One trillion dollar worth of food, or 1 percent of global GDP, is what the world throws away each year according to Winnow, the UK-based start-up that aims to reduce food waste.
Winnow is one of the 2017`s winners of the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation Transformational Business Awards. The start-up won for their achievements to use technology to drive sustainability in the category ‘Sustainable Development Food, Water and Land’. A total of 148 entries were received from 152 organisations involving projects in more than 84 countries. The start-up is currently working with Compass Group, Pullman, Accor Hotels and River Cottage Canteens. The company’s moto is “Prevent, don’t deal with waste”.
Winnow has created a system that weighs food waste bins in big kitchens, such as restaurants, hotels, and canteens, and analyses this waste through the use of technology. The Winnow system consists of a smart scale, which weighs every item that is added to the bin, and of a connected touch screen. Through this touch screen the staff logs everything they throw away, where it comes from (e.g. peelings or leftovers), the food type (e.g. vegetable), and the specific product (e.g. onion). The information on the touch screen is customized to the restaurant’s menu, so logging information is fast and simple.
The data is analysed in daily reports thus kitchens can track where most waste is produced and make changes to reduce it. Winnow’s clients can manage their Newsvendor model better by reducing portions of frequently leftover dishes, or making smaller batches of often unfinished meals. In summary, Winnow provides technology to run not only a more profitable, but also a more sustainable kitchen.
This technology is invaluable in the foodservice and hospitality industry, that are under enormous pressure to stay competitive and meet tight profit targets, while at the same time keeping customers happy and the kitchen running smoothly. Winnow was deployed in 200 kitchens in the UK in 2016 and cut an average of 50pc from food waste bills, or $3m a year. Winnow helps their customers to stay competitive by reducing their food costs typically between 3% and 8%. According to Winnow, the ROI on the Winnow-system investment is 2x to 10x.
The company is targeting not just the private sector but also the public sector, often through third parties. The co-founder, Marc Zornes, believes that only in the UK “North of £100m could be saved through addressing the food waste issue across public procurement”. Their market isn’t limited to the UK neither.
Only recently, in April 2017, Winnow signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Dubai Municipality. The memorandum is part of the Dubai Municipality’s efforts to reduce landfills with 75%. It aims to encourage the use of technology to reduce food waste across the hospitality sector in the UAE. Food waste is a huge and costly problem to the UAE. The country wastes around 3 million tonnes of food every year, which costs the economy an estimated of $4 billion. Food waste also presents a key challenge to the country’s rapidly growing hotel and catering sector. Winnow`s pioneering technology has been helping large hotels in the UAE save more than $35,000 per annum in food costs. This reduction in food waste has translated into a saving of an estimated 33 tonnes of food from landfill and an equivalent of 231 meals saved each day in Dubai. At the moment, they are operating in seven hotels in Dubai, with 20 new contracts to go live in the coming months.
Winnow has recently expanded their presence in South-East Asia too, opening an office in Singapore.
By intertwining the environmental goals of society with the profit goals of a company, we believe Winnow is changing the future of the food and hospitality sector and contributing to the sustainability goals of the world. In the short term, only the users of this new technology will have a competitive advantage due to reduced food costs. However, in the long term we believe that everyone in the food and hospitality industry will introduce this or similar systems to stay competitive, thus reducing the overall food waste.
Since opening in 2013, the business has saved its customers £2m and reduced carbon emissions from the hospitality sector by 3,400 tonnes. The business’s profile has grown in the past 12 months and a seed funding round closed with £600,000 last May. Swiftly following this was a series A round, which closed in January and, in all, will have raised £2.5m.
Sources
http://blog.winnowsolutions.com/winnow-signs-agreement-with-the-dubai-government-to-deploy-food-waste-reduction-in-the-hospitality-sector