Charities in Yorkshire received a boost when leasing company Zenith cancelled its Christmas party and took the opportunity to fundraise for charity.

The company donated food for more 600 people to the food redistribution charity FareShare, and pre-paid drinks of 300 bottles of wine and 500 bottles of beer are to be raffled with proceeds going to mental health charity, Mind, the company’s charity of the year.

Hotel rooms were offered to employees for a charity donation, Zenith said. 

Stuart Price, chief people officer at Zenith, said: “While we are disappointed that we can’t enjoy the season's festivities with our colleagues, they understood our decision to cancel, and collectively wanted to turn it into something positive to benefit others.

“Everyone worked together to help these charities that are doing vital work. We chose MIND as our charity of the year because of the fantastic work they do in Yorkshire and around the country.”

Zenith delivered EBITDA of £61.5m in its corporate fleet business, up £3.2m, or 5.4% on the previous year, according to its annual financial results up to Match 31.

In November 2021, Zenith announced, ZenAuto, Zenith’s consumer business, would offer used vehicles via personal contract hire (PCH).

Zenith also supported Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day with a £2 per person donation to wear a jumper and are running the reverse advent calendar initiative, where colleagues donate items to local food banks and homeless charities.

Aviva recently chose Zenith to provide its employees with an electric vehicle (EV) salary sacrifice scheme.