Before officially launching the bread waste reduction scheme in August, it was first tested in selected SPAR stores, which reported a 16% reduction in bread waste. On an annual basis, this correlates to a saving of 270 tons of bread.
The stores that participated in the trial noticed a boost in foot traffic in the last hour of trading and received positive feedback from customers who expressed their appreciation of the scheme.
The positive results from the test stores were achieved without any advertising or marketing so it is hoped that even better results will be achieved with the official launch in all SPAR stores.
SPAR Norway’s Marketing Director, Martin Munthe-Kaas, said: “It has never been more important to take care of the environment and we must all do our bit to help this cause. Food waste is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time and a study from 2015 states that in Norway, 355,000 tons of food is wasted each year. This number must be reduced and we hope that our new food waste scheme will go some way to helping this happen.”
To ensure full resource utilisation, any surplus bread unsold will be given to pig farmers to supplement the pigs food. Instore communication material such as posters and shelf markers have been shipped to 259 SPAR and 28 EUROSPAR stores across the country to create awareness of the campaign.