The Asda refill trials in four stores are coming to an end as part of the supermarket chain rethinking the strategy.
In its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report dubbed ‘Our Brighter Living’, which was published earlier this month, Asda said refill in its current format “remains too challenging for our business to scale and operate”.
“As with any trial, we need to adapt and evolve,” the grocer noted.
“Therefore, we are exiting the refill trials in our four existing stores. Moving forwards, we intend to deliver new, scalable refill and prefill trials that build on our learnings and improve customer uptake, operational feasibility and commercial viability.”
Green Retail World has covered in detail the refillable trials at Asda, which were designed as a way of reducing single-use packaging but were also subject to research from the grocer to understand reasons for underuse.
The grocer began offering refill stations in 2020, and two years later it committed to making refilling products in reusable packaging cheaper than packaged alternatives as part of a ‘refill price promise’. The refill stations could be found in the Asda stores in Middleton (Leeds), York, Toryglen (Glasgow), and Milton Keynes.
Cereal, pet food, store cupboard goods (including snacks, tea, and coffee), and rice, pasta, and pulses were the key focus of the refill strategy, while Cadbury’s Giant Buttons, Maynards Wine Gums, and Harrington’s and Wagg pet food were also made available in dispensers.
Echoing Tesco’s refillable packaging trial comments from 2022, Asda said in its ESG report the refill trial stores had “taught us a lot about the complexities of scaling refillable packaging”.
“We’ve achieved some success in landing customer-facing propositions in-store, supported by collaboration with key suppliers and organisations such as Wrap and IGD,” it explained.
“However, we have experienced operational issues and commercial challenges with our existing approach. Our research showed that the key barriers which included cost, convenience, cleanliness, and perceived product quality have prevented customers from engaging with the refill proposition.”
In 2023, Asda worked with IGD and eco charity Hubbub to understand how communication could be tailored to encourage consumers to use refill, including the creation of geotargeted social media advertisements, in-store signage, and updated digital assets.
“As a result of this work, we found that our communication initiatives increased awareness about the affordability of refill zones compared to prepackaged alternatives,” Asda noted.
“Despite this increased awareness of the affordability of refill, customer uptake remained low.”
Despite Tesco and Asda pulling back their refillable offerings, Marks & Spencer said in January is was extending its proposition to 25 stores. And consultancy GoUnpackaged continues to drive retailer interest in this area through The Refill Coalition.
Other key points from Asda’s ESG report
New packaging targets have been set for 2030, involving reducing primary packaging by 20% relative to the packaging tonnage sold across both Asda own-brand and branded ranges per 1% of our market share, from a 2023 baseline.
The grocer said that depending on sales performance, this move may not result in an absolute reduction in packaging, but instead “shows progress in reducing average packaging weight”.
Asda said it aims to only use essential packaging for its products, and it will continue to explore material switching, packaging reduction, and testing “more scalable models for reusable and refillable packaging”.
Elsewhere, the supermarket chain talked about improving product carbon footprinting.
“Asda has a vision of building a more resilient and profitable business for the long term, and decarboning baskets is a key part of this vision,” it explained.
“While significant progress has been made in reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions, there are significant challenges in reducing Scope 3 emissions. A key barrier is product level emissions starting with accurate product level data.”
To address the product data challenge, Asda joined the BRC Mondra Coalition alongside other supermarkets and food businesses in the UK, which is an industry-wide collaboration looking to harmonise the approach on product level sustainability data in the industry.
Asda said a year on from the coalition’s inception “significant progress has been made on building consistent methodology and carbon footprinting across coalition members”. In May 2024, Asda shared its own label product data with Mondra and is in the process of footprinting its own label product portfolio, to support the aims of BRC-Mondra.
“We will continue to work with the coalition to take the project forward and intend to utilise the project to support our net zero plans,” the grocer said.
It also referenced its partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare and local food sharing app Olio as a key part of efforts to reduce food waste and help communities, and added that it is trialling the use of digital platform Too Good To Go in several supermarkets and using the service across its convenience estate.
[image credit: Asda]
