Lincolnshire Co-op store

Source: Lincolnshire Co-op

It will work with Retail Insight for a further four years

Lincolnshire Co-op is extending its partnership with Retail Insight, after the markdown technology provider helped it save over two million meals from reaching landfill last year.

The society, which owns 95 food stores, will continue to work with Retail Insight for a further four years, and has signed up to install the newest version of its waste reduction feature, Waste Trim.

This software, which Lincolnshire Co-op initially adopted last year, looked at SKUs that were impacting waste from a forecasting and replenishment perspective.

The latest version of Waste Trim analyses historical data, sales patterns and expiration dates to highlight and identify products or ranges that are regularly wasted, allowing the society to “optimise stock assortment, minimise overstocking and further cut food waste”.

The new feature will work alongside Retail Insight’s cognitive-driven technology platform called WasteInsight, which the society started using in 2021.

It focuses on expiration management, more efficient donations to charities, and forecasting accuracy to enable dynamic markdowns in terms of pricing and timing.

Its aim is to maximise sell-through while minimising losses from food waste.

Last year, Lincolnshire Co-op reported a 90.8% sell-through rate using the WasteInsight solution, which prevented 2.1 million meals from being wasted and resulted in the prevention of 5,700 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

“The WasteInsight platform has been instrumental in our efforts to reduce food waste,” said Lincolnshire Co-op head of food Craig Adamson.

“Retail Insight’s Waste Trim feature will help revolutionise our approach to inventory management and has significantly contributed to our sustainability goals. We look forward to realising further benefits with the enhanced version of the tool.”

Retail Insight customer success manager Jessica Westwell said: “Working with Lincolnshire Co-op has been a great experience, and we are thrilled to continue supporting them in their journey towards reducing food waste.”