Sainsbury’s wants to be a truly inclusive retailer, where every single one of our colleagues can fulfil their potential and where all our customers feel welcome when they shop with us.

Building on the brilliant initiatives Sainsbury’s has already introduced, including supporting our parents and carers through our enhanced Family Leave Policy, and supporting our colleagues affected by the menopause, we are excited to continue shining a light on women’s experiences in the workplace and how we can continue to push for progress.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2023 is #EmbraceEquity. We recognise that gender equity, compared to gender equality, isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a must-have. We need to move beyond equality, where people are given the same resources or opportunities, to equity, which recognises the unique circumstances of each person and allocates resources and opportunities to reach equal outcomes.

Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8th, we are celebrating the achievements of women in our supply chain, with a spotlight on the incredible female-founded brands we support through our Future Brands programme.

Through our Future Brands programme, we aim to discover, introduce and scale up tomorrow’s emerging, innovative brands to excite our customers by providing them with the best ranges to shop.
Among our range of fabulous female-founded or female co-founded brands at Sainsbury’s are Howdah, Amandla and Yoni. Hear more about their stories and their passion for #EmbraceEquity below.

A spotlight on: Falu Shah, founder of Howdah
Howdah creates award-winning snacks and nibbles, inspired by the tastes and ingredients of Bombay street food. Through sales of their vegan friendly products, they give free school lunches to children in need in India through their “this snack gives back” mission.

Q: We loved speaking to you last International Women's Day! How has Howdah progressed over the last year? And are you still enjoying being a part of the Sainsbury's Future Brands programme?
Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be able to speak on a topic I deeply care about the past two International Women’s Days. Since we last spoke, the business has truly taken off and we are proud to now be available across over 5,000+ stocking points. We are incredible grateful to the Future Brands programme for all of their support, and look forward to continuing to build our partnership.

Q: We loved hearing about your 'this snack gives back' mission last International Women's Day. What impact have you been able to make through this since last year?
India is challenged with one of the world's lowest education rates, driving a cycle of poverty. Our ‘this snack gives back’ mission aims to (in its own small way) tackle this challenge by providing one school meal to a child in need for each bag sold. It is our ambition that providing this meal creates incentivisation for children to attend school and over time breaks the cycle of poverty. We are incredibly excited to share that we have now given over 1 million meals; and with more people enjoying our snacks, we hope it will soon be many more.

Q: The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity. What does this mean to you?
The theme for this year's International Women’s Day is certainly something that is needed in the world. Seeing the IWD #EmbraceEquity pose, and images shared across the internet, I feel warm knowing that there is solidarity in communities and a strong drive for a positive change. Equity is about making sure that people get access to the same opportunities, even though barriers that are faced. Howdah wholeheartedly supports the #EmbraceEquity movement, we shall ensure that this remains in the DNA of our brand.

A spotlight on: Praisy Dlamini, Managing Director of Amandla
Amandla is an exciting new South African wine company run entirely by a passionate team of black wine industry women. The Amandla wine range is a bold, unique and progressive new wine brand, a celebration of the rich history of South Africa, and the collective stories of the team behind it.

Q: What makes your brand innovative or unique?
The single biggest thing about our brand is that the design un-ashamedly ‘shouts’ what the brand is about. It is obvious from looking at the label, that the brand is about celebrating vibrant, black women. We felt it was so important that our ethos of celebrating the POWER, FUTURE & FREEDOM of people of colour and in particular the women who run the business, stood out on shelf. As that is what we are about.

Q: What does it mean to you, as a female-founded small business, to have been included in the Sainsbury’s Future Brand programme?
To be honest, it means the world to me and my team. When I was told about about the interest from Sainsbury’s Future Brand programme, I don’t mind admitting, I cried. To have a company such as Sainsbury’s believe in our brand and to want to ‘back us’ and really take Amandla to their customers is a game changer for us. We KNEW the concept behind the brand was right. We KNEW the wines really over delivered. And to have Sainsbury’s recognise that, really means we can make a difference to the next generation of black females who have a dream of being involved in the wine industry. It is possible and it is real.

Q: The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity. What does this mean to you?
It is heart-warming that this is the message. It is something we cultivate in our business and is a hugely important concept that needs to be adopted by more businesses and indeed more people in general. I hope that our brand, AMANDLA, will play its part in encouraging people and businesses to also #EmbraceEquity.