East of England Co-op saved 1.8 million meals from landfill in 2024 thanks to Retail Insight partnership

East of England Co-op says that it is moving closer to its goal of eliminating edible food waste by 2030 by working with Retail Insight. Last year, the latter’s AI powered markdown solution helped the cooperative prevent 1.8 million meals from entering landfill.

The pair worked together to deploy an expiry date management feature. Prompted Markdowns is a part of Retail Insight’s WasteInsight solution and was rolled out to all of East of England Co-op's food stores in September 2024.

It automates the identification of products nearing expiry, alerting staff members to focus only on products where action is needed.  The implementation also aligned with the retailer’s goals to simplify its reduced to clear (RTC) processes, reduce operational costs, and reduce food waste.  

Retail Insight also worked with it to develop an integration between its solution and the electronic shelf labels (ESLs) supplied by Pricer that East of England uses. The integration triggers the ESLs to flash so that colleagues can more easily locate the appropriate product on the shelf to mark down.

Sam Winter, Chief Retail Officer at East of England Co-op, says: "We want to use technology to improve the lives of our colleagues, our customers, our members and the community.  Retail Insight’s WasteInsight solution is a great example of exactly how we can do that.”

“We listened to feedback and have reduced manual effort and frustration for colleagues in-store, ensuring we can give great deals on RTC products to our customers, and importantly put the society on a trajectory to meet our target to reduce food waste to 0% by 2030.”

Kieran O’Brien, VP Customer Success EMEA at Retail Insight, says: “The ESL integrations we’ve delivered for East of England Co-op have drastically reduced the amount of time store associates spend on RTC markdowns.  And, because our platform leverages foundational retail data, major operational changes could be implemented without the need for significant CapEx or store disruption and scaled quickly to accelerate ROI.”

RTIH AI in Retail Awards

RTIH, organiser of the industry leading RTIH Innovation Awards, proudly brings you the first edition of the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries. 

As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers' businesses.

With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.

Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work - resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.

Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Wednesday, 3rd September.

This will kick off with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room.

Please email our Editor, Scott Thompson, if you have any questions or need further information: scott.thompson@retailtechinnovationhub.com

Key 2025 dates

Friday, 18th July: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 22nd July: 2025 finalists revealed

Wednesday, 23rd July - Friday, 8th August: Judging days

Wednesday, 3rd September: Winners announced at the 2025 RTIH AI in Retail Awards Ceremony, to be held at The Barbican in Central London.