Southampton Company Shop saves customers millions and reduces waste

The company’s food redistribution model has extended beyond Hampshire, with the group’s 13 Company Shop branches and 12 Community Shops across England and Scotland collectively saving UK shoppers £121m on their grocery bills, representing a £21m year-on-year rise.

In addition to helping customers economise, the Southampton outlet also significantly reduced waste, saving 1,918 tonnes of consumable food, drink, and household items from being discarded.

The store's distribution centre (Image: Supplied)

This operation helped create approximately 4,565,874 meals for the local community.

Membership for Company Shop stores is entirely cost-free and lasts a lifetime.

It supports those in FMCG manufacturing and logistics, NHS and emergency services, social care, prison services, British Armed Forces, charity workers, and individuals on means-tested benefits, utilising surplus food where it will make the most significant impact.

The newly released impact data arose as a part of the latest Impact Report for Company Shop Group- the UK's primary surplus redistribution organisation.

It contained such headline figures as the group redistributing an unprecedented 45,578 tonnes of surplus food and products across the UK in 2023, a considerable 10 per cent increase from the year before.

The inside of the store (Image: Supplied)

During Food Waste Action Week (March 18th-24), the Group noted that it generated the equivalent of 108,500,000 meals from surplus stock last year alone.

This effort saved 122,547 of CO2e emissions, roughly the equivalent of removing 70,000 cars off the road and nurturing 2 million tree seedlings for a decade.

The Company Shop also assisted local businesses and industry partners by offering a £47 million financial return on surplus that would have been wastefully dismissed.

This figure represents a 20 per cent increase on the prior year, taking the Group’s total financial return to  £158m over the last five years.

A customer shopping in-store (Image: Supplied)With the cost of living crisis in full swing and over 200,000 tonnes of surplus discarded annually, the Group has pledged to bolster its growth and innovation in the forthcoming year, aiming to further uplift Southampton families.

Their developing plans include investing in store facilities and membership propositions, enhancing shopping experiences, undertaking an entire estate makeover, and expanding high-quality, affordable product ranges available in each store.

Showcasing its positive impact on industry, people and the environment, the Group has relaunched 'The Surplus Effect', a campaign designed to highlight waste issues and the influential role the Group fulfil as the UK's leading redistributor.