The company man going to war on waste in drive to help poor

IMAGINE living in a country where some people are so poverty-stricken that they rely on Red Cross food parcels.

It’s a country in which, according to one estimate, more than one in 10 of the population lives below the poverty line, while around half of all the food produced is never eaten by humans. This isn’t a description of a war zone or an unstable African state. It’s Britain in 2014.

No amount of upbeat economic data can hide the fact that, for many people at the bottom of the ladder, the future has never looked bleaker. Tom Rumboll is a former banker who would like to change all that. He believes his new employer – The Company Shop – can help to tackle one of the most shameful aspects of modern life. People are going hungry while colossal amounts of food are being sent to landfill, causing untold environmental and social damage.

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As director of business development at The Company Shop, he believes he can reduce hunger and waste, and create hundreds of jobs into the bargain. The company’s business model is driven by the fact that surplus food is part of modern life.

“Surpluses are hard to avoid in a consumer-focused industry, they may be caused by forecasting errors, labelling issues, shelf life or many other things,’’ he said.

“With Company Shop’s solution retailers and manufacturers are able to redistribute their surplus product, knowing that it will never end up in landfill. Over 95 per cent of the food that comes through our factory gates gets eaten, the rest we recycle or feed to animals.”

Last year, the company launched Britain’s first social supermarket in Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire, which has gained backing from supermarkets groups Asda and Morrisons. The Community Shop offers affordable food to local people who are in receipt of welfare support. They are eligible for discounts of up to 70 per cent.

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Community Shop is a subsidiary of the £28m turnover Company Shop, the UK’s largest commercial redistributor of surplus food and goods. Apart from getting access to cheaper food, shoppers are also offered support to help boost their living standards. They receive advice about tackling debts, and tuition to improve their cookery skills. They can even pick up useful tips about home budgeting and CV writing.

The statistics related to food waste and social inequality are breathtaking. According to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, up to 50 per cent of all food never reaches the human stomach. The institution blames poor infrastructure and storage facilities, overly strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one-free offers and consumers demanding “cosmetically perfect” food.

According to the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation, there are more working families living in poverty in the UK than non-working ones. Some 6.7m working families are living below the poverty line – up 500,000 on the same time last year – compared with the 6.3m combined retired and out-of-work families. Many people have been crushed by an unprecedented fall in living standards, with average incomes falling by an average of eight per cent since 2008.

Mr Rumboll, previously a relationship director with Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said the business was using “surplus food for social good”.

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He said: “Food bank usage has escalated in the last couple of years. The British Red Cross are providing food parcels in the UK for the first time since the Second World War. So Company Shop and its model is absolutely right for the time. Food waste is high on the agenda. The need is being driven by food poverty and the cost of feeding yourselves and your family.”

But why is there a need now, when the data suggests that the UK economy is recovering?

“Household expenditure has been squeezed and there is energy, transport and food inflation,’’ said Mr Rumboll. “The Company Shop model is about environmental sustainability, because sending food to landfill is not a sustainable choice. Morally, we can’t have lots of people going hungry at a time when food is being wasted.”

Food industry veteran John Marren founded the Company Shop more than 20 years ago, and the Community Shop scheme is being led by social entrepreneur Sarah Dunwell. Company Shop hopes to open stores in London and further afield this year if the pilot proves successful. The project has attracted heavyweight backing, including Andy Clarke, president and chief executive of Leeds-based Asda. He is also chairman of investment agency Leeds and Partners, where Ms Dunwell is a non-executive director. Tesco, Ocado, The Co-operative Food, Marks & Spencer, Mondelez International, Tetley, Muller and Young’s are also supporting the Community Shop by diverting surplus to the pilot.

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Mr Rumboll joined Lloyds as a graduate trainee in 1999, and most of his career has been spent forging ties with small firms that want to grow. Why did he decide to take this bold step away from the world he knows best? “My dad John was in the steel industry in Sheffield. When I was about six he was made redundant,’’ Mr Rumboll recalled. “He was given the opportunity to re-train and get a trade. He became self-employed as a builder.

“That stuck with me in those formative years. I always knew I wanted to work with self-employed individuals and entrepreneurs. But I also recognised that I wasn’t particularly entrepreneurial myself. I knew I wanted to work as an adviser, and a supporter, and a champion of small business.

“It was the small business adviser role that drew me into banking. I had my ear to the ground about which businesses were expanding and which businesses were investing.”

Recently, he’s faced challenges close to home. Five days after he was born, his son Arthur had to undergo major heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary. Thankfully, Arthur is now a fit and healthy nine-month-old.

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Mr Rumboll believes the Community Shop will soon be a familiar sight. The next step is a pilot in London, with a plan to roll-out 20 stores nationwide.

He said: “I would like to double the tonnage of surplus that we bring in. We can take 60,000 tonnes of surplus out of potential landfill or other routes and use it to feed families. But we need the resources and clients to source the supply.

“My aim is to double the scale of our operation within five years. There’s enough surplus to do that. When the business moved from its old site to the new site, more than 200 jobs were created. Altogether, we employ 500 people.

Another 500 jobs would not be beyond the realms of possibility. We’re proud to be a South Yorkshire business, and look to expand even further.”