Launched this month by founder and CEO, Eoin Heverin, the Foodie Save app enables businesses in the commercial food sector to sell their good quality, unsold surplus food, reducing food waste and generating a new revenue stream
Heverin’s goal is to reduce food waste in Ireland by 1,000 tonnes by August 2021 and he reports that businesses from all over the country are already partnering up for the new app.
“We are proud to have some fantastic brands on board, including SuperValu, Londis, SuperValu, The Art of Coffee, Chopped and Maxol, to name but a few, so we are delighted with the demand from our partners to date,” he says.
“All the businesses I have spoken to have seen the value in this immediately – they all want to do their best to save the environment and the Foodie Save app allows businesses to do this while generating a new revenue stream. There are no catches, no contracts, no sign-up fees – Foodie Save simply take a percentage of the sales, so the process is very easy for businesses.”
The company received funding of €100,000 from The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for being a company that actively reduces food waste. Most of this fund will be used to market the app which, in turn, will find a new customer base for retailers. This customer base will be made up of young professionals, third level students, families and the green market.
“Retailers will find a new customer base and increase footfall from the new customers that we will target for them,” says Heverin. “There will be upsell opportunities on the back of this and a lot of these new customers will return as full paying customers in the future.”
Heverin was inspired to create the app following a visit to his local forecourt service station a few years ago. “They had an excellent array of food, including a full hot food counter,” he says.
“I purchased my meal and noticed that there was still a very large amount of food left in the counter, but there were only 10 minutes until the counter closed. I asked the employee what would happen to all the surplus food that was on display. She informed that it would be binned. This instantly struck a chord with me and the Foodie Save concept was born.”
One third of the world’s food production is wasted every year. It contributes to about 8% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Heverin says that Foodie Save allows the end user and the food retailers to make a direct and positive impact on the environment by reducing food waste.
“It also improves the retailer’s gross margin, reduces costs, and boosts the commercial food sector’s CSR credentials,” he says.
Tidy Towns Supports Foodie Save
Castlebar Tidy Towns has thrown its full support behind the Foodie Save app. Speaking on behalf of the committee, chairman Alan Mee says that, as a gold medal-winning town in the annual Tidy Towns competition, they are always looking for new and innovative ways to engage people and businesses.
“We are delighted to be on board with Foodie Save to support this business and concept, which will deliver real benefits for local businesses, the community and the environment,” he says.
"We are proud to have Castlebar Tidy Town's name associated with it. In 2014, the total available marks for the SWRM (Sustainable Waste and Resource Management) category of the National Tidy Towns competition increased from 20 to 50 and waste reduction is high on the list of needs to be addressed.
Foodie Save is reducing the amount of waste food that businesses in Castlebar and Mayo produce and the app allows us to measure the amount of food waste that our town is eliminating. It puts Castlebar on the map as the first town in Ireland to tackle food waste in this collaborative and innovative way.”
For further information on Foodie Save, visit www.foodiesave.ie To partner up with Foodie Save, email [email protected] or call 094 964 2517
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