Friday, 26 August 2022

Foodstuffs have published their 2022 Social Responsibility Report, Here for NZ, which outlines the 100% NZ owned cooperatives’ progress as they continue to deliver their social promises to support their teams, communities, the environment and New Zealanders.

In 2021 the cooperatives announced publicly for the first time targets across all of its four social promises; to support every New Zealander to access healthy and affordable food, create meaningful work, support local communities to thrive and be industry leaders in sustainability.

The 2022 Social Responsibility report, and Foodstuffs’ fourth, continues to track the cooperatives’ journey against their goals as they strive to deliver the ambitious and far-reaching commitment to be Here for NZ.

Mary Devine, CEO of Foodstuffs South Island, says the report is a snapshot of the hard work the two co-ops have put in to supporting New Zealand and the 36,000 people proudly employed in the co-ops nationwide. 

“From the tremendous efforts of our owner-operators and their teams to the people in our support functions across the nation, we recognise the importance of our role as a locally owned co-operative in looking after New Zealand and its future. This report is a real demonstration of our responsibility we have to our people and planet.”

Foodstuffs is pleased to share that in the past year thanks to its stores, customers and partners:

• More than 19,000 New World Family2family bags were donated nationwide to local food banks
• The first ever PAK’canSAVE appeal saw nearly 80,000 cans donated to local food banks by generous customers, with PAK’nSAVE donating $200,000
• The equivalent of more than 6.3 million meals were donated through our food rescue partnerships and relationships
• New generation of energy efficient stores have a 40% reduction in energy consumption
• 85% of retail in-store packaging and 95% of Own Brands packaging is now reusable, recyclable or home compostable  

Chris Quin, CEO of Foodstuffs North Island, says it’s been another big year for the cooperatives as they faced record inflation, the rising cost of living and the aftermath of COVID restrictions, but he is proud of how their teams worked tirelessly to continue to deliver great value and unparalleled support for communities right across New Zealand. 

"We’ve faced another year of challenges and we know many New Zealanders are doing it tough. The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and rapidly increasing inflation adding to customers’ daily outgoings have put extra pressure on our communities."

“I’m in awe of how our teams across the country came together, more resolutely than ever, to look after our customers and their communities in the last 12 months. As a 100% locally owned and operated cooperative, we remain focused on delivering value and affordability to our customers every day.”

This year saw Foodstuffs North Island build on the success of its 'Social Supermarket' initiative, which reimagines the traditional food bank model. A key focus of Foodstuffs North Island’s Here for New Zealand Committee is continuing to work with community organisations to establish Social Supermarkets across the North Island.

Already in FY23 Foodstuffs North Island has launched another in Tokoroa in partnership with Buttabean Motivation with more on the way in Whangarei, Tauranga, and Gisborne. 

To help establish the South Island’s first Social Supermarket, Foodstuffs South Island has also provided seed funding to Christchurch City Mission.  

Foodstuffs is committed to supporting improved environmental outcomes and is constantly considering how to reduce its footprint internally, by seeking out sustainable options in all areas of the business from new store openings to making more eco-conscious choices in their distribution centres. 

“Our people genuinely consider how they can help us achieve our ambitious goals as a business and often come up with ingenious new works of working and initiatives for us to trial across our business,” says Quin.

New World Fendalton partnered with an innovative company Nichol Developments to reduce waste by replacing pallet wrap, which is used to keep products safe in transit but can be problematic to dispose of, with a reusable solution named ‘Green Spider’ which will save stores approximately three tonnes of pallet wrap per year.

Green Spider reusable pallet wrap is now in use at three sites in the North Island and is being trialled by two more. In the South Island, 15 stores are using the wrap with predicted annual savings of more than 14,000 rolls of traditional pallet wrap. In FY23, the Green Spider wrap will be trialled in South Island Distribution Centres.

You can read more about the Foodstuffs Here for NZ Strategy and activity in the 2022 Social Responsibility Report here.