Premier Foods has introduced a payroll-giving scheme for its 18,000 UK employees as part of its wider corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy.

The scheme, launched at the firm's headquarters in St Albans in February, will enable employees to make tax-efficient donations to a charity of their choice.

Under the scheme, provided by Workplace Giving, employees can potentially increase their charity donations by up to 40% because of the tax savings achieved by taking the money directly from their gross pay.

Ian Bowles, CSR manager at Premier Foods, said the company's employees responded well to such CSR initiatives.