The Barn
Accessible sustainable food
- Healthy Eating, Associations & NGOs, Ecology & Env...
- Brussels
Learn more about us
The Barn is two young entrepreneurs, surrounded by a team of 140 enthusiasts, who, together, take up the challenge of offering affordable, 100% organic products directly from producers.
The Barn is organic food accessible to all
Every day, their mission is to make organic food accessible to as many people as possible. To achieve this, they make every effort to offer the lowest prices, while keeping impeccable quality.
The Barn is about long-lasting partnerships
At The Barn, being responsible means creating strong, fair and sustainable partnerships with producers and suppliers. That's why they work transparently with a special requirement on the origin of the products. Being responsible also means directing their actions in favor of sustainable development. They want to reduce the ecological impact of our consumption patterns by offering packaging-free products, encouraging the use of their own containers and ensuring good waste management (it is either donated to associations or composted in their garden).
The Barn is a great team
They attach great importance to the recruitment of team members and the valuation of each other's work. At The Barn there is a spirit of solidarity, generosity, authenticity and helpfulness. Every day, strong bonds develop between customers, the team and partners.
Healthy and local food
Sustainable production and consumption
Making organic accessible
6 shops open since 2017
A taste of the team
People have a central place in the company. The Barn is convinced that the fulfilment of everyone within the project will make it possible to meet the challenges of change.
Their internal actions: recruitment is based on personalities and values; each Barner benefits from personalized monthly support; the Barn's 134 entrepreneurs make decisions independently on the layout of the store, stocks or range; Collective meetings are organized every month to call on collective intelligence; Victories are celebrated together!
The Barn moments: store anniversaries, team visits to producers, Christmas dinners... For their last team building, they had booked a gîte in Florenville for 2 days with outdoor activities (tree climbing, visit of the Abbey of Orval, walks, etc.).
Employees
Average Age
Breakdown M/F
Our commitments to a sustainable world
Each store is in partnership with a local market gardener with the aim of creating a positive synergy. The market gardener provides organic, local and seasonal products, and also provides a lot of information on agriculture, soils, and market gardening practices. In return, The Barn allows this market gardener to develop its offer and its project by ensuring a minimum amount of orders and by offering 0% loans for the purchase of equipment.
In summer, during the harvest season (quieter period in stores), The Barn offers a free hand to the market gardener! And yes, barners who wish to do so can go and work in the market gardener's fields. The employees are always very enthusiastic and their market gardeners are happy to have a helping hand without having to hire additional staff.
The Barn aims to be zero waste and environmentally friendly. This involves several things: their offer is 100% organic and they favour Belgian products; their products are in bulk in order to reduce packaging; customers use reusable containers; The shops are set up in a minimalist way and with a lot of recycled material.
Their mission is to make sustainable food accessible, both in terms of price and proximity. Their business model allows them to sell organic products to a wider and more diverse clientele, while respecting the viability and sustainability of producers. In addition, they work a lot on their supply chains, which allows them to support small cooperatives through the purchase and sale of certain products (e.g. the Choupoubi cooperative for cashew nuts and dried mangoes, or Coopagro for coffee).
Each store organizes a calculation of its carbon footprint every year. Based on the results, the store and its team find solutions to further reduce their consumption.
Currently, the store in Etterbeek and the one in Saint-Gilles work with Graine de vie, a nursery in Madagascar. They have already funded the planting and maintenance of about 50,000 trees!