Rolls-Royce Motor Cars PressClub · Article.
A BUZZ OF ACTIVITY AT THE HOME OF ROLLS-ROYCE
27.04.2020 Press Release
Although car manufacturing has been temporarily suspended, production of another unique, distinctly British treasure is running at record levels at the Home of Rolls-Royce: the world’s most exclusive honey. In their third full season of production, the dedicated 250,000-strong workforce in the company’s Apiary are set, once again, to exceed their 2020 volume targets for the ‘Rolls-Royce of Honey’.
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Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
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Andrew Ball
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
- Record production from Bee Apiary at the Home of Rolls-Royce, Goodwood, West Sussex.
- Six hives are home to around a quarter of a million English Honey Bees.
- Conserving this vital but declining species aligns with the company’s wider environmental vision and practices.
- Important boost for new Bee Lines campaign, which aims to reverse the decline of bees in South East England and create a haven for pollinators in the South Downs National Park.
Although car manufacturing has been temporarily suspended,
production of another unique, distinctly British treasure is running
at record levels at the Home of Rolls-Royce: the world’s most
exclusive honey.
In their third full season of production, the dedicated
250,000-strong workforce in the company’s Apiary are set, once again,
to exceed their 2020 volume targets for the ‘Rolls-Royce of Honey’.
Having come through the winter in excellent health, Rolls-Royce’s
English Honey Bees are currently emerging from their hives and
foraging on the half-a-million trees, shrubs and wildflowers
flourishing across the 42-acre Rolls‑Royce site, plus the eight acres
of sedum plants growing on the manufacturing plant’s ‘living roof’ –
the largest of its kind in the UK. The more adventurous bees make
sorties into the surrounding Goodwood Estate, whose 12,000 acres of
West Sussex countryside are among the glories of the South Downs
National Park.
Established in 2017, the Goodwood Apiary comprises six
traditional, English-crafted, wooden beehives, each bearing a polished
stainless steel nameplate handcrafted in the company’s Bespoke
Workshop. Five are named after cars in the Rolls-Royce product family
– ‘Phantom’, ‘Wraith’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Dawn’ and ‘Cullinan’ – while the
sixth, the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’, celebrates the marque’s illustrious mascot.
Like the 2,000 employees at the Home of Rolls-Royce, the bees
are responsible for producing a rare and desirable product. At the end
of each season, ‘The Rolls-Royce of Honey’ is meticulously
hand‑processed by local specialists and served to guests of the
marque, including customers commissioning their motor cars in the
company’s Atelier suite.
The Apiary project is Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ response to the
real and present threat facing Britain’s Honey Bee population. Honey
Bees are the principal pollinators of numerous tree and plant species,
including many of the fruit and vegetable crops that are crucial to
the local agricultural economy around the Home of Rolls-Royce.
However, a shortage of suitable forage, primarily caused by habitat
loss, has put their numbers under great and growing pressure in recent years.
The South Downs National Park, on the doorstep of the Home of
Rolls-Royce, mirrors this national trend. Chalk downland, which
supports pollinators including honey bees, bumblebees and the Adonis
blue butterfly, now accounts for just four per cent of the National
Park’s total area, in fragmented pockets that make it harder for
pollinators to move through the landscape.
Through providential timing, the creation of the Apiary gave an
early boost to a new South Downs National Park Trust campaign to
address this critical problem. The Bee Lines initiative supports
farmers and landowners in creating new flower-rich ‘corridors’ to link
areas of habitat and help bees and other pollinator species to thrive.
Residents and businesses within the National Park boundaries are also
being encouraged to get involved through initiatives such as planting
wildflowers in gardens and grounds.
“The Apiary further underlines our commitment to the
environment, which informs everything we do at Goodwood,” says Richard
Carter, Director of Global Communications at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
“Our sustainable buildings, thermal ponds, rainwater management
systems and wildfowl refuge have already made the Home of Rolls-Royce
at Goodwood one of the UK’s most eco-friendly manufacturing
facilities. Through this project, which taps into the biodiversity of
our site, including our huge living roof, we’re making an important
contribution to conserving Britain’s vital bee population.”