The world is currently facing a global food waste crisis, with a third of all food produced each year thrown away by retailers or consumers, costing over £780 million each year.
Kickstarting this year’s Food Waste Action Week, which runs from 6 to 12 March, is UK high street icon Greggs, which is developing new solutions to tackle food waste while encouraging other retailers to do their bit.
Popular for its pastries, bakes and legendary sausage rolls, Greggs sales surged by 23% to £1.5 billion last year. As a result – and in addition to adding 150 shops to its UK portfolio – the on-the-go food retailer is also looking to grow its Greggs Outlet store portfolio to help tackle UK hunger.
The outlet stores, which act as a dedicated channel for unsold food from across Greggs’ main stores, is just one of the ways that the retailer looks to address household food insecurity and support socially deprived areas, particularly at a time when families are battling the added pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.
Greggs CEO, Roisin Currie speaks to Grocery Gazette how the business is helping to tackle food waste, poverty, insecurity and hunger this Food Waste Action Week and beyond.
How is Greggs helping tackle food waste and food insecurity?
“Tackling food waste and food insecurity has always been extremely important to us at Greggs and we are constantly looking for ways to reduce food waste right across our business. It starts with the great quality ingredients we use to make our products, and it ends with us getting any surplus food into the hands of people who needs it most.
“As a daily-fresh business, we have three channels that aim to give good food a ‘second chance’: we donate it to charities to ensure people in need can access this food; we offer it to our customers via the Too Good to Go app; and we sell it through our Outlet shops at reduced prices.
What is the ‘Greggs Pledge’ and why is it so important to your ESG commitment?
“In February 2021, we launched the Greggs Pledge which declared ten things that we are doing to help make the world a better place by 2025, and beyond. We have always been committed to doing the right thing, but we wanted to be more specific about how we channel our efforts and resources into doing good.
“We reflected on what we could do to have the most positive impact on the world around us and have chosen to dedicate our efforts to three areas: communities, the planet, and our approach to business. We have set ourselves ten stretching targets to be achieved by 2025, each of which align with at least one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“In our Greggs Pledge, we have promised that by 2025, we will create 25% less food waste than we did in 2018 and will continue to work towards 100% of surplus food going to those most in need.
Can you tell us about how the Greggs Outlet stores have helped?
“Greggs Outlet shops are a company-wide initiative originally set up in 1972 to support socially deprived areas and to redistribute unsold food items. In December, we opened our newest Outlet shop on Cundy Road in Newham, East London.
“The Outlet shops redistribute unsold food from our standard shops by selling second-day products at a reduced price. The purpose of the Outlets is to not just reduce food waste but also to help tackle poverty, hunger and deprivation and support the communities where we operate.
“A share of the profits from each Outlet shop is donated to The Greggs Foundation, our dedicated charity, which is then passed to local community organisations. The chosen partner organisations are those focused on tackling food poverty and providing food and support for people in Greggs local communities near its Outlet shops.
Are you looking to grow the community-based initiative to reach even more people?
“As part of the Greggs Pledge to build stronger, healthier communities and support those most in need we have committed to opening 50 Outlet shops by 2025 across the country. The most recent opening was at Cundy Road, London. The Outlets are a testament to the commitment we make every day in supporting our customers’ health, our communities, and our planet, that we are on track to deliver against our 2025 target.
“Following on from the Cundy Road opening, more Outlet shops are in the pipeline already as we work towards our Pledge target.
The theme for this Food Waste Action Week is ‘Win. Don’t Bin’. How can big players in the food and FMCG industry really contribute to this goal in a measurable and effective way?
“The World Food Programme has calculated that all the food produced that is never eaten would be sufficient to feed two billion people across the world. With the climate emergency growing ever more urgent, it’s important that retailers and FMCG brands take responsibility to build a safer planet by reducing waste creation.
“Indeed, one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is calling to half per capita global food waste by 2030, as well as reduce food losses within production and supply chains. We believe that businesses, where possible, should align with this goal.
“This Food Waste Action Week and going forward, retailer and FMCG brands should do their bit to put an end to food waste and help to tackle poverty, hunger and deprivation across all the communities that they work in.”
