Founder of Surplus to Purpose Adam Smith shares why he's chosen Bradford to open his landmark superstore.
Shortly after the social entrepreneur received a Yorkshire Award.
Shortly after the social entrepreneur received a Yorkshire Award.
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00:00We're opening up a brand new store, Flagship Store, which is going to be opening in Bradford.
00:03That's on Monday the 17th of March. It's in collaboration with St Vincent's in Bradford.
00:08They offered us a space and we took it. Next week we'll be painting and getting it all set up,
00:13but this will be our flagship store, which will be available by foot and by vehicle,
00:18which our other stores currently aren't. And that will be the one that we hopefully bring people to
00:23and hopefully inspire people to create these shops, not just in the UK but all over the world as well.
00:28And how much food do you hope to save?
00:32We're looking at about a thousand tonnes a year at each location. Bradford will probably be a bit
00:36bigger than that, so that's the equivalent of around two and a half million meals worth of food
00:39a year. And how many stores are you hoping to have? Well, by the end of the year I'm hoping
00:45to have about 25 stores, all service to purpose shops, all completely inclusive, empowering people
00:50in positions of employment, working alongside volunteers, obviously stopping a lot of food
00:54from going to waste. This will be hopefully the first one that we have in collaboration with
00:58another project where we hope to inspire others to collaborate with us to create these type of
01:02facilities for people. How important is it to you? It means everything to me. I've seen global food
01:08waste when I've travelled across the world. I've been a chef as well for 20 years and I've seen
01:12the destruction that food waste is having on the planet from overproduction and also waste as well.
01:18So it means everything to me. If we can educate people and inspire people into changing their
01:22behaviours towards food, then hopefully we can have an impact and create change. And why is Bradford
01:26an important place to have your flagship? Bradford is obviously the City of Culture this year.
01:32There's a lot of energy in Bradford at the moment. They approached us, which was amazing.
01:36I used to live there as well. I lived in Thornton for four years, so I know it really well. I've got
01:39a very love-hate relationship with Bradford for lots of good and bad reasons. But yeah, it just
01:44feels like it's really fitting. There's a lot of really positive energy around it at the moment
01:47and hopefully we can have a massive impact on employees.