Candy Kittens

Launched in 2012, Candy Kittens craft gourmet sweets for adults with honest ingredients. The London-based brand is now 100% vegan and stocked across the world.

On a mission to be more sustainable, Candy Kittens do not use animal gelatine or palm oil. Their pouches are recyclable and, as of 2021, the business has become carbon neutral, from sweet production to delivery.

Always pushing themselves to be better and do better, the next steps for Candy Kittens included becoming a certified B Corp, which they achieved in 2022. They want to use their business as a force for good while continuing to reduce carbon emissions throughout their business and supply chain.

Challenge

Solution

Outcome

Embedding positive practices that rewrite the rule book

Candy Kittens are very aware that sweets are a non-essential treat. For them, this means they have to work extra hard to do something positive for the world. They hope to inspire other industries that produce non-essential products, acting as champions of conscious consumerism.

Candy Kittens also work with a lot of third parties in their supply chain, so just focussing on improving their own systems is not an option – they need to make sure the people they work with play by the rules, too.

Business should be about ‘give, give, give, take’, but businesses become confused, sometimes they just take.

– Jamie Laing, Cofounder, Candy Kittens

Building confidence through expert review

Inspired by brands such as Patagonia and wanting to do their bit, Candy Kittens completed the B Corp assessment tool. They’ve wanted to pursue B Corp for years and saw obtaining certification as a no-brainer for the company.

To be confident in the initial score they had generated, they sought confirmation that their answers were correct. Candy Kittens engaged Seismic in October 2021, for an expert assessment of 25% of their answers on the assessment.

“It can be nerve-wracking to bring on external support because of the added cost, but actually it really does help. The scale of the B Corp Assessment tool can really trip you up.”

– Ed Williams, Cofounder, Candy Kittens

A much more considered focus on sustainability

Between 2021 and 2022, Candy Kittens had a much more considered focus on sustainability. After receiving support, they are now using the B Impact Assessment tool with increased confidence as a framework to implement changes to the business. They’ve created an improvement plan to earn more points towards certification, often finding that the simplest options are the most sustainable.

Candy Kittens became a Certified B Corp in October 2022 with a score of 86.5 and already have their sights set on achieving net zero next. Initially over ambitious, the team has learnt that change takes time, but that the most important thing is to start.

“The B Corp Assessment tool has been a mega helpful roadmap for us, to sense check that what we thought was good, really is. It forms a good business plan, a tick list of things that are just sensible to have in place, regardless of whether you are going to submit the application soon.”

– Ed Williams, Cofounder, Candy Kittens