UK: Trees and profits grow at Suma

Suma co-operative – the UK's largest independent wholesaler and distributor of vegetarian, fairly traded, organic and natural foods – has announced that it is working in conjunction with Treesponsibilty to plant over 3,000 trees each year in an area of West Yorkshire previously decimated by floods. Andrew Mackintosh of the Elland-based organisation says: ?We are a food wholesale and distribution company and as such our fleet of vehicles emit 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, however we are also a fiercely ethical company, we take our ecological and social responsibilities very seriously and by replanting woodland we will not only cancel out our emissions, we will become carbon positive, that is we will have made provision to absorb more carbon dioxide than we produce.? Suma?s latest financial figures, for the year ended 30 September 2005, show sales exceeding £20 million for the first time since the co-operative was established over 25 years ago. www.suma.coop