Home safe every day

Getting our people home safe every day is at the heart of everything we do.

We had a strong year of safety performance with a 26% reduction in Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR). This was particularly pleasing given the huge stock volumes we moved, the high number of new team members we inducted into to our business, and the significant number of weather events we had to deal with.

This is a safety record for our co-op, is a great step forward in our journey and reflects our determination to create a strong safety culture, supported by robust processes and safety leadership in all parts of our business.

We completed 310 Safety Management System (SMS) and Hazard and Risk Management (HARM) assessments in FY23, ensuring our stores have robust safety systems, strong leadership commitment, effective risk management, robust incident and injury reporting, awesome safety and wellbeing planning, first aid measures and Health and Safety committees in place. The results of these assessments were consistently high, demonstrating good risk management awareness and risk controls in place.

We continued to provide wellbeing resources and support to our teams focusing on our four wellbeing pillars of physical, social, mental and financial wellbeing. Along with the usual promotion of prostate cancer checks, breast cancer screening, skin checks and stroke awareness, we created an “R U OK” programme and resource pack to use during Mental Health Awareness week, which was designed to encourage conversations about mental health.

 

Our incredible Supply Chain Team

Despite unprecedented volumes through our distribution centres and global supply chain challenges, our Supply Chain teams have been unwavering in their commitment to making sure our stores get stock on shelves for customers.

In FY23 we picked a total of 97.8 million cartons across our distribution centres including cross dock volumes. For the week ending 25 December 2022 volumes increased by 18%, compared to the same period in the previous year.

During the severe weather events, our trucks never stopped delivering to stores, even if this meant hours of detours or having to stop to clear debris from cyclone hit roads. Our drivers faced challenging roads, strong winds, and heavy rain. And when there wasn’t road access, we used other means like helicopters and Unimogs to get New Zealanders and our hardest hit communities what they needed – a true demonstration of being here for New Zealanders.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, 20-year veteran driver Adrian Scott safely negotiated treacherous roads, heavy rain and strong winds to deliver much needed supplies to local communities in Northland.

You can read more about Adrian’s efforts here: Foodstuffs North Island Truck Drivers Brave Cyclone Gabrielle to Reach Local Communities

Our top Supply Chain highlights:

1. Engagement levels in our Supply Chain team made it into the Top Quartile of the Australasia retail industry for the first time ever!
2. We onboarded a record 500 new team members in FY23, and it was great to see them enjoying the employment experience Foodies has to offer.
3. We opened two new purpose designed Transport Depots in Whangārei and Hastings and ground works began on our Oruarangi Road Distribution Centre (ORDC) – the new Auckland Chilled & Frozen Distribution Centre next to our Foodstuffs Landing Drive site. When completed, ORDC will replace our current Controlled Temperature Distribution (CTD) and being twice the size, it will enable us to carry a larger range of products for stores and customers.
4. Our Supply Chain business restructured itself to accelerate the delivery of our Journey to Zero misses and focus on a ‘one team’ approach. We now have three dedicated operations units – Upper North Island Ambient, Upper North Island Chilled & Frozen and Lower North Island. These units are supported by enabling streams Group Replenishment, Transport Planning & Optimisation, Strategy & Development, and Supply Chain Infrastructure. The changes have created a significant number of personal growth opportunities across all parts of Supply Chain and stronger collaboration across the Foodies business.
5. We welcomed 45 new supplier partners into the Distribution Centre network. This simplifies life for our supplier partners who have fewer delivery points, and it means our stores enjoy more frequent deliveries, with no minimum order quantity.

Foodstuffs North Island Officially Opens New Cross Dock and Depot Facility in Hastings

Foodstuffs North Island opens new custom-built transport facility in Whangārei

World class learning opportunities

In FY23 we continued to invest in our people, helping them gain knowledge, skills, and equipping them for meaningful careers in our co-op.

We offered learning and development opportunities in every area of the co-op and in FY23, 7.7% of Foodies employees, enrolled in one or more of our Foodies Learning Programmes.

This year the team launched new programmes for stores and support centre teams to enable business outcomes. These included:

• Women in Retail.
• A two-year Retailing Excellence programme for Department Managers.
• Creating Awesome Customer Experiences for stores.
• Leading Change.
• Store Mastery Programme and Operational Excellence Modules. 

In February 2023, the co-op took a well-deserved opportunity to celebrate the talents and dedication of our people at the Foodstuffs North Island Graduation and Excellence Awards.

124 of our 251 graduates, crossed the stage to celebrate their achievements in a range of Foodies Learning programmes, from Butchery and Bakery to specialist courses like Women in Retail, Store Mastery and Leadership Development.

The annual Excellence Awards are a longstanding event on the Foodstuffs calendar to celebrate our top programme graduates, our newly approved Operators, Checker of the Year winners, Baker of the Year winners, Best Butchery and Bakery Apprentice, Manual Handling Equipment (MHE) Operator of the Year winners and our Values Award Champions. As we couldn’t celebrate in 2022 due to COVID restrictions, this year's Excellence Awards was one of our largest awards evenings yet with 69 finalists across 21 categories.

Celebrating 100 years together

In August 2022, the co-op celebrated 100 years with our Members, suppliers, Support Centre and Supply Chain team members, and community partners. The celebrations raised a record amount of money for the Foodies Foundation, thanks to an auction, as well as sales of 100-year memorabilia, featuring custom art from New Zealand artist Greg Straight.

