Harrods has increased its efforts in tackling food waste by extending its partnership with Too Good To Go.
The London department store has added bakery bags to the list of items it makes available on the food waste prevention app, having launched fruit and veg bags on the platform in March 2023.
With the continued increase in Harrods’ food offering, the retailer has identified tackling food waste as an increasingly pressing issue, so is doing what it can through its ‘Harrods Path’ sustainability strategy to reduce the amount of waste leaving the building.
Fresh food and bakery items are currently the only items on Too Good To Go, but a Harrods spokesperson told Green Retail World the business hopes to expand this offering over the coming months.
The Harrods team collates the bags towards the end of the day, and customers who have ordered on the Too Good To Go app can collect them from the retailer’s lobby in the early evening. Bakery bags already have a 4.7 star rating on the app, marking a positive start to the range extension.
“With a brand like Harrods, customer expectation is high, so it’s important the offer and service reflects that,” the spokesperson explained.
“As a new and key aspect of our wider food waste reduction strategy, it has been important to get this right for the business. We have been soft launching the partnership over the last year to ensure the customer and logistical journey is correct.”
They added: “As well as driving down emissions waste and improving processes, sustainability should also drive innovation across the business. While the partnership might be a new way for food customers to engage with Harrods, it allows them to be actively involved in our sustainability journey and our drive to reduce food waste.”
Working to find better data and making improvements in forecasting to reduce food waste even further are part of the business’s plan, and “as a priority” it is focusing on improving data granularity to understand what waste Harrods produces and where it comes from.
Harrods also regularly donates surplus food to local charity partners, including St. Cuthberts, while the spokesperson said efforts are also made to reuse food within the store – for example, some fruit and veg that is not sold is repurposed at the smoothie counter – to keep surplus food waste at the end of each day as low as possible.
Too Good To Go works with thousands of retailers in the UK, including larger organisations such as Morrisons, Costa Coffee, and Aldi. These businesses advertise near-end-of-life items that otherwise are destined for the bin for a reduced fee on the app, meaning not only do its partners avoid paying for food waste removal but they also drive sell-through and earn revenue from would-be waste.
[image credit: Green Retail World]
