Wrights joins food waste app Too Good to Go

Wrights Food Group said it has reduced food waste to below 1 per cent in its high street stores after joining the Too Good to Go app.

The company’s 15 high street bakery stores have joined the app that shows which local businesses are offering unsold food at a reduced price. Since launching the initiative this month, food waste from Wrights stores has been reduced from 5 per cent to less than 1 per cent, the company said.

“Minimising food waste and recycling where possible is really important to our business and the Too Good to Go app provides a way to make sure the products which don’t sell during core trading hours can still be found a good home rather than being wasted,” Julie Brereton, Wrights’ retail multi-site operations manager, said.

“All Wrights stores are included and since launching this month, our reduced price bags of fresh food sell out within 10 minutes of going live on the app!”

Customers search the app for nearby businesses offering unsold food and then, subject to availability, purchase a surprise ‘Magic Bag’ containing a mix of goods to be collect at an allotted time. Wrights ‘Magic Bags’ have a retail value of £12.50 but sell for £4.50 and include mixed bakery goods including sweet treats and cakes.

Too Good to Go managing director Pas Loucaides said: “We’re delighted to have welcomed Wrights into our growing community of over 20,000 partner stores. This collaboration will mean that their delicious, freshly baked food will be eaten rather than wasted, and I know our app users in Stoke-on-Trent are going to love their rescued treats. Saving food is one of the most effective things we can do to combat climate change and I can’t wait to see the impact we’re going to make together.”

Too Good To Go was launched in 2016 with the goal of making sure all food gets eaten, not wasted. In six years it has saved 127 million meals globally and 10 million meals in the UK.

Samantha Hughes from Packmore, Stoke-on-Trent, who was one of the first customers to pick up a Wrights Magic Bag, said: “I collected a bagon the first day they went on the app and it had sandwiches, a meat and potato pie, pastries and cakes – perfect for my three teenagers at home who ate every last bit!”

She added: “I’ve only just started using the app but it’s a really good idea for reducing waste, helping the environment and grabbing a bargain for yourself at the same time.”

Wrights Food Group operates 15 independent Wrights bakeries across the North West. The company has been a local employer in Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe since the business began in 1926 when Jack and Lizzie Wright sold pies to neighbours from their Stoke-on-Trent doorstep. Based across two manufacturing sites in Crewe, the company’s 600 strong workforce manufactures and distributes savoury products, sweet pastry and ready meals into retail and hospitality sectors.