AI helps East of England Co-op prevent 1.8 million meals from landfill in 2024

AI helps East of England Co-op prevent 1.8 million meals from landfill in 2024
Thanks to Retail Insight's AI-powered markdown solution, East of England Co-op prevented a remarkable 1.8 million meals from going to waste last year, marking a significant step towards their 2030 ambition of zero edible food waste.
Established over 150 years ago, East of England Co-op is now the largest independent retailer operating in the region, with over 120 food stores. To ensure continued innovation across its estate, the co-operative worked with Retail Insight, a leading provider of in-store execution software, to deploy their expiry date management feature. Prompted Markdowns is a part of Retail Insight’s WasteInsight solution and was deployed to all of East of England Co-op's food stores in September 2024.
Prompted Markdowns automates the identification of products nearing expiry, alerting staff members to focus only on products where action is needed. Streamlining the markdown process and stock exit procedures, Prompted Markdowns eliminates the need for time-consuming manual checks, improving the in-store teams’ productivity – a key area East of England Co-op sought to address.
The implementation of Prompted Markdowns also aligned with the retailer’s goals to simplify their reduced to clear (RTC) processes, reduce operational costs, and reduce food waste.