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Our Community

Working to bring about best fit social value from our activities within the community is Banner’s goal. This ranges from donations of employee time, products and finance via fundraising across the UK, through to provision of employment, apprenticeship and service contracts in the localities where we operate.  We take pride in an inclusive and active engagement across the UK, wherever possible to support those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Our Themes
Provide social value via donations of time, product & raised funds
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Go beyond being a supplier to being a contributor for good
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Generate social value from activities across economy, education & environment
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Our community
Respect & Relationships: What we’re doing

BAN1244 - In Kind Direct H1 Overview_2023During 2022, we were proud to have surpassed our expectations, with our donations reaching over 725 deserving organisations in the voluntary, charitable and social enterprise sector.

We continue to support InKind Direct's mission to enable communities to thrive by reaching 237 organisations in the first half of 2023 alone.

Donations have reached far and wide across the UK and Northern Ireland, across 18 VCSE sector types ranging from Community Groups or Projects to Schools.

The real social value, of course, comes in the feedback from the charities and the difference our donations enable them to make.

“The gloves have been a real help to us. We always went through boxes of gloves in normal times, as our staff and volunteers use them when sorting through the bags and boxes of donations we get, but since COVID, it has been even more of an imperative for everyone here, and the cost has been fairly taxing as many of our normal suppliers were charging far more than they had been previously. To be able to get a few bulk boxes has saved us a fair bit of money and allowed us to build up a supply for the next few months.” Starter Packs Glasgow

For more information on the work of Inkind Direct, click here.


Provide fit for purpose Social Value Activities Including Donations of Time, Money and Product

At Banner, we’re aiming to support 1000 charities and good causes by 2025. To achieve that means working strategically with partners who have many years of experience in the needs of the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, whilst continuing to review and respond to requests for assistance from employees, customers and our local communities alike.

Banner facilitates and encourages support for charitable activities of employees. Our colleagues can volunteer a working day per year to a good cause of their choice; donate pennies over a round pound from their salary via ‘change for change’ or promote and support site based fundraisers from cakes sales to sponsored runs! All of this good work adds up to a huge contribution to the community. Celebrating the charitable activity of Our People is a key part of ensuring engagement and well-being at work. We look forward to bringing you news of our activities here.

Banner sponsor the DVLA Code Challenge 2022
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On Tuesday 6th December 2022, the DVLA held their 7th annual Code Challenge final, hosted by news presenter Sian Lloyd, and streamed live to children across Wales. 

As one of the sponsors of the event, Banner donated £300 to be given as a prize for the participating schools. 

The competition provides primary and secondary aged students from across Wales with the opportunity to win up to £2,000 worth of IT equipment for their schools, and showcase their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skills.

To enter, pupils had to code their very own game. The Code Challenge enables students of all ages to develop their problem solving, teamworking skills and improve their knowledge of computer programming in a fun and innovative way.

Over 300 school children and teachers from across Wales joined the DVLA in-person for the live final, with even more taking part through a live stream.

Click here to read more

The Blood Bike Network - Clive's Charity Day
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Banner's Studio Manager, Clive Andrews-Lewis, made good use of his annual Charity Day by taking on a double shift for Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire Blood Bikes (SSCBB).

Starting at 7am on Thursday 1st September 2022, and covering in excess of 300 miles over the next 12 hours, Clive carried blood tests & samples, fecal matter for treatment, and even loaned blood (of rare blood types) between Queens Hospital in Burton-On-Trent, two locations in Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, Royal Worcester Hospital, George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, and University Hospital Warwickshire. 

Click here to read more

Making a Paw-sitive difference at Dogs Trust 
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In January 2023, Banner colleagues visited their local Dogs Trust branch as part of our Volunteer Scheme, getting stuck-in with decorating the "real-life room", which has the purpose of giving dogs a space to get used to being in a home environment to help their transition between the Dogs Trust centre, and a loving home. 

A wonderful day was had by all, and of course as an added bonus, they also spent time with some of the dogs at the branch. Well done team!

Planting trees at Castleford Valley Gardens
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Ian Dixon, James Stables and Laura Jones from Banner recently took up their corporate volunteering day in Castleford Valley Gardens, near Normanton. Ian, who is a regular volunteer there, proposed the activity of helping out with a big day of planting.

The area to be planted was previously described as ‘barren’ by the Secretary of the Castleford Valley Gardens who wrote to Banner to thank the team for undertaking work that will make a big difference by spring: “We really appreciate the work Laura, Ian and James undertook.  It has made a big difference and is work we would have struggled to undertake.  We will certainly see the benefit next Spring. They planted around 400 bulbs, shrubs and two trees.”  

