Meet Wildpress's founder Adam Grout

"We craft our presses from lesser-known, heritage variety apples and support sustainable growers to create a regenerative cycle that is in balance with nature".

Tell us how Wildpress was born and what is its purpose/mission. What is your approach to sustainability?

I graduated from Product Design at CSM in 2014 but quickly came to the conclusion that I didn’t just want to be designing/making more ‘things’.

I met my current business partner around the time I left CSM and we were both keen to work with positive brands and build companies that sought a broader definition of success (beyond just making money).

That was how we started our design studio Creative Family, which we still run. We work predominantly with food and restaurant brands, helping them build progressive strategies paired with menu/flavour consultancy, visual identity, illustration, digital and interior design, and team culture development with a handful of other family members.

After 6 or so years of building brands for other people, we were keen to take our experience and apply it to a company of our own. Through our work in the food industry, there were a few common questions that we were regularly asking: How are you sourcing your ingredients? How are you building relationships with your producers?  How can you work on a more local scale? What environmental initiatives are you running/can you introduce? Etc.

This led us to explore farm-to-table products - that with some clever brand, communication, and positioning work - could through their very existence shine a light on fantastic local producers, fix supply chains that have been broken by supermarkets and provide a mechanism for growers to move away from unsustainable, conventional agriculture practices - which is a major cause of the UK's biodiversity decline.

We quickly fell on apples - as delicious lesser-known and heritage varieties are largely overlooked by supermarkets (and many go to waste) - over 90% of the country's traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s. We knew that by supporting pioneering growers and boosting the health and size of orchards, we could give our native wildlife and biodiversity a chance at recovery.

We now work with 8 orchards around the country from Devon to Lincolnshire, paying a higher, fairer price for fruit grown to organic or better standards.  In our first 2 years, over 200 trees have been planted along with many wildflower meadows, a large part of a Somerset orchard has converted to organic, all-natural practices, and 2 orchards have been restored - including a 100-tree ‘wild’ orchard in Boston, Lincolnshire.

This is the core purpose and mission of Wildpress – every bottle bought supports and restores nature.

What did you study?

Product Design BA at CSM (Central Saint Martins).

Wildpress bottles are now widely stocked in the UK! Are there any other collaborations you’re working on?

Currently, we’re stocked in Gail’s, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, Ottolenghi’s restaurants, The Tate, Matches, Gentleman Baristas, The Clove Club, and Spring to name a few.

In terms of future collaborations, we’re in conversation with some prestigious British event organisers, hotels, and restaurant chains, along with supermarkets for an exciting new product, we’re testing this season.