Meet Our Business Members: Folkington's

Emma Chaplin
, 27 September 2022
Meet Our Business Members: Folkington's
Paul Bendit of Folkington's picking apples

We speak to Paul Bendit, owner of Folkington’s

What was the inspiration behind starting Folkington’s?

After the outbreak of Foot and Mouth in 2001, there was naturally a great deal of concern about the provenance of meat, and customers became much more interested in the backstory of their groceries. We saw an opportunity to bring the same provenance and terroir associated with wine, to fruit juices. And Folkington’s was born.

What goes into a bottle of Folkington’s?

We have a principle of ‘less is more’ which comes from my experience of visiting Italy as a boy, where my grandmother lived. Italians believe in using only a few, really good quality ingredients, and that’s what we do too. We always source our ingredients sustainably by returning to the same farms and farming communities each year. This not only contributes to their long-term sustainable income, but also ensures our drinks have a unique consistency in both quality and taste. We don’t use artificial sweeteners or preservatives, and we never use concentrate.

Tell us more about your apple juice made with local apples

For our apple juice, we use a blend of Russet and Jonagold, grown in Sussex, Kent and Herefordshire. Farmers who grow Bramley and Cox apples need Russet trees to pollinate them. But when they’ve picked the Bramleys and Coxes, the Russets are often left to drop and rot, so we pay a bit extra to get them picked and saved, avoiding food waste and as a consequence, tonnes of greenhouse gases being emitted.

Our apples are then pressed near the orchards in Herefordshire, and from there it’s a short drive to Wales where the juice is bottled and packaged in easily recycled materials.

Do you do anything else for the environment?

As well as working to reduce our impact on the environment through minimising food miles, food waste and our carbon footprint, our business is independently certified as carbon neutral.

Why did you decide to become a Sussex Wildlife Trust business member?

Sussex is very important to us; it is where we are based, and we have a strong customer base here. We like to support local charities, and the work of the trust aligns closely with our values and that nature and wildlife are of huge importance to our team.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782970165.15560 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782970165.18180.0262Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782970165.18190.0002Server address: 216.73.217.103
1782970165.1820Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782970165.1820Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/meet-our-business-members-folkingtons
    [s] => meet-our-business-members-folkingtons
    [1] => meet-our-business-members-folkingtons
)
1782970165.18230.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.18350.0012 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782970165.18570.0022 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782970165.18630.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782970165.18820.0019 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22508003
1782970165.18880.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22508003
1782970165.18940.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-02 05:29:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-02 05:29:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782970165.19070.0013 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='meet-our-business-members-folkingtons')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 05:29:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782970165.19330.0026 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782970165.19380.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2885 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 05:29:00'
1782970165.19470.0009 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782970165.19540.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782970165.19610.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=195 LIMIT 1
1782970165.19670.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=227 LIMIT 1
1782970165.19740.0007Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782970165.19770.0003 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782970165.19870.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 05:29:00' AND postSlug='meet-our-business-members-folkingtons'
1782970165.21950.0208Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782970165.22010.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782970165.22160.0015Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782970165.22190.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782970165.22270.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782970165.22390.0012 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782970165.22730.0034 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.2280.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782970165.23050.0025Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782970165.23050 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782970165.23140.0009 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782970165.23190.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782970165.23440.0026 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782970165.23530.0009 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782970165.23570.0004 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782970165.23720.0016 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.23820.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782970165.24060.0024 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782970165.24120.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782970165.24150.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782970165.24220.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782970165.24250.0003 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='meet-our-business-members-folkingtons')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 05:29:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782970165.24490.0024 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782970165.24540.0004 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782970165.24820.0028Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782970165.24910.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2885 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782970165.3010.0518 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782970165.30120.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782970165.30140.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782970165.30220.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782970165.3030.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782970165.30350.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782970165.30560.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.30610.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782970165.30790.0019 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782970165.30870.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782970165.30920.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782970165.30970.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782970165.3120.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.31260.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782970165.31440.0018 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782970165.31790.0035 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782970165.31850.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782970165.31910.0006 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782970165.3220.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.32250.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782970165.32460.0021 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782970165.32680.0023 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782970165.32740.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782970165.32780.0004 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782970165.32970.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782970165.33020.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782970165.33210.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782970165.33320.0011Request time: 0.1809
1782970165.33320Process time: 0.1807
1782970165.33320Memory: 1.6218