The volunteers enjoyed a change of scene, meeting new people and spending in the fresh air.  Banner offers all employees the opportunity to take a working day each year to volunteer for a good cause. 

Banner sponsor Sunday league football kit
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Banner are supporting a local Sunday league football team in Wakefield, near our head office in Normanton, with sponsorship of their football kit.

The 6-a-side team, F.C. Dacii, includes a colleague from within the evo Group, and compete alongside 8 teams every Sunday at Pro Player Football Academy, at Standbridge Lane in Wakefield.

Click here to read more

Banner joins local companies to raise money for the NSPCC in a 5-a-side football tournament.
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On 10th March 2022, members from Banner's sales and marketing teams joined forces with Business Fives, a corporate charity events company, to raise money for the NSPCC through a 5-a-side football tournament at Bradford Goals, competing against other local companies. 

As a team with rolling substitutes, Banner's All Stars played 8 games and made it all the way through to the semi-final!

Banner employees came together to raise a wonderful £325, which was subsequently matched by Banner; raising a total of £650 for the NSPCC.

Click here to read more

Spreading some Happiness in Lockdown
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Whilst sticking to the current government guidelines, our Banner team members have been working hard to help charities and support their local communities, as much as possible. In this blog, we share, celebrate and congratulate them on their achievements.

Click here to read more

Over £700 raised for Pinderfields Hospital in Yorkshire by Banner Operations Team
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The Operations Team are thrilled to have donated seven hundred and sixty-five pounds to the COVID-19 staff fund at Pinderfields Hospital in Yorkshire.

Over the course of a few weeks the team raised the money by selling and buying raffle tickets to win a range of prizes that were provided by the Banner Group.  The winning tickets were drawn and prizes, such as a Fortnum and Mason luxury hamper, laptop bags and boxes of chocolates, were given out.

“Our sincere thanks go to all at Banner for their incredible fundraising during these unprecedented times. Donations such as these will truly help us to ensure we continue to support our staff working through this challenging time, we are so proud of our Staff who continue to show the highest level of compassion, courage and commitment in caring for our Communities to overcome the Virus.” – Kirsty Jowett, Fundraising Manager MY Hospitals Charity.

The team decided to donate the money to the COVID-19 staff fund at the local Pinderfields Hospital support those who have been working on the front-line during this pandemic and keep morale high.   

Supporting local communities is a big part of the Banner ethos and forms one of four social responsibility pillars that are integral to how Banner operates as a business. 

Donating PPE to Care Homes
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We’re thrilled to have supported our customer from West Midlands Police, to donate more essential PPE than expected to a local Care Home. When our customer got in touch with his Banner account Manager, Eric Mountain, to order face masks for a care home in his region, Eric wanted to help. Eric arranged for the face masks to be donated from Banner, which enabled our customer to buy additional soap and gloves with the money he’d raised from running a tuck shop at Summerfield police station.

Samaritans Donation
Samaritans Banner are pleased to have been able to support the Samaritans Wakefield branch. Banner were able to donate a variety of items including pens, toilet roll, biscuits and a range of other products thanks to Mark Normington and the NDC warehouse.
Click here to find out more
Tall Ships Youth Trust

We’ve been rolling up our sleeves to support the UK’s oldest and largest sail training charity, Tall Ships Youth Trust.

Four members of our corporate sales team, Alex Winstanley, Stephen Trott, Mick Twelves and Simon Eaden, rolled up their sleeves and volunteered their time to support the UK’s oldest and largest sail training charity, Tall Ships Youth Trust. The team were put to task and enjoyed a day of completing ships maintenance work for the charity.

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Stephen Trott, Banner Corporate Account Manager for Heathrow Airport, organised the day through the Heathrow Community Trust (HCT), which is an independent charity that receives funding from Heathrow Airport Limited.

Click here to find out more

Lending a paw at Leeds & Wakefield RSPCA centre
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Colleagues from our Normanton warehouse volunteered at their local RSPCA office - Leeds & Wakefield - as part of Banner's volunteer scheme. 

They got their paws dirty with lots of jobs including weeding the memorial garden, planting flowers, painting, and sweeping - and playing with the animals was an added bonus! 

The Banner team had a very productive day, leaving with smiles on their faces, and have received great feedback from the RSPCA team. 

Banner and Edding UK join forces to support the Trees for Schools Initiative
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The sun came out for us last week, 26th April 2022, at the tree planting ceremony organised by Tree Appeal and Edding UK. As Edding UK's partner, Banner got their hands dirty as part of the tree-planting team at Ryecroft Academy in Leeds.

