Yorkshire firm leads the way on reducing national food waste

Company Shop Group employs 400 people in Barnsley across its retail superstore and logistics operations, which take in perfectly edible stock from around the country and redistribute it through its member only superstores.

The operation is part of a bid to tackle the 1.1bn tonnes a year of unnecessary food waste across food and drink retail and manufacturing sectors,

The businesses will participate in a mentoring programme designed by Company Shop Group, the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus stock.

The programme is funded by Defra and has been backed by Government food waste champion, Ben Elliott, and industry groups including WRAP and the British Retail Consortium.

In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, around £2bn worth of edible food waste was produced in the UK.

Defra has set a target of halving food waste by 2030, a target made all the more challenging due to fluctuations in supply chains and consumer demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The programme will develop a network of food waste champions, who will be the driving force for change within their respective organisations. Participants will also be drawn from Bakkavor, Greencore, Mars, Nestle, Nomad Foods, Premier Foods, Samworth Brothers, Unilever and Upfield. A particular focus will be saving the “hardest to reach” stock, which often goes to waste because of the technical or logistical challenges involved in readying it for customers.

The programme will include toolkits, activities and mentoring, giving participants the skills and confidence they need to be the driving force for change within their own organisation. It will be delivered predominantly online, using downloadable resources and activities. Meetings with mentors also take place, with a personal visit to the participant’s workplace to help tailor their individual programme.

Company Shop Group is the home of Company Shop stores and the award-winning social enterprise Community Shop, the UK’s first social supermarket chain. It serves customers in the UK supply chain, key workers and some of the UK’s most deprived communities,

John Marren, founder and chairman of Company Shop Group, said: “We knew we wanted to deliver long term solutions not short-term fixes.

“For us, using the funding to acquire more stock and redistribute it to thousands of families through Community Shop was great, but we also wanted to do much more.

“We wanted this funding to create a long-term sustainable change in the UK food industry, so the impact could continue for years to come.”

Government food waste champion, Ben Elliot, said: “We all need to play our part in tackling unnecessary food waste in the UK. The Luminary Programme is exactly the sort of creative thinking and industry collaboration needed to generate a step-change in sustainable practices and to move beyond the status quo.”

Carmel Mcquaid, head of sustainable business at M&S, said: “M&S are delighted to be supporting the first cohort of the Luminary programme. As a long standing supporter of Company Shop, we are keen to continue this collaboration, working together to explore more ways of reducing waste through increased redistribution.”

Peter Andrews, head of sustainability at the BRC, said: “As we emerge from the coronavirus crisis, more retailers are keen to explore better ways to safeguard our environment and meet their customer needs and we’re pleased to be working with Company Shop as one of our sustainability partners to address these challenges.”

Andy Griffiths, head of value chain sustainability at Nestle UK, said: “As the impacts of Covid 19 are felt across the country, more and more families are struggling with access to affordable, nutritious food.

“To help deliver sustainable solutions to this challenge, it is crucial that organisations find ever more effective ways to collaborate. The Luminary Programme is a trailblazing example of bringing together future leaders across the food sector, to increase the understanding of these challenges and help identify and leverage new opportunities in this space.”

Lee Haughton, group environmental manager at Premier Foods, said: “We have colleagues who aspire to develop themselves and help our business to continually improve, and for these colleagues the Luminary Programme fits perfectly.”