The supermarket chains in Britain have made significant progress in recent times in reducing the waste they produce. Everything is recycled. Food products are more likely to be sent to food banks instead of being thrown in the garbage. Food waste can also be utilized to benefit the environment by diverting it into animal feed , or even power producers.

However, reducing food waste and particularly, the excesses created by bakeries that are located in retail stores is a significant challenge. For instance, WRAP issued a report about its efforts to reduce bakery waste in stores, together with Tesco. Tesco had discovered the majority of its store waste originated in the department of bakery.

Our experience in the industry indicates that the majority of supermarket chains have similar levels of waste. Due to the limited shelf life for bakery items, it comes as not surprising. Since their introduction in the 1960s in stores, bakeries have always required excessive amounts of losses that are acceptable.

It was generally regarded as acceptable as long as the appealing scent from freshly-baked bread drifted throughout the shop. Now, however we live in an time that is characterized by the Courtauld Commitments, the latest of which is aimed at reducing food waste by another 20 percent in 2025.

While the reduction of bakery waste could appear to be a challenging issue, we believe it’s a fairly easy win. In fact, our team is convinced that we will be able to reduce excess production of bakery products in stores by at about 20 percent.

When we speak with experts in the industry of grocery, they will tell us that the first concept behind the bakery in stores was to bake a small amount and often. A grocery bread waste forecasting service involves reestablishing and maintaining this fundamental idea.

Flexibility is a key element in flexible working. It is an essential element in the “little frequently” philosophy. If managers must constantly go back to the forecasting system’s suppliers from the beginning or the IT department to alter the method of calculation according to our view, it’s not going to be effective.

Also, if the modifications to the algorithm of the system for example or uplift is too challenging for the person in charge and are not feasible, the likelihood is that they will never be implemented even. This may be the case with forecasting features that are added to large-ticket ERP systems for retail.

Best Practice

The production planner can be easily controlled centrally, allowing for the introduction of best practices and guidelines across the entire retail estate, in addition to allowing seasonal fluctuations in sales, but also by-the-hour and daily changes. Two-way communication between the managers and the head office means that adjustments in production are made via the head office or the individual store, in response to local occasions.

With clearly-defined production guidelines, various requirements are easily understood at the store level and responded to according to. This is all monitored centrally, and also the extent to which stores are adhering to the rules.

Another important aspect to cutting down on bakery waste in the store is the ability to adapt to multiple production cycles. The time between breakfast and late morning for example, has a dynamic different from the rush at lunchtime. Software can handle this by determining how much to bake at different times throughout the day based on the selling profile of each SKU during the day.

Additionally, it is important to make use of data from today in order to alter production according to current trading. If not, the final production cycles of the day could be a mixture of surplus products. This can be accomplished by using a live sale feed to determine how to alter the quantities of bakes for the final baking of the day, based on the sales forecast. or behind the forecast.

Then, there’s the issue of conformity. It’s easy for store bakery workers to think that they have the right idea and to ignore plans that are being slavishly to by head office. If there’s no feedback, then the head office doesn’t know if employees adhere to the plan.

If you’ve found the best process in place, bakery waste becomes a hard piece of wood to break into an easy-to-pick fruit to achieve Courtauld-driven goals. It’s a win-win scenario. On one hand, you’ll be able to save money that will directly impact your bottom line. In addition the other hand, you will increase your bakery sales because the quality and freshness improve.