Four members of the Banner team - Alex Clayton, Kirk Townsend, Alex Milano-Tee and Natasha Barker - joined colleagues from Edding, as well as a big group of pupils from Ryecroft Academy, and got stuck in to planting over 200 trees of different varieties - helping us and them learn more about sustainability and the environment.

Click here to read more

Supporting Parkinson's UK - Lesley's Charity Day
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Banner Healthcare's Lesley Greenhalgh made use of her annual Charity Day provided by Banner to attend the Annual General Meeting of her local Parkinson's group, where she has agreed to continue as secretary for an 11th year. 

We admire Lesley's commitment to Parkinson's UK and her local group, great job Lesley!

Keeping people safe with Face Masks
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Over the festive period of 2021, Covid restrictions started hitting those carrying out critical work in the VCSE sector. Banner decided to help out and are delighted to have donated 150,000 face coverings to InKind Direct.

Our new strategic partner does amazing work to ensure corporate donations reach VCSEs across the whole of the UK, a great way to make a real social impact.

Raising Money for 4Louis
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Our Normanton Distribution Centre colleagues have donated a fantastic £1,060 to 4Louis, and are committed to continuing their support for the charity.

4Louis is a UK charity that works across the country to support anyone affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child. They also work to improve the care bereaved families receive.

A huge thank you to the team in Normanton for their charity efforts, and to Bob & Tracey for their visit!

Banner's Donation Delights Local Communities
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Banner donated 5,280 bottles of Hand Sanitiser to Trinity Methodist Church Mission in Castleford, West Yorkshire. The hand sanitiser has been widely distributed throughout Castleford to many different community groups, and all have been gratefully received.

Click here to read more

A racing start for volunteers at Silverstone Circuit
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Simon Eady, a member of Banner's Central Government sales team, made use of his volunteer day offered by Banner to support the Towcester Rotary Club by volunterring at Silverstone Racetrack. 

"On behalf of the Rotary Club of Towcester, I would like to thank you for your help and kindness in volunteering to drive the minibuses at various prestigious events at Silverstone Circuit this summer. 

The HR management at Silverstone Catering Ltd have expressed thir gratitude for the excellent and reliable service we were able to provide with your help. 

The total funds you helped to raise amounted to £6,300 which will be used by our Rotary Club to fund local and international projects to assist those less fortunate than ourselves. My sincere thanks." - a letter from Alex Cooke, President of the Rotary Club of Towcester.

Well done Simon, we admire your commitment to your volunteer work!

Over £700 raised for Pinderfields Hospital in Yorkshire by Banner Operations Team

We have donated cardboard boxes and minigrip bags to Havercroft and Ryhill Community Centre in Yorkshire. They are working hard to support their local community, and we hope that this donation will help the team deliver food to the vulnerable during this challenging time.

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Katherine Walker, Havercroft and Ryhill Community Learning Centre said: "Your donation has greatly helped with the struggle of finding bags/boxes to make up the parcels. We now have a good stock pile easy to store and  make up with the tape also donated with the pallet of boxes. The sandwich bags you donated are used every day as on average we put together around 20 grab bags providing children with a free lunch.

Once again thank you for your kind donation, it is very much appreciated!"

Helping our Communities through 2020

We’d like to shine a light on our Banner teams and colleagues who have been busy helping their communities through the unprecedented time in 2020.

Not only have they been adjusting to the new norm, but they have been going above and beyond to help family, friends and their wider communities up and down the country.

So far we have donated gloves, PPE and supplies, helped friends and family, raised awareness for Parkinson's, supported communities and small businesses and become NHS volunteer responders. 

Click here to find out more

Donating Gloves to the NHS
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We're pleased to have supported the Parsons Green Health Centre by donating 300 pairs of gloves. This equipment was sent to Parsons Green by the MedSupplyDrive UK; who are an organisation that aims to redirect PPE equipment to front line NHS workers who need it the most.

The Banner Health Team made this donation to support a customer who has been volunteering for MedSupplyDrive UK.

Micklefield Primary School
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Earlier this year Kirk Townsend visited Micklefield Primary School and donated two pallets of products on behalf of the Banner team. Pens, paper, files and whiteboards from the office supplies range were donated. Also donated were mops and cleaning products from our cleaning and hygiene range.

