Oddbox

A London-founded social enterprise that rescues wonky and surplus fruit and veg from UK farms and delivers it in weekly boxes.

About Oddbox

Oddbox is a fruit and veg box business built around reducing food waste. It buys misshapen, over- or under-sized and surplus produce from farms that supermarkets would turn away, packs it into boxes and delivers it to homes and workplaces. Customers can choose from several box types, and the business donates part of its surplus produce to food charities. Its 2018 to 2019 pages describe six box types, a rating as the UK's best veg box in January 2019, deliveries to over 10,000 homes and businesses, and more than 1,000 tonnes of produce saved from waste, all as at 2019. It also set itself a target of saving 500,000 tonnes of UK and EU fruit and veg waste by 2022, which we have not checked against later results.

It was founded in 2016 by the husband-and-wife team Deepak Ravindran and Emilie Vanpoperinghe. The idea came after they ate a misshapen but delicious tomato in Portugal and then looked into UK food waste. Early on they worked with two British farmers, paying a fair price for produce that would otherwise have been wasted.

Oddbox describes itself as a social enterprise. Its stated aims are to show that all fruit and veg should be eaten, to encourage people to eat a variety of seasonal produce, and to raise awareness of food waste. Co-founder Emilie says odd produce is "just as nutritious and delicious as standard fresh produce." It cites WRAP figures that the UK wastes about 10 million tonnes of food a year. The profile adds that Oddbox wants people to reconnect with how food is grown and to see how many resources are wasted when produce goes to landfill.

It began as London's first wonky veg box scheme, starting in south London and also serving offices, health centres and workspaces in central London, and said it wanted to grow to the whole of London and beyond. It is a certified B Corp. The pages we read were from its early years (around 2016 to 2019), so they do not show its present delivery area, sites or headcount.

A farmer quoted in 2018 said the scheme stopped his business wasting 25 to 40% of its asparagus. Oddbox also talks about using data and technology so customers can see their own impact. Jobs in a business like this include sourcing and farm relationships, logistics, customer care, marketing and data. We found no detail on workplace culture.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Weekly boxes of surplus and misshapen produce.', 'title': 'Wonky fruit and veg boxes'}
• {'desc': 'Boxes for offices, health centres and workspaces.', 'title': 'Workplace deliveries'}
• {'desc': 'Part of surplus produce goes to food charities.', 'title': 'Surplus donations'}

Key facts

• Founded 2016 by Deepak Ravindran and Emilie Vanpoperinghe
• Started in south London as London's first wonky veg box scheme
• Certified B Corp (B Lab directory listing)
• Works directly with British farmers (as at 2018)

Website: www.oddbox.co.uk