THE world’s first real-time mobile app, developed to help food stores clear significantly more of its reduced food produce, has launched in Northern Ireland.
Gander, a mobile platform that displays ‘reduced to clear’ food products, has partnered with Henderson Technology to bring this sustainable technology solution to life in stores supplied by the Henderson Group in the north under the Spar, EuroSpar, ViVo and ViVoxtra brands.
The industry-first app displays reduced-to-clear food automatically and in real-time, with Henderson’s award-winning point-of-sale technology system pushing the reduced food products to the mobile app as they are stickered in-store.
When that item is sold, it is automatically then removed from the app, providing an instant feed of all reductions in-store at any time making it simple and effective for the shopper.
Food waste is a huge issue and has recently been described as an “environmental, economic and moral scandal” (local councils collected 230,942 tonnes of municipal waste between October and December last year).
Ashley Osborne, founder of Gander says: “We're delighted to partner with Henderson to introduce this new technology to market. Henderson Group has a fantastic sustainability and CSR programme in place with a proactive focus on waste reduction. Through this partnership we can take significant strides towards giving retailers and shoppers alike the ability to have a more sustainable and mindful approach to food shopping.”
He added: “Food waste is a crisis and is one of today’s growing issues. It is forecast to increase substantially by 2030 unless serious action is taken. Yet a significant proportion of this waste is completely avoidable.
"For retailers, reduced food can cost them up to seven per cent of their turnover. At a time when margins are being squeezed, this is revenue sitting on their shelves and that shoppers locally would love to buy, they just don’t know it is there.”
Darren Nickels, head of Henderson Technology says: “We are committing to helping all our retailers to reduce food waste alongside tackling the problem in our own stores. We are excited to have partnered with Gander to bring this unique initiative to life in an industry first. Initiatives like this will help us tackle the moral and environmental problems associated with avoidable food waste and we are delighted to be the first in the UK to offer this system.
“We know that many of our customers feel strongly about addressing this issue and feel confident that by introducing the Gander app we will encourage shoppers to purchase in a smarter, more sustainable way while also enjoying some great savings.
“Only 5 per cent of a retailer's existing shoppers purchase reduced-to-clear food. Gander puts this information in the hands of significantly more motivated shoppers which in turn will increase sales of reduced product.
“For a retailer, this will increase revenue otherwise lost to waste, increase footfall and reduce waste, and for shoppers it will provide them with the ability to avail of local bargains and save money, while allowing them to feel they are positively addressing the problem of food wastage.”
