IGD’s efficient consumer response initiative (ECR UK) has helped member food companies and retailers avoid creating 70,000 tonnes of supply chain waste.
Bakkavor, Asda, Brakes, the Co-operative, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Musgrave, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose are all ECR UK members and have used the initiative, which was designed to help businesses eliminate waste by making better product and packaging design, range and forecasting decisions, with colleagues and trading partners.
Two targets, set by ECR UK in 2010, challenged the 34 UK member companies to prevent and divert waste between the factory in-gate and till based on the premise that prevention is the best outcome from both a commercial and environmental perspective. Where that was not possible, companies tried to divert waste away from landfill or sewer and recover some of its value through anaerobic digestion or recycling.
Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive, IGD said: “The work of ECR UK members to date is very encouraging - they have exceeded one target by 30 per cent and made good progress on the other. This demonstrates the industry’s strong commitment to removing supply chain waste.
“But the work doesn’t stop here. IGD and ECR UK are taking the lessons learned so far and helping to spread best practice to the wider industry. Waste elimination should remain front-of-mind across all business functions. There are still many opportunities and to achieve further progress, it is crucial to continue to work together, both internally and externally.”
Examples of activities to eliminate waste already facilitated by ECR UK include: improved use of weather data in order forecasting, removal of excess supply chain packaging, introducing collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment, including waste in line profitability analysis when reviewing ranges andredistributing unsold products for human consumption via clearing houses and charities.
Gavin Chappell, supply director at Asda said: “Co-chairing this ECR workgroup this year has reinforced the need for even more collaboration between retailers and manufacturers. We often see decisions and actions in one part of the supply chain create waste in another. Only by working together will we truly be able to reduce waste in the end to end supply chain.”
ECR UK is a forum, facilitated by IGD, that brings together the supply chain directors of food retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and food service operators to develop best practice and create a more efficient supply chain, focused on delivering benefits to consumers.
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