, according to scientists". Daily Mail Online. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  18. ↑ "Duchy Originals Royal Deeside Mineral Water". www.deesidewater.co.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  19. ↑ "Duchy Originals from Waitrose – new range features new products from Scotland". Pagoda PR. 26 August 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  20. ↑ Levy, Geoffrey; Kay, Richard (3 August 2009). "Too expensive, unpopular, out of touch with modern Britain... and that's just Prince Charles's biscuits". Mail Online. UK. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  21. ↑ "Duchy Originals Products in Canada". The Prince's Charities Canada. 22 November 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  22. ↑ "Duchy Originals Future Farming Programme". www.ecologicalland.coop. Ecological Land Co-operative. Retrieved 20 July 2015.

Further reading

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