￡25m support package for Sainsbury’s staff

When I started digging for information around supermarkets reactions, the first level of information I found was always around price cuts and loyalty schemes.

The second required a little more work and centred around food waste and community initiatives.

Sainsbury’s was different, and the results were not what I was expecting. The information I found out about Sainsbury’s was that their first reaction to the COL and food poverty crisis, was to look internally at their work force.

Sainsbury’s raised staff’s pay and began providing free food during shifts, from a ￡25 million COL support package the company made available.

This pay rise isn't in lieu of the standard annual reviews, and pay increases will still go ahead in April – it's the first time in Sainsburys’ history that they have issued two pay increases in a 12-month period as standard practice.??

Price cuts?

Sainsbury’s have, as expected, also invested ￡500 million into keeping prices low when it comes to essential items such as milk, eggs, fish and fruit and vegetables, as well as other staple household items.?

Food waste??

I couldn’t write this without mentioning efforts to reduce food waste could I?

Sainsbury’s have long standing partnerships with 1,100 food banks across the UK. They have also invested heavily in innovative packaging, labelling systems and providing clear storage advice to customers to reduce food waste both in-store and at home.?

Sainsbury’s say that in some cases, food approaching its use-by date that is unsold is used to create items that case be placed back on the shelves – for instance unsold overripe bananas are used to bake banana bread that can be sold in in-store bakeries. In the rare cases their food can’t be used, it goes towards animal feed, or green energy.?

Over and out,??

Lukas?