A real-time mobile app to help reduce food waste in stores has launched in Northern Ireland.
Gander is a mobile platform that displays ‘reduced to clear’ food products. Its team 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.
The app displays reduced to clear food automatically 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, a philanthropist and co-founder of the lifestyle group Quintessentially.
Recent Northern Ireland figures show 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.
Ashley Osborne, Founder of Gander said: “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.
“Only 5% of a retailer’s existing shoppers buy 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.”
“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. It will be rolled out across the UK and ROI following the successful launch of the app in Northern Ireland, to help drastically reduce waste at a national level.