Click here to find out more

Banner Beach Clean
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The Banner Beach Clean saw over 65 Banner people help to reduce the amount of plastic waste and pollution reaching our oceans. We’re also aiming to make a difference to the lives of children across the UK by raising £10,000 for our national charity partner for 2019/20, the NSPCC.

Click here to find out more

Supporting food banks in Milton Keynes
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It's been reported that more people than ever are turning to food banks. Simon Eady, Business Manager at Banner, spent a charity day helping at the Milton Keynes food bank and knows all too well of the vital support it provides to the community.

Click here to find out more

The Social Value... of a Water Bottle
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Since 2010 ‘chilly’ bottles have been donated by Banner to Great Places, this is a great opportunity to provide some insight on how a simple water bottle, has great social value.

Click here to find out more
Giving Something Back
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We encourage, organise and support Banner staff to give their time to a range of worthwhile causes. Teams have taken part in challenges, such as a Tough Mudder for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, completed a Total Warrior event for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, supported Yorkshire Air Ambulance at the Tour de Yorkshire and helped distribute warm clothes, hot food and drink, blankets and sleeping bags to homeless people in Leeds. We also donate to most of the fundraising events our teams take part in.

Our latest charity adventures have taken us sky high as multiple members of staff took part in charity sky dives, while another took to the road and cycled from London to Paris. We always strive to go the extra mile.

Click here to find out more


Go Beyond being a Supplier to being a Contributor for Good

At Banner we are aiming to weave social value into our day to day. This means thinking differently and measuring consistently with an acknowledged and agreed value on our investments – no matter what pillar of our CSR program they fall under. That said, our desire to go beyond being ‘just’ a supplier, to being a contributor for good is impossible to quantify. So one may ask ‘why bother to consider what cannot be measured?’ For us, it’s the feel good factor of the outcome, which we describe as the social impact; the immeasurable value of a feeling, whether that be of recipient or donor. Our work in supplying product and services is driven by targets, processes and measures, but as people we are often more driven by emotions that contribute to our wellbeing.  Connection to others in society is a fundamental human need as we have found during the restrictions and hardships of Covid19. At Banner we hope that as our contribution for good helps to drive positive connections, it will drive social impacts.

EVO and it's Employees Coordinated a Delivery of Essential Humanitarian Aid

In the last few weeks, EVO has organised donations across all of its sites in the UK. The result has been staggering, with some incredible work carried out by our amazing team.

evo Ukraine collectionsOur site in NDC collected a fantastic volume of aid which caused Michelle Green, Senior HR Advisor at Banner, to have to find logistical alternatives to our initial plan. After coming across the fantastic 'UK Rail for Ukraine' freight train service supported by the UK Government, EVO's donations were delivered to Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

A special mention to Mark Payton, Regional Transport Manager, who volunteered his expertise to help coordinate and support the movement of essential aid donated by colleagues. In total, Mark ensured that eight pallets were collected from our NDC, Sheffield and Bradford sites, which he then took to meet the freight train in Barking and load the goods in time for the departure.

Alongside Mark, staff in the NDC warehouse provided wonderful support throughout the whole process, packing, wrapping and storing items. A big thanks you to Angie Davies, Assistant Warehouse Supervisor, for coordinating the donations within the warehouse and Martin Sinar, Transport Operations Manager, who drove the loaded truck to the drop-off point.

Volunteers from our Truline and Banner teams in Basingstoke travelled to Ukraine to deliver donations directly to the Red Cross using their own transportation. Further donations were loaded into a van by Andrzej Augustyn, Stuart Shipley and Daryl Parsons and driven to the Foundation in Slough.

A big thank you to all Banner and EVO colleagues who have collected and donated items for this appeal. Our efforts have proved that our family at EVO know how to pull together to support a worth while cause and these items will be truly appreciated by those in need.

Banner Helped Stripey Stork with their Santa Stork Campaign
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This year we’re pleased to support the charity Stripey Stork with its Santa Stork Christmas Campaign.

Santa Stork provides gifts to those who really need a helping hand at this difficult time of year.  The aim is to buy Christmas presents for every child and parent referred to the charity, and this year it is scaling up to respond to 5,000 children and 2,500 parents/carers gift requests. 

Nicola Dawes, Founder & Chief Executive of Stripey Stork said “Our Christmas campaign is always the busiest time of year for us and we are expecting a much bigger demand this year. So many more families are struggling as a result of the end of furlough/drop of Universal Credit uplift/increase in fuel and heating costs. Receiving this support, and being able to divert more of our project funds to new presents for local children, makes such a difference.”

Banner is pleased to have played a small part in helping the charity to provide gifts that, in some cases, will be the main or only presents the families will receive this Christmas.

