Auchan Retail France • France
How does Auchan Retail France save 35 million products per year thanks to artificial intelligence?
Number of stores involved: 351 hypermarkets and supermarkets
Solutions: Smartdetection • Smartdecision • Smartdiscount
Every year in France, around ten million tonnes of consumable items are wasted across all sectors (distribution, consumption, food service). The nationwide retail chain Auchan Retail France has therefore decided to tackle food waste as a key priority. The French group has already undertaken various initiatives to reduce waste: donating to associations, with 19 million meals donated in 2021; preparing Too Good to Go baskets, with 388,000 baskets sold in 2021; and introducing Auchan Anti-Gaspi stands in all hypermarkets and supermarkets.
In a few figures, in 2021 Auchan Retail France had €16.2 billion in consolidated turnover, 340 million customers, and 687 stores under the retail chain (594 integrated and 93 franchised).
In April 2022, the group decided to launch a major initiative to further support the retail chain’s strategy: digitising shrinkage (unsold products) by rolling out Smartway’s smart solutions to reduce waste on a large scale, in all 351 hypermarkets and supermarkets, within a six-month timeframe — a real challenge for both Smartway and the food distribution giant!
“It was above all a meeting of minds with Smartway. When I realised how these solutions could help us to better manage soon-to-expire products, I said yes to a massive rollout… in six months!”
Philippe Brochard, General Manager of Auchan Retail France et Luxembourg
Clear objectives for a retail chain with purpose
Philippe Brochard, General Manager of Auchan France and Luxembourg, wants to ensure that future generations have access to a healthy diet locally and sustainably. He intends to make Auchan a retailer with purpose, notably in tackling all forms of waste.
By choosing to work with Smartway, Auchan has defined clear objectives to reduce waste across all hypermarkets and supermarkets, notably by drastically reducing the retail chain’s food waste, with store-specific, regional, and national objectives.
But how? By repurposing more and better thanks to Smartway’s smart tools. By entering into a partnership with Smartway, Auchan Retail France is also looking to give consumers a real boost in purchasing power by selling soon-to-expire products at lower prices.
Repurposing more and better products, reducing food waste by 30% and increasing consumer purchasing power
Accessible and intuitive solutions, rolled out within 6 months throughout France
Using Artificial Intelligence, Smartway’s solutions guide teams every morning to significantly reduce the time spent processing food waste (unsold products including those soon to expire).
Today, every Auchan store in France is equipped with our Food Waste Management System solutions, to detect soon-to-expire products directly on the shelf and repurpose them in the most optimal way.
Smartway makes it easier to manage unsold items; every morning, unsold and soon-to-expire products are detected and located to remove them from the shelves. Products are then re-labelled with a new gencode and a smart variable discount rate that varies by date, product type and family for optimal resale. The artificial intelligence of our solutions means the retail chain can maximise profits and implement a profitable waste-reduction strategy from day one.
Bénédicte Vantorre, Operations Performance Director at Auchan Retail France, attests to the benefits of our solutions: “They are a real asset to employees in simplifying their work, an asset to the company with the objective to reduce food waste by 30%, and for consumers it represents a real boost in purchasing power.”
Our waste-reduction solutions were rolled out on a massive scale and in record time thanks to the quick implementation of our solutions in Auchan Retail France’s IT system and coordination between Smartway’s waste-reduction experts and the retail chain’s in-house teams. Smartway trained several thousand employees to use our solutions through a series of rollouts, in the form of test stores and a massive open online course (MOOC).
The ease of use of our solutions meant teams quickly got on board with the strategy and the new system for managing unsold items. Upon installation, the results were evident: management time for unsold items went down four-fold and 100% of soon-to-expire products were detected and processed before their expiration date. Within the first three months of using Smartway’s waste-reduction solutions, ten million products had already been saved — a new record among our partners!
“[Smartway’s solutions] allow us to reduce the amount of products thrown away daily.
This is a highly beneficial strategy for our customers because it lets them access products
at very attractive prices.”
