Fourth Quarter Corporate Responsibility & Society Update

Fourth Quarter Corporate Responsibility & Society Update

15 March 2016

  • Our Waste less, Save more inititiatve went live in our test-bed town of Swadlincote where we began testing a number of activities and trials, working with the local community. We gave away thousands of fridge thermometers, tested new stickers featuring colour changing technology to help people keep track of their leftovers and engaged hundreds of local people in the launch week.
  • 11 new lines of pre-prepared vegetables including ‘boodles’, butternut squash noodles and ‘courgetti’ were launched in Produce in January. These new products are designed to offer customers inspiration to help them to consume their 5-a-day.
  • We were awarded the top position for the 6th year for our role as the UK's biggest retailer of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified seafood.  
  • Our Sport Relief activity launched in January and this year we’re hoping to beat the £6.7 million that was raised last year, in order to exceed £100m worth of support for the charity since 1999.
  • 1,400 colleagues across the business have now been enrolled on our Inspiring Leadership programme. Participants have been involved in leadership training activities, such as a mock board events and workshops covering topics such as ‘leading remote teams’.  

Mike Coupe, Chief Executive, said: 

“Since we announced our plans to help customers reduce their household waste with the launch of our Waste less, Save more initiative, the project has quickly picked up pace and we’re already seeing how much it is resonating with our customers. Our partnership with Swadlincote in South Derbyshire is going from strength-to-strength and the results we’re seeing will help shape our long-term strategy.

We’ve tested out innovative colour change stickers that help customers keep tabs on their leftovers, and we’re developing the idea of a ‘zero waste shopping list’, which could help customers buy exactly what they need when they need it. Now we’re gearing up to introduce some larger scale ideas such as smart technology in kitchens and also take a closer look at the most commonly wasted foods and assessing what we as a business can do to prevent these ending up in customers’ bins.

While we’re very proud of our partnership with Swadlincote, Waste less, Save more is much bigger than one town, and our ambition is to help our customers across the country. To this end we’re excited to be working with our Discovery Communities, made up of people from towns and cities across the UK, who are already taking action in waste reduction. We’ve created a network that will connect some of the best thinking through a platform to share ideas and celebrate best practice.

In addition to waste, we know our customers are concerned about health and as a responsible grocery retailer, it’s important we make healthier choices easier for our customers. Our achievements in this area over the last quarter reflect good progress – the success of our new prepared produce lines shows that we are helping customers to achieve their 5-a-day, while the reformulation work we have done with our oriental ready meals and the extension of our My Goodness! and Be Good to Yourself ranges will help customers enjoy the ease of the occasional ready meal, without feeling they are compromising on health.  We also announced the removal of the vast majority of multi-buys, meaning customers do not have to buy more than they need to gain the best value.”  

Other hightlights from the quarter include

1. Living healthier lives

  • 'Boodles’ and ‘Courgetti’: 11 new lines of pre-prepared vegetables were launched in Produce in January 2016, including courgette spaghetti ‘courgetti’, butternut squash noodles ‘boodles’, cauliflower ‘rice’ and sweet potato oven baked ‘fries’. These innovative products are all designed to offer customers greater choice and inspiration to create healthy, more vegetable rich meals that will help them to consume their 5-a-day.
  • Oriental Ready Meals: We relaunched our range of Oriental Ready Meals, improving 22 existing lines as well as introducing new products into the range. Across the improved products, we anticipate a saving of 13.7 tonnes of sugar from our customers baskets, including more than 4 teaspoons of sugar from each of our by Sainsbury’s Sweet & Sour Oriental ready meal (450g) and 2 teaspoons of sugar from each unit of our by Sainsbury’s Duck in Plum Sauce (450g). (*The anticipated saving is based on previous year’s sales volumes).
  • Healthier Ready Meals: In January 2016, we completed a range review of My Goodness! and Be Good To Yourself Meals, both of which have all green and amber on the Multiple Traffic Light labels. My Goodness! now has a total of 33 ready meals to choose from which contain at least one 5-a-day fruit or vegetable serving with many containing two servings, as well as including two nutrition claims per product. The majority of the range also provides a source of protein and are low in fat, with some also delivering important nutrients lacking in the UK diet such as the My Goodness! Salmon in Sweet Chilli & Lime which is high in omega 3.  