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Spreading some Festive Joy to a Local Food Bank
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Over the past couple of weeks, the Banner Healthcare team have enlisted the help of our Bradford office and remote colleagues to collect for a local food bank.

Donations foodbankHere are a few photos of only some of the wonderful donations collected, including non-perishable goods, hygiene products, and some festive goodies, which have been delivered to Drighlington Foodbank, part of the Trussell Trust Network.

At Banner, we're very proud and supportive of our colleagues' actions within the community, and encourage all to help out wherever they can.

A BIG thank you to all who contributed, it's a great achievement, and will be hugely appreciated by the local community.

Are you prepared in saving a life? Banner & Aero Healthcare donate a Heartsine 500P defibrillator

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) can happen to anyone, of any age, and using a defibrillator can help save their life!

Thanks to a kind donation from Aero Healthcare, Banner ran a giveaway on our LinkedIn channel, giving businesses the opportunity to secure themselves a Heartsine 500P defibrillator.

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Iain Lawrence, from Aero Healthcare, recently visited the giveaway winners, Duckworth Overland Ltd, to deliver the defibrillator, which was gratefully received by the owners & founders, Tom Duckworth and Michael Gerrard.

Did you know that more than 7 million people suffer from sudden cardiac arrest every year, with only a 5-10% survival rate. With a defibrillator the survival rate increases to 75% - making this life saving device an essential on every site!

Macmillan Coffee Morning

The Banner teams, across all our office locations, regularly take part in the world's biggest coffee morning, to help raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. Macmillan help thousands of people who are suffering with Cancer every day to feel supported both physically, financially and emotionally. In 2019, Banner and Evo Group were able to raise a fantastic £1,505.27, through bake sales across all of our branches.

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Toilet Twinning

Banner are over the moon that a recent cost saving exercise on toilet roll resulted in one of our customers donating the money they saved to a worthy cause. Our customer donated the money they'd saved on toilet roll to a charity called Toilet Twinning. Toilet Twinning provides new toilets and clean water to those in under developed countries, to help them escape poverty. This helps them to live a healthier lifestyle. That's what we call a result!

Click here to find out more

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NSPCC Charity Skydive
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Ryan Sewell, Jessica Ellis, Robyn Masterman and Paige Fox, decided to take the plunge and completed a charity skydive for the NSPCC. A mixture of bad weather conditions and COVID postponed the group by nearly 11 months but they managed to accomplish their jump.

The team raised close to £2,000 for the cause and had a great day. This money will go to funding an NSPCC Schools Visit or supporting Childline and the incredible services they offer.

Donating Supplies to the Flood Appeal
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The devastating impact of the flooding on many communities and business across the UK was widely reported during the Autumn of 2019.  Find out how we supported the flood appeal.

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Disused pallets transformed into gardens for charity

Brian, our regional sales director based in Northern Ireland, has raised a fantastic £457 for Assisi Animal Sanctuary in Bangor! Brian created and sold 'pallet gardens' made from disused pallets from one of Banner's warehouses.

Banner offer 'Charity Days' to encourage colleagues to get involved in charity efforts, and Brian took this opportunity to finish making the last few pallet gardens in early August 2021. 🌼💐

Great work Brian!
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Generate Social Value from Activities within Economy, Education and Environment

Social Value is quite commonly measured through the monetisation of day to day business activities such as taking on an apprentice, or donating time and products to support a good cause. At Banner we are conscious that generating social value across the 3 E’s of Economy, Education and Environment has a huge societal impact, we intend to better measure and report as our knowledge in this area grows. 

Making a positive impact on welsh schools and community groups
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Banner sponsored the third DVLA Code Challenge competition recently.  The event enables pupils to develop their problem solving, communication and teamwork skills; as well as improving their knowledge of computer programming in a fun and innovative way.

Click here to find out more

Apprenticeships
National Apprenticeship week 2022

Banner have employed many Apprentices over the years. Here is what our apprentices had to say about their experiences.

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We're helping shoes find new feet in 2023!

Banner is delighted to be Supporting Sals Shoes Charity Toe to Toe school campaign again, in 2023.

Since 2016, Sal’s Shoes has distributed over 4,000,000 pairs of pre-loved children’s shoes in 59 countries around the world, including within the UK, to support families who would otherwise be unable to afford them.

Click here to find out more

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STEPS to Work scheme

Our STEPS to Work scheme is in partnership with local schools, colleges and universities. We provide work experience placement for students and where appropriate, pay them a living wage during their time with us.