The King visits Manchester and Warrington

In the fiftieth anniversary year of The King’s Trust, His Majesty visited Aviva Studios to see the collaboration between The King’s Trust and Factory Academy, who deliver the Trust’s Creative Futures, Get into Event Production programme. 

In 2024, The King's Trust joined forces with The Elba Hope Foundation, a public charity founded by Idris and Sabrina Elba, to launch Creative Futures; a range of free courses designed to inspire young people in Manchester (and across the United Kingdom) through the arts, building their skills and confidence to work in the creative industries. 

Meeting representatives of Factory International and The King’s Trust, His Majesty heard more about the partnership and its positive impact on the local community. Across the city, Creative Futures has helped more than 100 young people. 

His Majesty also spent time with young people, hearing about the skills they have learnt. 

Factory International plays an important role in the lives of Greater Manchester residents, providing jobs, skills, training and creative opportunities. Through its own initiative, Factory International trains the creative workforce of the future, delivering pioneering creative engagement and artist development programmes. 

At The Renew Hub Greater Manchester, His Majesty The King attended the launch of Circularity in Practice. Delivered by a taskforce of leading UK businesses, Circularity in Practice’s core mission is to reduce, reuse, repurpose and remanufacture building materials and household goods, avoiding the unnecessary additional use of natural resources. 

The Renew Hub, launched in 2021 by SUEZ, is the UK’s largest reuse and repair facility, located at Trafford Park in Greater Manchester. It aims to take the waste generated in Greater Manchester, upcycle, fix and refurbish it to create economic, environmental and social value. 

Circularity in Practice is an initiative that will bring real, practical circular solutions into the places where we live and work. By uniting businesses and experts across different sectors, and with support from the British Chambers of Commerce, it aims to turn big ideas, such as cutting waste, reusing materials, and giving products a second life, into everyday action.

During the visit, His Majesty viewed donated and salvaged items awaiting refurbishment before seeing the facility’s specialist repair ‘pods’ in action. These included electrical and joinery, metalwork, upholstery, and bikes, where technicians and volunteers restore and upgrade pre‑loved items. 

Within the upholstery pod, His Majesty was shown - and invited to make the finishing touches to - a chair, restored by using material donated from the Royal Opera House. 

Marking the launch of Circularity in Practice, The King met local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in an education session, and view an example of a modern office made from 100% reclaimed, remanufactured and reused materials. 

In Warrington, The King visited a Greencore food manufacturing site, an example of the food industry transforming its approach to tackling food waste and reducing hunger. As part of the Coronation Food Project, Greencore has already donated more than one million meals to communities in need and His Majesty saw examples of these meals being prepared and packaged for distribution. 

Inspired by His Majesty and established in 2023, the Coronation Food Project addresses the urgent challenge of reducing food waste while tackling hunger. 

As a leading manufacturer of convenience food, Greencore is one of the pioneering businesses supporting the Alliance Food Sourcing initiative. Working in partnership with Sainsbury’s, it has contributed around 400 tonnes of food over the last year - equivalent to one million meals - to communities in need through the Coronation Food Project. 

During the visit, The King toured the production facility and met Greencore engineering apprentices, who are preparing for careers in the food industry. 

His Majesty also saw how Coronation Food Project meals are prepared, packed and delivered to the same quality and nutrition standards as products available through high street retailers. The extra food is being circulated to communities in need via Coronation Food Project partners FareShare and The Felix Project.