Duchy Originals and Social Enterprise
The Prince of Wales launched his own food company, Duchy Originals, in 1992 with its first product – a biscuit made from wheat and oats grown organically on the Home Farm at Highgrove.
Since then, the company has grown to become one of the United Kingdom's best-known and most successful organic and natural brands with over 200 different products, including selling food, drink, gardening tools and furniture.
Duchy Originals generates more than £1million in profit for charity each year.
In establishing Duchy Originals, The Prince of Wales sought to create a company that helped small farmers find a new market for their goods while offering consumers natural, high quality food and promoting more sustainable production methods that improved soil health and protected the environment. This way, The Prince aimed to create what he calls a ‘virtuous circle’.
Click here to visit the Duchy Originals website.
Traditional Arts Ltd
Traditional Arts Ltd is a separate company established to develop and sell products based on the designs from students and alumni of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts.
All profits are donated to The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, a registered charity which seeks to maintain and nurture the great traditions of design and craftsmanship. Click here to visit the website.
North Highland Initiative
The Duke of Rothesay, as The Prince of Wales is known in Scotland, launched the North Highland Initiative (NHI) in August 2005 to promote and develop the economy and to support the rural communities of the North Highlands.
The NHI was formed as a direct result of The Duke’s involvement in bringing together the farming community, local businesses and the tourism industry to try to address some of the challenges facing rural communities in the far north of Scotland by creating a powerful regional identity for the area through marketing.
The Mey Selections brand was the NHI’s first venture and was developed to enhance the marketing presence of produce from the North Highlands’ area in niche food markets, selling beef, mutton and lamb.
Since the launch Mey Selections has realised £150,000 of additional income for local farmer members. Click here to visit the Mey Selections website.
The second phase of the NHI was the launch of a tourism marketing strategy, which focuses on the idea of “Pleasure in the Extreme”, rooted in the physical and environmental extremes that exist in the North Highlands. Click here to visit the tourism website.
The third phase of the project is concentrating on breathing new life into the area’s valuable built heritage.
Turquoise Mountain Arts
Turquoise Mountain Arts is the trading arm of the Turquoise Mountain, an organisation working on the economic, social and cultural regeneration of a precinct in Kabul’s old city and running Afghanistan’s only Centre of Traditional Afghan Arts and Architecture with schools of ceramics, woodworking and calligraphy. Turquoise Mountain Arts finds markets for Afghan crafts, creating economic incentives to ensure their survival. It provides business training to young artisans, preparing them to succeed both as artists and entrepreneurs, and to existing craft businesses, helping them to expand and professionalise their operations.
Turquoise Mountain Arts works to bring Afghan crafts to world markets. It has completed commissions for international property developers, hotels and interior designers, and for embassies, offices, and private buyers in Afghanistan. Click here to visit the Turquoise Mountain Arts website.
The Highgrove Shop
The Highgrove shop is open to all visitors who are invited to the Highgrove garden.
In 2006 – 2007, The Prince and The Duchess invited more than 24,000 people to go round the garden at Highgrove, finishing with refreshments in the Orchard Room.
In the Summer, up to 9 tours of 25 people can take place each day. Visitors to the garden include charitable and gardening groups, and gardening students and researchers work in the garden throughout the year.
No charge is made for the tour or refreshments, but visitors are able to buy items from the Highgrove Shop which donates all its profits to The Prince’s Charities Foundation.
Click here to visit the Highgrove Shop website.
The Prince’s Charities Events Ltd
The Prince’s Charities has established this trading subsidiary to undertake commercial activities in support of the group’s wider mission, with a programme of music, sport and film such as Concert for Diana, “The Friendship Cup” between India and Pakistan and the film Stairway to Heaven. In 2007 alone, it generated over £3million.