Pride at Exolum: a commitment that runs all year

Every summer, colleagues across our sites sit down together for a Rainbow Breakfast. What happens in the other eleven months matters just as much.

Our 2026 Pride season closed in August with a Rainbow Breakfast in Amsterdam. It was the last of more than two dozen gatherings held across five countries, from Inverness to Lima, and the third year running that Exolum colleagues have marked Pride this way.

The breakfasts are simple by design. People from every part of the business share a table, connect and celebrate, and usually learn something along the way. They are hosted locally, which means they happen in terminals and operational sites as well as head offices.

Where we celebrated in 2026

UK Killingholme, Thetford, Seal Sands, Hallen, Immingham East, Rawcliffe, Misterton, Grays, Immingham West, Eastham, Inverness, Backford and London

Spain Torrejón, Barcelona, Loeches, A Coruña, Cartagena, Palma, Motril, Almodóvar, Burgos, Sevilla, Villaverde and our Madrid head office

The Netherlands Amsterdam

Germany Mannheim

Peru Lima

A network that keeps growing

420+ colleagues joined Rainbow Breakfasts at 28 sites worldwide

280+ colleagues have signed the Pride Alliance manifesto

2x growth in signatories over the Pride period alone

Behind those numbers is Pride Alliance, our LGBTQ+ and allies network. It launched recently and has grown quickly. More than 180 colleagues in Iberia and over 100 across our North-West Europe business have signed its manifesto, a voluntary commitment to practise allyship in everyday work. Signing keeps people connected to the network, its updates and its initiatives, and nobody is asked to do it.

To make allyship practical rather than abstract, the Alliance has also published an Allyship Guide in our local languages, so colleagues can read it in the language they work in.

The Circle of Listening: community, all year round

Pride is the most visible moment of the year. The Pride Alliance Circle of Listening is where much of the real work happens.

These are regular, open sessions where LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies come together to talk, share experiences and support one another. They carry on through every season, long after Pride season ends. For people who have been at Exolum for years, the Circle is a steady point of connection. For new joiners, it is one of the first places to find community and to see, from day one, that they can be themselves here.

Alongside the Circle, the Alliance keeps running internal events throughout the year, giving colleagues more reasons and more chances to meet, learn and get involved.

Taking our story outside the company

Until now, our focus has been on building an inclusive culture from the inside out. In 2026 we began sharing that experience more widely, through partnerships with REDI and myGwork.

Pride Alliance representatives spoke at three external events this year: myGwork's annual WorkPride Conference, the LGBTQ+@Work Conference run by REDI and IE Business School, and a forum hosted by REDI and CEOE on strategies for including LGBTQ+ people in the workplace. Across three panel discussions and a keynote, they reached a combined audience of more than 780 people. Every organisation's inclusion journey is different, and we hope ours gives others something useful to build on.

Jennifer Wilkinson, Chair of Exolum's Pride Alliance, joined myGwork's panel Bisexual Inclusion: Navigating Identity at Work. Watch the recording here.

Why one month is never enough

The data explains why we treat inclusion as a year-round job. The UK's 2025 Pride in Energy survey found that 42% of respondents had experienced or witnessed LGBTQIA+ discrimination at work, and 18% had done so in the past year alone. One in ten LGBTQIA+ employees are not out at work. A fifth see no visible LGBTQIA+ role models or allies in senior leadership, and 73% are worried about how recent social and political developments could affect inclusion and protections.

Real progress has been made, and there is still plenty to do. A month of celebration raises awareness. Lasting change comes from visible leadership, everyday allyship and the conversations colleagues have with each other the rest of the year.

Thinking about joining Exolum?

If you join us, you join a company where LGBTQ+ inclusion is built into the working year. Pride Alliance is open to every colleague from the start, the Circle of Listening is there whenever you want it, and our Rainbow Breakfasts are put together by people at sites just like the one you might work at.

None of this happens by itself. It happens because colleagues across the business give their time to host, to speak, to sign up and to show up. We would love you to be one of them.

Explore careers at Exolum: see our open roles on myGwork