ICA Supermarket Saltsjöbaden saved more than 10 000 products in less than a year

We talked to Jonatan Säll, sales manager for fresh produce at the Swedish grocery store ICA Supermarket in Saltsjöbaden. The store has been using Whywaste solutions since October 2019, and they have already generated amazing results. – In only ten months we have managed to save 10 658 products – that is about 2,5 tons of avoided waste, says Jonatan Säll. Working with risk items – We have started working daily to reduce food waste. Checking products has become routine and we work immediately with the risk items. This helps us locate soon-to-expire goods that we now sell at half price. Before Ica Saltsjöbaden started using Whywaste’s systems, unfortunately many products expired before being sold. After the implementation however, they have managed to increasingly reduce their food waste.

Support store to determine areas of improvement

We keep track of food waste by registering all items that are thrown away in our system from Whywaste. Each morning we are able to extract a report of how much food has gone to waste. This helps us identify what specific areas we should focus more on. We are also able to view weekly and monthly reports which give us a great indication of our progress and helps measure our food waste over time, says Jonatan. Employees are more involved in working with food waste. Jonatan believes that more of their personnel have become involved in working with these important routines. The staff is genuinely interested in making an impact and being able to influence and reduce food waste at the store.

User-friendly systems

– From the very first day, we received great support setting up the system and registering all necessary data to get started. This was the turning point for us and the main reason we actually started using Whywaste solutions instead of other similar systems that we had attempted to work with in the past. The best thing about Whywaste tools, Jonatan continues, is that they are very user-friendly which makes it easy for all employees, new as well as more experienced, to learn and use the systems.

Leading date system

At the moment, I am completing a store manager training within Ica alongside 30 other employees who have different roles in stores across the country. I think I have recommended Whywaste to every single one of them. I consider Whywaste’s date-checking system to be in front of the competition, says Jonatan. So, to answer your question, yes, I would recommend Whywaste to other organisations. Positive feedback from customers Jonatan believes they have gained many new customers who are looking to take responsibility and save money at the same time. – We have received a lot of positive reactions from our customers. The most common response I hear is that we as a store take responsibility. Before, we received complaints daily that goods in the store had expired. For instance, Jonatan remembers an older customer who came up to him once waving a sausage around, saying, "This sausage is older than me". – All jokes aside, now we almost exclusively receive positive feedback. Customers appreciate us selling soon-to-expire goods rather than throwing them away.