Our People

Real people are front and centre of Steenbergs. Real people doing real things - farming, moving physical goods, blending and packing by hand. We're a people business and treating everyone as real people, with real lives and their own unique life stories is fundamental to how we operate. This comes from the heart.

Steenbergs is a tiny business of 10 people. Each and every one is part of the lifeblood of Steenbergs. We all work together, covering multiple tasks and roles within the business. Everyone is treating equally, with respect and mindful of their lives.

The key factors for us are: trust and empowerment. We work hard to develop strong work relationships with our employees, understanding what they’re looking for, what they can bring to the business and how we can get the best out of each other whilst we’re together. We strive to give everyone and equal chance to see where that takes us.

It’s key for us that we provide employment locally, paying the Real Living Wage, and training our employees. So, in our small way, we address unemployment, poor educational attainment and low income. When we recruit, we try, so far as possible, to offer employment to people, especially young adults, that have not achieved high educational attainment, giving them a start on the employment ladder to move on to other employment later, because there are simply not enough entry level jobs left in this country. We’ve, also, helped staff with navigating their way through the NHS, housing issues, mortgage applications, residency paperwork, and citizenship applications, etc., etc.

We recognise that we’re not perfect, make mistakes and are still learning, so self-reflection is important to how we build the magic of trust and empowerment.

 

'We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural.' (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations)

The importance of people stretches beyond our four walls and through our supply chain. People and their hard work and dedication is what makes our products special. We rely on everyone’s skills, experience and knowledge, from how to grow particular plants, harvest them and nurture the soils that they come from.

Steenbergs has built excellent, long term relationships with our core suppliers, centred on our values of trust and empowerment. We continue to widen our circle of trusted suppliers. Our relationships are built on respect for our partners, their deep knowledge and cultures, trusting them to know best how to do things. For example, our paprika and saffron supplier is a fifth generation family firm in Murcia, Spain.