British Engines celebrates centenary with Greggs Breakfast Clubs

British Engines is a leading engineering group and was founded in Newcastle in 1922.  Although a global business now employing over 1200 people, British Engines recognises their strong roots in the region and supports two North East Breakfast Clubs as a key partner of the Greggs Foundation. 

Both St Vincent’s RC Primary School and Walkergate Primary School are supported by British Engines to receive over 225 free and nutritious breakfasts for children each day. This has helped provide over 43,000 breakfasts for children every year at the two schools sponsored by British Engines. As one of over 130 partners of the Greggs Foundation, British Engines is a key contributor in helping the Foundation positively impact local communities in our aims to tackle childhood poverty and social deprivation. 

British Engines first started working with the Greggs Foundation through a recommendation from their business network. The business has always had a strong presence in the Byker and Walker area of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and it was in these locations British Engines looked to more directly provide help to their local community. 

The Breakfast Club programme from Greggs Foundation was the ideal solution. Offering a chance to help children directly by funding a club which provided both free breakfasts and support to working parents. By joining the Breakfast Club network, it has also allowed families from both schools to access the Greggs Foundation hardship programme. The Hardship Fund offers opportunities to apply for food or clothing vouchers and new home appliances to help ease the pressure from the cost of living crisis. 

Laura Joicey, Chief Financial Officer at British Engines comments: “Joining the Breakfast Club programme at the Greggs Foundation was initially a great way for us to give back to the communities in which we operate. Our ethos has always been very much to support local areas where our factories are based and this was something also reflected in the work of the Greggs Foundation. 

“We have supported both St Vincent’s and Walkergate Primary for eight years now and to us, it’s a way to offer direct and practical help but also really engage with our local school community.”

2022 was an especially important year for British Engines as the business celebrated its centenary.  To mark the 100-year anniversary, British Engines asked students at their sponsored Breakfast Clubs to design posters with the theme what will the world be like in 100 years’ time.

Out of hundreds of entries, one winner from each school was chosen to receive a Kindle for kids, Greggs vouchers and a ‘Hope’ mascot badge. A selection of the poster designs were then turned into bunting and displayed across the group businesses for visitors and employees to enjoy.

Lauren Holmes, Marketing Coordinator at British Engines comments: “We asked all of our Breakfast Club students to design posters which were used to create celebratory bunting. The bunting was displayed across our facilities to highlight to our employees not just our pride in the centenary, but also the ways in which their hard work helps to contribute to the local community. It was a really lovely project to be involved with and definitely made us think about new ways to engage with our sponsored schools.”

British Engines are now looking to initiate a new STEM project to help showcase to children the value of careers in engineering, as well as a health and safety communications initiative for wider staff.

Lauren Holmes continues: “The award-winning British Engines engineering apprenticeship scheme is an integral part of our business. We believe it’s important to educate children about the training and career opportunities that are available to them from a young age. In the future, we hope that we can work with our breakfast club schools to encourage the children to engage with STEM related activities.

 “It really is a pleasure for us to continue to build on our relationship with the schools we support through the Greggs Foundation and support our local school community in a way that has real impact on the daily lives of 225 children. We hope that we can continue to add greater value to the Breakfast Clubs so children can look to a future of new opportunities.”