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* Case Studies *
Case Studies
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UK food and grocery: A world class industry
Inspiring change, driving best practice

The food and grocery industry has much to celebrate. From farm to fork, and at every stage in between, there are examples of businesses and people pushing the boundaries, driving innovation and doing their bit to make our industry more sustainable, productive and beneficial to its workforce and consumers.

Below you’ll find our pick – a range of case studies looking at companies that are making a real difference.

We’ll keep adding inspirational stories here, so keep checking back for ideas to keep driving our world class industry forward.
 

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Case studies Case studies Case studies
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* Asda 'Faster Fresh'
Asda 'Faster Fresh'
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Supermarket chain Asda introduced the Faster Fresh programme to enable the delivery of fresher, higher quality chilled products to stores while improving availability for customers, sending less waste to landfill and cutting down on food miles.
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* Asda 'Fewer, Friendlier Miles'
Asda 'Fewer, Friendlier Miles'
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As Asda strives to become a more environmentally-friendly business it has planned and implemented a number of initiatives that support its overall strategy of 'Fewer Friendlier Miles'.
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* Birds Eye Iglo - Nestlé Wellness Award
Birds Eye Iglo - Nestlé Wellness Award
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Birds Eye believed that the way to change consumers’ minds about frozen vegetables – and at the same time get them to eat more produce – was to develop a range of vegetables that tasted better and contained more vitamins than fresh. As a result, it developed Field Fresh, a sub-brand to its Birds Eye vegetable range.
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* Compass ‘Mapping For Action’ – Learning & Development Award
Compass ‘Mapping For Action’ – Learning & Development Award
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Compass's 'Mapping For Action' training programme shows managers how the combined efforts of each staff member can make a major difference to the performance of the business, however small each individual contribution might be.
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* Debbie & Andrew’s - General Mills Award for Consumer Understanding
Debbie & Andrew’s - General Mills Award for Consumer Understanding
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Debbie & Andrew’s wanted to find out why some consumers held negative perceptions about sausages. Their market research established that some shoppers were concerned about the origin of sausages and the ingredients used to make them.
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* Ella's Kitchen - General Mills Award for Consumer Understanding
Ella's Kitchen - General Mills Award for Consumer Understanding
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Organic children’s food supplier Ella’s Kitchen has been one of the UK’s fastest growing grocery brands since it began trading in 2006. The company generated sales of £16 million in the 2009/10 financial year– almost double what it achieved the year before.
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* Gist - Learning & Development Award
Gist - Learning & Development Award
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Based on the fundamental belief that people are critical to its business success, logistics provider Gist has a long track record of high-quality training and development programmes.
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* Heinz - General Mills Award for Consumer Understanding
Heinz - General Mills Award for Consumer Understanding
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With the recession impacting on consumers’ spending power, canned food and table sauces manufacturer Heinz was facing stiffer competition from cheaper own label alternatives. The company decided it would launch a major marketing initiative – called ‘It Has to Be Heinz’ – to remind consumers of the virtues of Heinz products.
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* Highland Game - Morrisons Award for Outstanding Small Business
Highland Game - Morrisons Award for Outstanding Small Business
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Since it was founded in 1997, specialist venison producer Highland Game has quadrupled in size to become a £4 million-a-year business supplying major retailers including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s Morrisons and Waitrose.
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* Mars and Nestlé
Mars and Nestlé
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Confectionery manufacturers Mars and Nestlé collaborated in a joint initiative to combine deliveries and reduce road miles. By summer 2010. more than 70 joint deliveries had been made, eliminating 16,000km worth of duplicate truck movements.
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* Nestlé Continuous Excellence
Nestlé Continuous Excellence
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Nestlé Continuous Excellence is a programme introduced by Nestlé to help the company achieve the very highest standards across its global operations. Central to the programme is the engagement of all employees who are encouraged to come up with ideas that will improve the business. The programme has been rolled out to eight UK factories.
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* Sainsbury’s – Community Award
Sainsbury’s – Community Award
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Sainsbury’s launched its ‘Local Charity of the Year’ initiative in 2009 as a way of helping to connect its colleagues with their local communities through charity fundraising and volunteering.
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* Tesco – Nestlé Wellness Award
Tesco – Nestlé Wellness Award
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Tesco launched Lighter Cheese, a range of 30% lower fat cheeses, in May 2009. The range is now helping millions of cheese-lovers to make healthier choices without compromising on taste or texture.
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* Tesco Ireland
Tesco Ireland
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In the summer of 2009, Tesco Ireland began a programme to lower the cost of 12,500 product lines by 15-20%. Tesco’s Irish stores even had to be closed for a weekend as the physical transformation took place. But the move ultimately played a major role in encouraging shoppers to spend their money in Irish stores, rather than commuting north of the border.
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* The Co-operative Group - Community Award
The Co-operative Group - Community Award
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In 2009 the Co-operative Group raised £3.7m for RNID, the charity for deaf or hard of hearing people. This exceeded a £2m target, thanks to the efforts of the retailer’s staff, suppliers and customers who supported a range of fundraising and profile-building initiatives.
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* The Co-operative Group - 'Right for Us'
The Co-operative Group - 'Right for Us'
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The Co-operative’s ‘Right for Us’ programme is transforming the way The Co-operative manages employees in its 2,400 Food outlets.
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* IGD and Sustainability *
* IGD brings the food & grocery industry together to collaborate and share best practice on sustainability issues. *
* Find out how > *
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* IGD and Nutrition *
* IGD brings the food & grocery industry together to deliver sustainable health and nutritional benefits for consumers. *
* Find out more > *
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