2. Sourcing with integrity

  • Calf coats: We’ve supported our British farmers this winter with an offer to purchase calf coats at cost price, helping to keep young herds warm and healthy throughout the winter. We made the offer available to our 280+ Dairy Development Group (SDDG) farmers across the UK, and 850 coats were ordered in total. Our agriculture and general merchandising teams teamed up to source the bespoke coats, which are designed with an adjustable strap so that they can expand as the calf grows. The coats are also machine washable so they can be re-used year after year.
  • Fairtrade fortnight:  As the world’s largest retailer of Fairtrade products we supported Fairtrade Fortnight, an annual campaign, by highlighting products in store, online and through our social channels. During Fairtrade fortnight we sold £9.7 million worth of Fairtrade products including nearly 250,000 packs of our Faitrade red label tea.
  • Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) league table:  We were awarded the top position for the 6th year for our role as the UK's biggest retailer of MSC certified seafood. We have a record-breaking 200 products with the MSC label which is twice as many as any other UK retailer and currently makes up 76 per cent of Sainsbury’s wild-caught seafood. 

3. Respect for our environment

  • Waste less, Save more: Waste less, Save more went live in our test town of Swadlincote with a number of activities and trials. We gave away thousands of fridge thermometers to help people store chilled food at the optimum temperature to keep it fresher for longer. We also tested some new stickers featuring colour changing technology, to help people keep track of how long they can store their leftovers before using. Hundreds of local people got involved with many playing our giant interactive Waste Warrior game. These activities mark the beginning of our year-long trial in Swadlincote, which will see £1 million invested in ideas designed to reduce food waste in the town by 50 per cent.
  • Renewable energy: Our 355,000 square foot Distribution Centre in Tamworth  has recently been fitted with over 4,000 solar panels reducing our operational carbon emissions. The solar panels, alongside the on-site generators, help supply not only the electricity needs of the Distribution Centre, but also export surplus power back to the National Grid at times of peak national demand. This enables us to take the Distribution Centre off-grid as necessary, and reduces National Grid ‘stress’.
  • Recycling: Our Christmas card recycling scheme continues to form a key part of our seasonal recycling. This year we collected over 98 tonnes from our stores, ten tonnes more than last year, and have donated £15,695 to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to support their work protecting the world's forests. This donation is over £3,000 more than last year to reflect the increase in Christmas card recycling from our customers.

4. Making a positive difference to our community 

  • Sport Relief: Since our partnership with Comic Relief began in 1999 we have raised over £97 million for the charity. Our support for Sport Relief this year includes fundraising in store, participation in the Sport Relief Games, a Nectar Prize draw and sales of Sport Relief merchandise including two exclusive bags designed by Bella Freud. This year, we are hoping to beat the £6.7 million that was raised last year, in order to exceed £100m worth of support for the charity since 1999.
  • Local charity partnerships: We offered our customers Christmas card and Christmas tree light recycling at our stores and encouraged our stores to donate their 2015 Christmas decorations to local charities for them to use next year.
  • Literacy Pledge: As part of our commitment to the Literacy Pledge, we celebrated World Book Day on 3 March by hosting reading corners and literacy activities in stores across the country with World Book Day authors, dress-up characters from books and children from local schools.
  • Carrier bag donations: We introduced a reusable carrier bag in our stores across England in October 2015 to help reduce the number of carrier bags in circulation. All profits from our reusble bag go to local charities along with proceeds from single-use carrier bags distributed through online grocery orders. The donations have already supported a variety of causes across the UK, for example, the Manchester Central Foodbank received food and additional funds to help with essential running costs such as van-hire and fuel. Other funds have gone to support a local hospice, schools, local sports clubs and community groups. So far this year, helped by additional funding received from our carrier bags, our stores have made over 12,000 individual donations across the UK.

5. A great place to work

  • Diversity: We introduced and promoted our new female mentoring initiative within our Store Support Centres and our stores. This has resulted in over 1,400 requests for mentors so far from female colleagues and work is now underway to match mentors to mentees. To support colleagues participating in the initiative, we’re partnering with the Everywoman network to provide male and female colleagues with access to online seminars and workshops on mentoring and to broader personal development tools.
  • Training and Skills: Following 20 successful launch events that were organised for our Inspiring Leadership initiative, nearly 1,400 colleagues across the business have now been enrolled on the programme. Participants have been involved in leadership training activities, such as Leading with Engagement in Mind, Resilience & Agility, and Managing your Relationships. 
  • Apprenticeships: We recently launched our Team Leader and our Management apprenticeships. The Team Leader appenticeship helps colleagues to develop their communication, planning, and personal development skills, while the Management programme provides new line managers with leadership and management training.
  • Food Colleges: Our Fish and Bakery apprenticeships are progressing well, and we are on track for an average of 89 per cent to complete the programmes. The programmes enhance our colleagues’ craft and customer service skills in their chosen areas and enable them to ultimately achieve apprenticeship diplomas.