The celebrations included an immersive exhibition with photos, videos, artifacts, stories, memorabilia, and mementos for people to explore, reminisce and experience how the co-operative’s been there for New Zealanders for the past century. Hosted at Foodstuffs Landing Drive, the exhibition was also open to friends and family of Foodies team members.

 

Supporting our Foodies whānau in their time of need

There is no denying that FY23 was a challenging year for many New Zealanders. This year our Foodies family have raised an incredible $1.03million for our Foodies Foundation. Out of the Foundation’s fund, $479,000 went towards supporting 70 of our Foodies whānau who were experiencing serious difficulty in their lives.

Making sure Foodies is a safe and inclusive workplace

This year we took meaningful action to make sure we inspire, support and enable our people to be their best selves in our Foodies whānau.

Here’s a snapshot of our progress:

• We now have Rainbow Tick Accreditation for our Support Centre and Supply Chain teams, which involved an audit of our policies and procedures to spot opportunities that will help us create a more inclusive environment. This is a step change in ensuring we have a safe and welcoming workplace for people in the LGBTTQIA+ community.

• Foodies now has a Gender Affirmation Support Policy for our Support Centre and Supply Chain teams which seeks to wrap tangible support around employees who may be transitioning. The policy includes four weeks leave, two weeks unpaid leave, a one-off voucher towards cosmetic expenses, up to $1000 for legal expenses and unlimited counselling and support. The policy and supporting guidelines are also available for our stores to use.

• We’ve grown and strengthened our employee-led networks to support a thriving, safe and inclusive workplace at our Support Centre. These groups now include Moana Pasifika, Ablement, Rainbow Tribe, Women In Leadership At Foodies (WILAF) and the Foodies Indian Networking Group (FING).

• In FY23 we reviewed our workstyle policies for our Support Centre and Supply Chain teams and have introduced more guidance on flexible working, hybrid working, and better leave policies that encourage working flexibly for our Support Centre teams.

• We extended our leave policies for Support Centre and Supply Chain to recognise long service with additional leave entitlements, birthday leave, working from anywhere for up to four weeks per year (role permitting), the ability to purchase extra leave, and to take up to a year’s sabbatical but still maintain the security of their role to come back to.

• We have an ongoing commitment to minimise the gender pay gap. We aspire to have pay gaps less than New Zealand’s national average pay gap, as measured by the Public Services Commission and we are well on track to achieve this. This year we continued to focus on minimising the gender pay gap by doing things like reviewing remuneration data with external specialists, having pay parity as a focal point during remuneration reviews and considering the impact of remuneration changes throughout the year on pay equity.

• FY23 was the first full year of our enhanced Foodies Parental Leave Policy for Support Centre and Supply Chain teams being in place. Launched 1 January 2022, the policy provides 12 weeks paid leave for eligible employees, regardless of whether they are the primary or secondary carer for their baby during its first year. Over FY23, we had 104 people take parental leave, 77 of whom benefited from the additional 12 weeks paid parental leave. 42% of this group were secondary carers, who under legislation are entitled to two weeks unpaid leave, so this is a very meaningful benefit for all our new parents. Our Parental Leave Policy also includes other enhancements around health insurance, annual leave, superannuation, return to work vouchers and flexible working.

Foodstuffs team member Shayde Young takes a win at NZ Rainbow Excellence Awards 

Advocacy

Employment Law

The Government is prioritising extension of employment rights and entitlements and in April 2022 introduced draft legislation for Fair Pay Agreements (FPA). In December 2022, First Union lodged a FPA application for the Supermarket and Grocery Store industry. As at the date of this report being finalised, this FPA application was being reviewed by MBIE.

Also in April 2022, public consultation began on the proposed New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme, however, the Government later deferred the scheme as part of its 2023 policy reset.

A submission was filed on proposals for modern slavery legislation, which Foodstuffs supported with modification to the skilled migrant category for immigration, and the ACC’s Accredited Employers Programme.

Business Law

A Business Payment Practices Bill was introduced in late 2022 to require statutory reporting by large businesses on their payment practices to increase transparency and encourage shorter payment periods. Foodstuffs recommended several improvements including refining the scope of reporting entities, re-orienting disclosures towards payments for third-party goods and services and allowing companies to report subsidiary business’ payments on a consolidated basis to reduce compliance costs. The Select Committee adopted these recommendations, and as at the date of this report the Bill was about to be enacted. A submission was also filed for MBIE’s companion consultation on regulations to set the detail of reporting requirements. As at the date of this report, the final decisions on these regulations were pending.

Property

Submissions were filed on the Natural and Built Environment Bill and Spatial Planning Bill which will replace the Resource Management Act 1991. We sought changes to improve resource management processes, and greater certainty about the transition provisions for resource consents.

Fire and Emergency legislation was amended ahead of changes to fire levy regulations.

MBIE consulted on the building consent system and Foodstuffs submission highlighted concerns about the lack of consistency between building consent authorities, with variability in the processing of applications and decisions which causes uncertainty, project delays, and impacts project costs.

Social

Submissions were filed in respect to: the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s consultation on the privacy implications of the use of biometrics; the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill to implement the government’s Smokefree Strategy and introducing a retail cap for the sale of smoked tobacco products, and related regulations; the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) Amendment Bill; MPI’s consultation on ‘A Guide to Alcoholic Drinks’ (Oct 2022); FSANZ’s consultation on Energy Labelling on Alcoholic Beverages; the proposed Code of Welfare for Pigs and associated regulations; and the Advertising Standards Authority’s review of Children and Young People’s Advertising Code.