Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Supermarket chain Asda and British baking firm Warburtons are launching a ‘You Buy One, We Give One’ promotion, which will donate food to charities without any additional cost to customers.
The trial, on selected Warburtons products available at Asda, means for every participating item purchased by customers, another Warburtons product will be donated on their behalf to food redistribution charity FareShare.
The initiative is expected to result in over 1 million products being donated to FareShare, which will distribute the food to local charities including foodbanks, homeless refuges and children’s clubs.
Asda said the initiative is the first time that a supermarket and a manufacturer have made a one-for-one food donation on a customer’s behalf, without the need for them to purchase additional products to put in a donation trolley.
The promotion started yesterday (Thursday June 27) and runs for three weeks in 405 stores. It is being supported online and in-store – and the products on sale will also be reduced from their usual retail price to encourage customers to purchase them.
If the trial proves successful, Asda aims to roll out the promotion to other products in the future, working with FareShare to prioritise items that are in demand at foodbanks and other local charities.
Customers will still be able to donate additional products at Asda’s permanent foodbank collection points in its stores.
Andy Murray, chief customer officer of Asda, said: “Our customers are already incredibly generous in the amount they donate through our in-store foodbank donation points. But we wanted to look at ways we can make the donation process easier and increase the volumes donated. By working together with Warburtons and FareShare, we can get even more food to those in need in our communities – and hopefully it provides a model that we can use for a wider range of products in the future.”
Colin Bebbington, sales director of Warburtons, added: “As a family business, we believe we have a responsibility to support our local communities. Last year our Families Matter community programme donated over 700,000 products to local community groups and charities across the country. This partnership with Asda and FareShare enables us to get even more products to those who need it most in our communities.”
Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, commented: “We are grateful to Asda, Warburtons and Asda customers for their generosity, which will enable FareShare to fight hunger on an even more meaningful level by providing increased volumes of valuable bakery foods to our network of almost 11,000 charities and community groups.
“The sad reality is that one in eight people in the UK struggles to afford to eat. So the need for FareShare’s service has never been greater. Working with such a well-known family brand like Warburtons will enable us not only to get more food out to our frontline charity members, but also spread the message and increase awareness of the issue of hunger and food insecurity.”
The promotion is part of Asda’s Fight Hunger Create Change programme: a three-year, £20 million partnership between Asda , anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust and FareShare.
