Henderson Technology, a spin-off from the Henderson Group retailers, is celebrating winning ‘Innovative Business of the Year’ at the Business Eye Awards, and ‘Mobile App of the Year’ at the inaugural Belfast Telegraph IT Awards.
The firm won the app award for its real-time Gander app targeted at fighting food waste, which was developed to help food stores clear significantly more of its reduced to clear food produce. As items are stickered in store, they are displayed on the app and once that item is sold it is automatically removed, providing an instant feed of all reductions in-store at any time.
Henderson Technology partnered with Gander in 2019 to bring this sustainable technology solution to life in NI stores under the SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOxtra brands, via its award-winning EDGEPoS System.
Judges commented that it is “an innovative and necessary app which has an extensive potential market”. They added that it is "enabling local shoppers to achieve greater cost savings from their groceries" and is "providing businesses with an avenue to increase revenue. But in addition, this app helps to solve a huge widespread societal difficulty – the reduction of food waste.”
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Environmentally, food waste is an increasing global crisis. 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. From a business perspective, the Henderson Group said that “reduced food can cost retailers up to 7% of their turnover”.
Darren Nickels, Head of Henderson Technology said: “We believe that initiatives like this will help us tackle the moral and environmental problems associated with avoidable food waste. It has also been an opportunity to provide our retailers with means to increase revenue otherwise lost to waste and increase footfall. We are looking forward to seeing this app grow and to witnessing its positive impact for our retailers, loyal shoppers and the environment.” Gander is rolling out across the UK and ROI following the successful launch of the app in NI.
Judges at the Business Eye Awards also said: “Henderson Technology's growth from an in-house IT department into a successful exporting company and a clear innovator in the field of point of sale technology made the company a stand-out winner in a highly competitive category.”
