The history of Infinity Foods Co-operative (Ltd)
Back in 1970, two students, Peter Deadman and Robin Bines, opened a macrobiotic café at the University of Sussex called "Biting Through", which led to a demand for the ingredients they were using in their cooking. The following year, they opened a small shop in a converted terraced house in Church Street. Here they sold basic vegetarian whole foods and freshly baked products. By 1973, the business had grown rapidly and it moved to its current site in North Road.
Three years later, the company took on an adjoining shop and opened a bakery. The following year there was further expansion: the company again taking on more room at the back of the building with some of the space being used to house and open the Brighton Natural Health Centre, now a registered charity.
The Brighton Natural Health Centre (BNHC) offers courses and drop-in classes in yoga (hatha, iyengar, astanga, sunpower, classic), tai chi, chi gung, dance (contemporary, jazz, 5Rhythms, belly dancing, contact improvisation), pilates, shiatsu, feldenkrais, bodyzone fitness and other body awareness classes designed to help you improve your health and well-being.
In 1979 the business partners moved towards converting the company into a worker's co-operative which they duly did. Business continued to flourish and in 1984, the shop and bakery merged. At the same time, the demand for wholesale orders of Infinity's products became too great for the retail site to cater for and in 1985 a group of members set up a separate wholesale branch of the business to be run from a warehouse in Portslade, where it remains today.
In recent years people's attitudes towards their health, the environment and issues surrounding food production have changed enormously, with far greater awareness of the implications of all of our actions. Here at Infinity, our core principles of sourcing locally grown and produced, organic, non-GM, fair-trade, vegetarian foods have been matched in equal part by the increasing demand for these same foods from our customers.
As a result of this, the shop has continued to flourish over the years and in 1998 the Infinity Foods cafe opened just around the corner from the North Road shop, in Gardner Street. The café has been serving up delicious, wholesome and organic vegetarian cuisine to enthusiastic and hungry Brighton appetites ever since.
Back in 2007, it become clear that the shop had again outgrown itself. Taking on a new lease enabled us to push through an extension into the retail outlet next door, thereby continuing the shop frontage round the corner into Gardner Street.
In that same year we were awarded "Best Local Retailer" in the Observer Ethical Awards, a plaudit of which we are extremely proud. It is our continuing passion and dedication to sourcing the very best products that has led to the support and loyalty of a regular customer base. It is thanks to our customers that we have remained at the forefront of ethical trading and the production of healthy foods, from our humble beginnings right through to this day.
Today our workforce is close to 100 and serves as a measure of how much we have grown over the years. From a small university stall to being the Southeast's leading whole-foods company, we at Infinity Foods strive and hope to be able to continue to offer the very best service that we can, now and hereafter.
For further information on the Brighton Natural Health Centre and Infinity Foods Wholesale in Portslade, please click on the respective links below:
www.bnhc.co.uk
www.infinityfoodswholesale.co.uk
For further information on Peter Deadman and Robin Bines and their later work, please click on the links below: