1. Fighting cost of living inflation for New Zealanders

We know New Zealanders are doing it tough right now and in FY23 our co-op made a stand to fight food price inflation.

To keep our prices as low as possible, we focused on buying as well as we can to get products at a fair price on shelf and running our co-operative as efficiently as possible to keep costs under control.

We also provide regular updates on issues impacting the availability and price of specific products so customers can make choices about what to buy to get the best value.

As well as this direct action on prices, we think it’s also important to provide customers and stakeholders with as much useful data and insights as we can on changes to costs and prices, and the drivers behind them.

The Infometrics-Foodstuffs New Zealand Grocery Supplier Cost Index (GSCI), commissioned by Foodstuffs New Zealand, was introduced in August 2022 to measure the change in the cost of grocery goods provided by suppliers to the Foodstuffs North Island and South Island co-operatives.

The biggest cost of putting groceries on the shelf is what our suppliers charge us (68 cents of every retail dollar) and this year, we’ve seen record increases from suppliers across all goods. The monthly Index utilises detailed Foodstuffs NZ data across over 60,000 products Foodstuffs buys to stock in store, making it the largest dataset of its type in New Zealand, to give a real-time view on cost changes.

2. Rolled back prices at the checkout

In May 2022 we rolled back the price on more than 110 of the most shopped grocery items to what they averaged in early 2021 at PAK’nSAVE, New World and 4 Square. This reduced the price by around 10% on essential grocery items to help ease the pressure on household budgets.

This Price Rollback initiative saved customers more than $23 million at the checkout.

Then, in August 2022, we launched simplified pricing tickets to make it easier for customers to find value and great deals on the shelf. These are ‘Everyday Low Price’ for New World, ‘Everyday Great Price’ in 4 Square, and ‘Everyday Low’ at PAK’nSAVE, to bring more price certainty for customers shopping for everyday essentials.

3. Weathered the storms with our communities

When the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle ravaged large parts of the North Island, we came together quickly when our teams and communities needed us most.

Our teams including Members, store teams, truck drivers, warehouses, support teams and supplier partners worked together around the clock to help re-open stores and get essential supplies through to hard hit communities.

 

·  A severely flooded PAK’nSAVE Wairau Road was back on its feet in just seven days.

·  $250k was pledged to assist growers in Hawke’s Bay whose crops were decimated by Cyclone Gabrielle – including $50k each to HortNZ, the Rural Support Trust and the Federated Farmers “Farmy Army”.

·  We chartered helicopters to fly much-needed supplies into cut-off communities.

·  New World Whitianga’s amphibious boat Waka Kai took to the water to deliver essentials to isolated communities across the Coromandel.

·  Starlink kits were flown in to restore connectivity to PAK’nSAVE Gisborne, New World Wairoa, 4 Square Wainui Road, 4 Square Tokomaru Bay, 4 Square Eastern, 4 Square Ruatoria and 4 Square Waimamaku, so they could continue to support their communities.

·  We donated more than $425,000 worth of product and funding to help affected communities with their most immediate needs.

·  PAK’nSAVE Owner Operators donated $575,000 to local communities impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.

·  Gilmours shipped urgent water and food supplies into Hawke’s Bay and actively supported hospitals and aged care facilities in Gisborne.

·  PAK'nSAVE and 4 Square stores in the Hawke’s Bay diverted over 20 tonnes of food that couldn’t be safely consumed to EcoGas, who create sustainable energy, biogas and biofertiliser.

·  Partnered with Whakarongorau Aotearoa/New Zealand Telehealth Services, to help those impacted with free 24/7 mental health support.

·  Enabled customers to donate directly to the Red Cross New Zealand Disaster Fund in all our stores.

·  Our Foodies Foundation helped 73 Foodies families across our co-op who were significantly impacted by the severe weather events.

 

Read more of our stories:

New World Whitianga Deploys Waka Kai to Deliver Groceries to Cut Off Areas in the Coromandel

Foodstuffs North Island Takes Steps to Prepare for Cyclone Gabrielle

PAK'nSAVE Donates Over Half a Million to Help Communities Recover from Cyclone Gabrielle

4. Supported the opening of four new social supermarkets

This year, we partnered with four more incredible community organisations to support the opening of new social supermarkets in Whangārei, Tauranga, Tokoroa and Kaitaia. These social supermarkets aim to create a dignified experience for whānau experiencing food security challenges, by offering food and grocery products in a supermarket environment but at low or no cost, using a points system.

Thanks to our dedicated social supermarket team, we now have a total of five social supermarkets helping communities at 155 Whare Kai (Whangārei), Ōtūmoetai (Tauranga), Tokoroa, Te Hiku Pātaka (Kaitaia) and Wellington City Mission. We plan to open several more social supermarkets in the next 12 months.

Our social supermarkets are a tangible and practical way to help families struggling to put food on the table. Over 7,000 shops have been made and over 220,000 items provided to families using the five social supermarkets in FY23. You can learn more about our social supermarkets here.

 

5. A record year for safety performance

There is nothing more important at Foodies than making sure our people and customers get home safe every day.

In FY23 we had 26% fewer harm injuries than in the previous year - a record low for us. Our teams worked an additional 16,500 hours in FY23, and this reduction in harm injuries was achieved despite additional challenges we faced like moving huge volumes, inducting large numbers of new team members into our business, and dealing with a significant number of weather events.

This is great step forward on our journey to zero harm and reflects our unwavering commitment to creating a strong safety culture at Foodies.

6. Celebrated 100 years of serving the North Island

For a century, we have come together as a team to work, collaborate, innovate, and connect so New Zealanders can get more out of life. In August 2022 we celebrated 100 years of Foodies through a series of events with our teams, Members and suppliers over three weeks. A walk-through interactive exhibition was the centrepiece of the celebrations, where we told the story of the co-op’s past, present and future.

 

7. Opened new stores to serve more communities

In FY23 we opened a $17m New World supermarket in Wairoa, and a $14m New World in Taumarunui, along with a number of other investments in new stores and store upgrades in communities around New Zealand, totalling around $100m.

We are proud to be major investors in regional New Zealand, and our local grocers are often major employers in small regional communities and a key player in local economies.

We also opened new transport depots and warehouses in Whangārei and Hastings so we can deliver to Northland and regional stores more efficiently. Their fit for purpose designs are a testament to the co-op’s commitment to providing high-quality, efficient, and safe food distribution services across the North Island. The new state of the art facilities ensures all products are stored at the optimal temperature, providing the highest levels of food safety freshness and quality.

 

Read more about the opening of New World Wairoa and New World Taumarunui.

 

8. Supported 43 people on their ownership journeys

43 Members moved into stores across all our banners. A lot of mahi goes into this process and we’re very proud of the way we’ve supported each of them into their new stores and communities.

The path to ownership at Foodies is rigorous and robust. It’s important for us to select and develop customer driven owner operators committed to taking our stores, brands and co-op to the next level. Like owning any business, store ownership is very demanding, and our Owner Operators need great resilience.

We believe our Trainee Operator Programme is one of the best development pathways available in the world, and it is one of the many ways we help our people in their career aspirations.

9. Our local Owner Operators work in the heart of their communities

Our Owner Operators know their communities well and are passionate about supporting areas where they see the greatest need. In FY23, our stores donated over $2.1m to communities and gave over $3.8m in store sponsorships. From small to big, we’re here for our communities each and every year.

 

10. Highest ever people engagement score for Foodies

Across the whole co-op we achieved an employee engagement score of 67%. This is the highest we’ve ever seen and is firmly in the upper quartile for the Australia and New Zealand retail sector.

Store, Supply Chain and Support Centre teams then took ownership of their own results and together planned how to make things better. They focused on areas like career development, communication, collaboration and building leadership capability.

This improved score is a true credit to our people leaders and our teams for their commitment to our co-op and is a big step toward our goal of having the best employee experience in New Zealand by 2028.

 

11. Making Foodies a more diverse and inclusive place to work

We were incredibly proud to get the Rainbow Tick Accreditation in May 2022 for our Support Centre and Supply Chain. This was external recognition that we’re a progressive, inclusive and dynamic organisation that reflects the communities we’re based in.

We also launched our new parental leave policy with 12 weeks of paid parental leave, regardless of gender, for our Support Centre and Supply Chain team members. We also reviewed our workstyle policy, putting in clearer guidelines around flexible and hybrid working and continued to proactively take steps to reduce the gender pay gap.

 

12. Tackling food affordability, food waste and sustainability

We’re committed to ensuring New Zealanders have access to healthy affordable food, reducing food poverty, and reducing food waste. We work with national and local food rescue organisations and actively support food banks. We also have social supermarket partnerships to help struggling families put food on the table.

As a co-op we’re focused on reducing our own environmental impact, reducing carbon emissions by getting more efficient with electricity usage, refrigeration and transport. We’re reducing our waste by moving towards more sustainable packaging and ethical and responsible sourcing.

You can read our latest Environmental Social Governance report here.

13. Committed to reusable, recyclable or certified home compostable packaging by 2025

This year we have made great strides in improving our packaging sustainability with a focus on auditing and introducing reusable, recyclable or home compostable packaging in our stores. 98.9% (by weight) of our Own Brands packaging nationally (including retail, inner and trade unit) is now reusable, recyclable or home compostable. Our Own Brands bread tags have made the switch from non-recyclable polystyrene to recyclable carboard tags.

You can read our latest Environmental Social Governance update here.

14. On our way to 100% cage-free eggs

We are committed to working with our suppliers to ensure animal welfare is respected. A key focus has been on working collaboratively with suppliers to transition to 100% cage-free eggs (i.e. barn or free-range) for Own Brands products by 2025 and all retail brands in stores by 2027.

 

·  100% of Own Brands packaged eggs are cage free.

 

·  35% of eggs used as an ingredient in our Own Brands products are cage free. We’re working towards 100% by 2025.

 

·  62 Foodstuffs North Island stores have gone 100% cage free for packaged eggs, including own brand and branded eggs.

 

·  58% of Foodstuffs North Island packaged egg sales (by volume) were cage free, including own brand and branded eggs.

 

You can read our latest Environmental Social Governance update here.

 

15. Responsibly and ethically sourcing our Own Brands products

We are committed to working with our suppliers to ensure that the ingredients and products we source are made in an environmentally and socially responsible way – in a way that respects people, animals and the environment.

At the end of FY23, Own Brands had onboarded 71% of its international supplier sites to Sedex, a platform used to assess and audit environmental and social risks in supply chains. In addition:

 

·  78% of Own Brands products now use responsibly sourced seafood.

 

·  74% of Own Brands products use responsibly sourced timber, bamboo, pulp and paper.

 

·  99.5% of Own Brands products use responsibly sourced palm oil.

 

You can read our latest Environmental Social Governance update here.