Blue Sky Botanics, a specialist UK manufacturer of authentic, natural botanical extracts and hydrolats for the personal care, beverage and food industry, is celebrating this autumn ten years of supplying premium botanical extracts to customers ranging from ‘fledgling’ businesses to major global manufacturers.
The company, based on a 200-acre award winning organic farm in Herefordshire, England, notes that it has grown across all aspects of the business, and can source botanicals and develop authentic extracts to meet the most challenging customer brief globally. The company is a member of the Union for Ethical Biotrade, and aims for ethical sourcing, quality and traceability of Blue Sky Extracts' provenance.
Blue Sky Botanics reports that in ten years, there has been significant organic change to the business, from its inception in 2005 with three staff, to a current workforce of 18. Business turnover has increased by a factor of 12 and is growing at a steady 30% per year, as of 2015. Investment in process equipment, production space and warehousing has been continuous with a further £250,000 being invested this year.
The company's investment in manufacturing facilities for the production of premium quality hydrolats and a pipeline plan to develop innovative green chemistry and active extracts, as well as collaboration with industry and academia (they recently won a research grant from the High Value Chemicals from Plants Network) are part of a focus on maintaining strong growth into the future, according to the company.
James Lambe, who has been involved in herb growing and processing for over 30 years and leads the Blue Sky team, says: “When we started growing a small area of herbs for the food industry nearly forty years ago I didn’t imagine that this would develop into such a successful business. Using ethically sourced botanicals, Blue Sky’s range of products is satisfying the demand for natural and authentic extracts in both the food and cosmetic industries. Blue Sky will continue to make the case for natural products for many years to come!”
