The Heart of England Co-operative Society has joined forces with award-winning and world-first mobile app Gander to enable its customers snap up cut-price bargains from the shelves and to reduce food waste within its stores.
Following a hugely successful trial of Gander in a number of the Society’s stores including Hinckley, Stoney Stanton, Coniston Way and Attleborough, the scheme is now being rolled out across the Society’s 35-strong network of stores across Coventry, Warwickshire, South Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
Speaking on the new partnership, co-founder of Gander, Ashley Osborne says: “We are delighted to be extending the implementation of Gander across stores in the UK and through working with the Heart of England Cooperative Society we will continue our mission to reduce food waste. From the successful trial period we were able to see a desire from consumers to be more mindful with how they spend their money instore and are gaining a wider understanding around how reduced item food doesn’t mean it is reduced in quality.”
Steve Browne, General Manager of the Food Division at the Heart of England Co-operative Society, said: “Food waste is a real issue in the UK. As well as a social and economic issue it has a devastating impact on the environment.
“When we throw food away, all the energy and water that has gone into growing the food, harvesting the products and transporting and packaging have been totally wasted. And if unsold food is sent to landfill it is left to rot – producing methane which is far more harmful on the environment than carbon dioxide.”
Available for customers to download on their smartphones, Gander uses real-time to highlight yellow-sticker, reduced-to-clear food items on shelves near their homes.
Instead of reaching relatively few customers who happen to be in the store at the time the products are nearing the end of their shelf-life, Gander has the potential to reach thousands of people in the local vicinity, allowing shoppers to nip in and bag a bargain, while enabling retailers to vastly cut their food waste.
Furthermore, the app also sends personalised notification alerts to shoppers, ensuring they are among the first to know about reduced-price local stock.
Steve adds: “Reduced food deals have always been popular in our stores, but only when the right products are on the shelves at the right time.
“Through Gander, we now have the perfect platform to help us reach thousands more people, enabling us to prevent substantially less food from going to waste in the future.”
Since its launch in 2019, Gander has over 100,000 downloads across the UK. It is available for download via the Apple and Android app stores.