Asda’s food and drink suppliers ‘to save £50M’

Launched in 2012, the programme aimed to build a world-class supplier base, which raised efficiency and environmental standards, based partly on shared learning.

The initiative offered suppliers a free online tool, which provided access to information and ideas, designed to help them share best practice to increase their business’s resource efficiency.

Food and drink suppliers have also been invited to a range of workshops and site visits to evaluate technologies and approaches used by all types of food operations.

So far, more than 1,200 members from 350 of Asda’s fresh, chilled and frozen suppliers were said to have improved operational efficiency using the Sustain & Save Exchange. The savings arising from the plan have totalled more than £21M over the past three years, claimed the retailer.

£21M over three years​

More than half (51%) of the participants had made savings on energy. And 11% were said to have cut back on waste after joining the programme.

“The success of the programme has prompted Asda to open up the initiative to all of its food and drink suppliers,”​ the supermarket said in a statement.

Asda’s chief merchandising officer Andrew Moore said: “The Sustain & Save Exchange is an important Asda programme and the success of the Sustain & Save Exchange has been far beyond our expectations with our suppliers already making some impressive savings and improvements to their businesses.​

“We have created a valuable and credible resource for our suppliers and it’s testament to how far we’ve come that we’ve already seen an incredible amount of interest in the expansion, with 95 new companies signing up ahead of the official launch.”​

‘World class supply base’​

The retailer’s senior director for sustainable business Chris Brown said the initiative aimed to create “a world class supply base”​.

It aimed to help suppliers learn from each other to increase efficiencies and build resilience to the growing challenges of resource scarcity. “What is most important to us is ensuring that our suppliers benefit from the savings so they can continue along the journey,” ​said Brown.

The initiative was also claimed to have removed more than 35,000t of carbon dioxide emissions from the supply chain. That was said to be the equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of about 8,000 households.