Company Drinks idt.

Company Drinks is a drinks company with a difference.

We are a community space and social enterprise based in Barking and Dagenham, where we make drinks with and for each other. Company Drinks started in 2014 with the invitation to going picking together *, in local green spaces and the nearby countryside.

Since then it has developed into a network of strands which include growing, drinks making, heritage, well-being, learning for all ages, art and alternative economics, all with nature and commoning at its centre. Like the seasons, Company Drinks changes and adapts, and is shaped by those who get involved. Our work and offers are open for others to join, and we welcome everyone with an interest in community, nature, food and culture.

As a co-working social enterprise we offer paid part-time work, paid internships, unpaid volunteering opportunities, and we offer free social and training activities for residents and groups of all ages. We work together with many other local organisations and champion the ideas of those around us.

Company Drinks is a not-for-profit, anti-racist, and culture-led community enterprise, that is striving for an equal, just and non-discriminatory world. We imagine and practice new ways of working and existing together, with the wellbeing of people and the planet at the centre.

Company Drinks was set up in 2014 as an art commission, and registered as a Community Interest Company since 2015. We have a Community Economy Business Plan and we are a member of The Interdependence, a global alliance of community economies initiatives. 

Contact name

Kathrin Böhm or Cam Jarvis

Contact email

contact@companydrinks.info
Many hands picking leaves from a central table
Two people holding up containers of fruit they have picked
Three bottles and a packet showing the products developed

Please include a list of actors (name/weblink) with whom you actively and ethically negotiate your interdependence

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, https://www.lbbd.gov.uk

Land Workers Alliance, https://landworkersalliance.org.uk

Square Root Soda, https://www.squarerootsoda.com

New Town Culture, https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/new-town-culture

Kingsley Hall Dagenham, https://khccc.com

Barking Learning Centre, https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/barking-learning-centre

The Kernel Brewery, https://store.thekernelbrewery.com

Dagenham Farm, https://www.growingcommunities.org/dagenham-farm

In what way does your work fit with the concept of interdependence?

The production cycle of Company Drinks is set up as a public space, with many different individuals and organisations joining at various points, be it the growing, the processing, the socialising or the trading.

We are by nature interdependent and try to make this explicit wherever possible, crediting the contributions by everyone involved. Company Drinks is based on the principle of communing, where we collectively manage the resources that are available to us.

The economic realities of Company Drinks are diverse, and the mutual interdependence practiced at Company Drinks are underpinned by swaps, gleaning, purchasing, gifts, sales, volunteering, equal pay and many more.