Jean Treguer
Director of Auchan Châtillon
“Without AI, our potential gains would have stalled,
along with our ability to optimise order quality and business operations.”
Bénédicte Vantorre
Operations Performance Director, Auchan Retail France
“Everything about artificial intelligence opens up
extraordinary opportunities for us in terms of tackling food waste.”
Béatrice Javary
CSR Director, Auchan Retail France
A method to support performance in waste reduction
How can objectives be achieved at group level in such a short time? By supporting the retail chain’s stores to improve performance.
To do this, our waste-reduction experts employed a specific support method: training staff on how to use the tool, introducing a management system for unsold items, monitoring how the tool is used daily, putting together performance and steering committees for the strategy and, finally, launching personalized action plans for stores that are struggling or falling short of the retail chain’s objectives.
In order to take real action on food waste, Auchan Retail France is also benefiting from dashboards that report back daily on the results of the strategy. This lets the retail chain monitor and manage store data and key performance indicators — the repurposing rate, product labelling rate, products sold, products damaged, top 20 labelled products, in volume and value, etc. — nationwide, and also by region, department and store. Monitoring makes it possible, for example, to detect stores that are falling short of the retail chain’s objectives and to act quickly thanks to the support of our dedicated Customer Success Managers.
The teams at Auchan Retail France and Smartway have therefore risen to a considerable challenge through trust and collaboration between a retail giant and a start-up and waste-reduction expert. Within six months, the retail chain’s 351 stores have hit objectives at all levels — environmental, economic and operational.
“This is a partnership with impact! […] It’s modern, fast and efficient
for our employees and customers, who find more discounted products.”
Philippe Brochard
General Manager of Auchan Retail France et Luxembourg
“The timing was a real challenge. This is a great project and the links between Smartway’s and Auchan’s teams were strong, both in terms of rollout and in terms of the store and performance teams.”
Bénédicte Vantorre
Operations Performance Director, Auchan Retail France
An unparalleled environmental impact for a major retail chain
A partnership on this scale is a first for a retail chain in France! “This is an exceptional collaboration between a start-up, Smartway (Zéro-Gâchis), and a large group, Auchan Retail France, united in an impactful partnership.” explains Philippe Brochard.
The investment of Auchan Retail France’s and Smartway’s teams in the project will enable the retail chain to save 35 million food products each year! This is a significant positive environmental impact for the retail chain, which has exceeded objectives by reducing food waste in its stores by 40%. In this way, Auchan Retail France is an example for all retailers in reducing food waste, given that the grocery sector accounts for 14% of food waste in France. (Source: Ademe)
“We’ve opted for greater efficiency and speed to step up the fight against food waste. Our aim is to preserve a higher volume of food products in a better way. With Smartway, we’re applying a digital solution that features a unique form of artificial intelligence and we’re doing so on a large scale. It simplifies tasks on the ground, it reduces time spent picking out soon-to-expire products, and it optimises preservation of them. Our teams will be able to save 12,000 extra tonnes of food products — that amounts to 25 million meals and 32,000 tonnes of CO₂. These products will be sold at cut prices, boosting our customers’ purchasing power. And as donations, they’ll strengthen our support for charities.” explains Philippe Brochard.
These results confirm that the retail chain’s objectives have been achieved: a significant reduction in shrinkage, a clear shrinkage management system for employees and performance that is monitored and acted upon to improve the chain’s strategy in the long run. The retail chain’s employees are proud to be part of this nationwide action plan that makes it possible to reduce waste!
And at Smartway, we are proud to include the retail giant among our clients. “Smartway has been supporting distributors in the fight against food waste for ten years. Until recently, we were present in France in 400 stores. By rolling out our solutions in 349 Auchan hypermarkets and supermarkets in France, we’re making huge progress to fulfil our purpose: to build a waste-free future together. The decision made by Auchan, the first firm to opt for a comprehensive, large-scale approach in France, honours and delights us.” Christophe Menez, CRO & co-founder, Smartway.
-40% net shrinkage in 6 months
35 million products saved per year
32,000 tons of CO2 released into the air avoided
