The world’s first real-time mobile app, developed to help food stores clear significantly more of its reduced to clear, often yellow labelled, food produce has launched in Northern Ireland.

In an industry first, 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 Northern Ireland under the SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOxtra brands.

Gander is unique for this industry as it displays reduced to clear food automatically and in real-time, with Henderson Technology’s award winning EDGEPoS System pushing the reduced food products to the mobile app, as they are stickered in-store.  Similarly, when that item is sold it is automatically 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” by Ben Elliott[1].  Recent Northern Ireland figures shows that in total, Northern Ireland’s councils collected 230,942 tonnes of LAC (local authority collected) municipal waste between October and December 2018, similar to the 232,012 tonnes collected during the same three months of 2017.[2]

Speaking on the launch of Gander into Northern Ireland, Ashley Osbourne, Founder of Gander says: “We are delighted to be partnering with Henderson Technology in Northern Ireland, to introduce this new technology to market in an industry first. The Henderson Group has a fantastic sustainability and CSR programme in place with a proactive focus on waste reduction. Together 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.

“Environmentally, food waste is a crisis and is one of today’s growing issues and it is forecast to increase substantially by 2030 unless serious action is taken.  Worst yet, a significant proportion of this waste is completely avoidable. However, for retailers reduced food can cost them up to 7% 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: “As an innovative and forward-thinking technology supplier, 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. As part of the Henderson Group, we believe that initiatives like this will help us tackle the moral and environmental problems associated with avoidable food waste. We are delighted to be the first POS provider in the U.K. to offer this with our EDGEPoS system.

“Through the retail partners we work with both here in the UK and across the globe, 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.”

Ashley adds: “Only 5% of a retailers 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.  For the shoppers it will provide them with the ability to avail of local bargains and save money, whilst allowing them to feel they are positively addressing the problem of food wastage.  A win, win!

“Shoppers love reductions and offers with 32% shopping for offers according to IGD Shoppervista research.  Furthermore, there is a movement from shoppers towards companies with an environmental focus with 72% of Gen Z’ers shopping in stores with a positive social and environmental impact according to Nielsen.”

The Gander app can be downloaded via the Apple or Android app stores and used to locate reduced items at your nearest SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOxtra store.

Gander is rolling out across the UK and ROI following the successful launch of the app in NI, to help drastically reduce waste at a National level.

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[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/31/food-waste-chief-to-target-scandal-of-250m-binned-uk-meals

[2] https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/news/northern-ireland-local-authority-collected-municipal-waste-management-statistics-released-13