Our Story

	Our story starts back in November 2009 with a student enterprise competition run by University of Bath. Inspired by The Apprentice, the challenge was to take over an empty shop unit in Bath’s City centre, turn it into a profitable business and back to an empty unit, in just 24 hours. Spurred on by the feedback received for The Bath Soup Company from Bath residents during the competition, Dominic Povey, Jason Malone and Ed Smyth decided to formally launch the company and it became Incorporated on the 1st January 2010.
The Bath Soup Company grew fast, taking its homemade soup, bread and cake to local Farmer’s Markets, to raise capital to invest in new equipment, that, more often than not, meant bigger pots! In the summer of 2010, The Bath Soup Company created another pop up shop. This time, The Bath Soup Company Canteen was open for a whole month in Milsom Place and brought together local producers to offer a “best of the West” food experience. The boys wanted to see exactly what the Bath Soup Company could achieve.
	Again, we were time pressured as we had just four days to fully fit a commercial unit. We raided our house for furniture, borrowed from friends and family and bulk purchased crockery from local charity shops! As a result of Ed’s incredible handy work, the unit was finished on time and after an extravagant opening featuring two candidates for Bath’s MP and the Chairman at the time, Bryan Chalker, The Bath Soup Company Canteen opened for business.
The Bath Soup Company Canteen was a huge success, with both tourists and residents alike. A huge range of local suppliers were featured during the month to offer a genuine “Best of the West” collection of local food and free cordial was offered in exchange for donations to Julian House, raising £140 for the local homeless charity. The countdown to the opening party, the running of the canteen and customer testimonials can all be found on our Youtube channel. The biggest thing to come out of the Canteen was the way in which Bath Soup Company connected up different areas of the community and the positive result that this created. We realised that BSC had the potential to become something very special, a commercial business that’s dedicated to making a positive social contribution.

The Bath Soup School

Over the last 6 months, the Bath Soup Company has worked within the community to set up and run The Bath Soup School. This project is run in association with Julian House to offer its clients a practical way to learn about health and hygiene requirements, basic kitchen skills and food preparation. We aim to redevelop our client's independence, improve their self confidence and ultimately increase their chances of regaining employment. The Bath Soup School is supported by student volunteers that belong to SiFE (Students in Free Enterprise) at the University of Bath, which allow us to offer one to one mentoring, individual support and CV workshops for when the time comes to make the most of the skills and experience that have been learned.

The Bath Soup Company was awarded both mentoring and financial support to set up this project from UnLtd. and Local Learning Clubs.

The Bath Soup Company is now working hard to make it a completely self sustaining project that’s funded entirely by the sale of Bath Soup. The Bath Soup Company also aims to be able to create employment opportunities for the clients itself. To achieve these goals, we must continue to grow and find new outlets that are keen to support the project.

We have a solid purpose, a clear plan and an amazing group of people and organisations behind us.

To show your support for this project, simply like this page, if you would like to become involved then check out our get involved page