It’s a wrap on an intense year at Smartway!
Since 2012, our teams have fought food waste in stores, with a determination we want to share with as many stores as possible: fighting food waste is a unique opportunity to positively impact all levels of their retail organization.
These 12 months of 2024 have been a key year in the Smartway adventure, and we look forward to an even more exciting 2025 year, with projects aiming to meet the specific needs of the retail industry.
Zoom on an amazing year fighting food waste and what ambition we hold for 2025.
2024: Smartway is the “Smart way” to fight food waste in stores!
Numbers speak better than anything to illustrate this year at Smartway. So let’s start strong!
In 2024, we further accelerated our fight against food waste:
360 million products saved since 2012
2 000 committed stores trusting our solutions2
280 million euros in consumer savings
360 000 tons of CO2 saved
A presence in 11 countries
Amazing results obtained thanks to the tireless efforts of the Smartway teams, collaborating with thousands of motivated retail employees around the world!
What are the feelings ending this 12th year?
- We have an immense gratitude for all the discussions, brainstorming and sources of inspirations we have had with all retail players, partners, clients and team members. The recipe to change the world may have variants but one ingredient will still be needed in any case: it’s that we move forward together, with a collective momentum.
- This end of the year is the best time to address a huge THANK YOU to all the retail leaders or influencers who trusted Smartway and the fight against food waste as new levers of performance and responsibility.
- We feel pride. 12 years ago our co-founders had only dreams, ideals and ambition in their pockets. Seeing the FWMS solution changing the way so many stores now run their businesses is something really strong.
- We are excited and determined. It never leaves us. These numerous years working along retailers strengthens our motivation and determination every day: there’s still so much to achieve to better answer retailers and customers’ needs and act for our planet’s future.
The road is long, and we are well along it!
2024: retrospective on a year of expansion
The year 2024 has been synonymous with many projects, from major deployments to further international expansion. Along the way, our teams worked hard on a new dedicated solution and our co-founders championed the fight against food waste at the highest levels.
Welcome to 2024 with a few highlights.
The Auchan Retail International (ARI) deployment continued successfully
Auchan Retail has put the fight against food waste at the heart of its corporate project. By gradually deploying the intelligent technologies developed by Smartway in all the countries where it operates, Auchan International has initiated a transformation of its retail model on a scale never seen before. And it continued in 2024!
After Romania, Luxembourg and France, it was the turn to Poland, Hungary, Portugal and Spain to be deployed with the Smartwai AI technologies this year.
More numbers to realize how many new stores are fighting food waste?
- 109 stores in Poland
- 24 stores in Hungary
- 84 stores in Portugal
- 396 stores in Spain
This roll-out in Spain (stores known under the famous Al Campo banner) got an A + Mention as it was done on a crazy dynamic, with between 50 and 100 stores deployed each week. A world-class collaboration for both the Smartway and ARI teams with this speed achieved.
The global result of this collaboration between this retail giant and Smartway, since the beginning?
Let’s fight food waste far from home, in Thailand
In Thailand, 64% of waste is comprised of food waste, with Thais wasting 254 kg of food per capita per year. After months of discussions, discoveries, audits and stores tours to better know this market, its challenges and the teams and consumer expectations, we had the immense privilege to be chosen by Central Food Group, Thailand’s largest supermarket chain, to accompany them to the next level of their already engaged food waste policy.
In 2024, the retailer began testing Smartway’s innovative solutions in its Tops stores.
Central Food Group is committed to embodying the ethos of “Green & Sustainable Retail” and to positioning itself as a leader in sustainability within the Asian retail sector. It has made combating food waste a priority, with the aim of reducing food waste by 30%. We can’t be more proud to be alongside them in this goal.
Read the testimonies of both partners on this new collaboration:
The Europe, Asia… And now our first steps in Africa
2024 was a key year for sure in order to achieve our ambition to fight food waste on an international level.
After Asia in the first part of 2024, we were thrilled to announce a new battlefield to fight food waste in the last semester: Africa! Indeed, if he’s already a pioneer in the fight against food waste in stores, Monoprix Tunisia has chosen Smartway to accelerate progress and achieve its ambitious targets in the fight against food waste.
Started in September, Smartway is deploying its solutions for Monoprix Tunisia through an efficient deployment method, experienced for years and onboarding people.
Food waste is a major issue in Tunisia. Every year, Tunisian households waste the equivalent of over €171 million worth of food. Meanwhile, paradoxically, nearly 500,000 people in the country are undernourished.
These very first steps in Africa, a continent of 1000 faces, where what’s at stake when it comes to food is huge, are obviously meaningful for our teams and our desire to act against food waste without borders. A significant step of our commitment to act for a better future.
Our co-founders testify of this thrilling new partnership:
Food waste: a national challenge we are proud to tackle with the Government
This year, our co-founders had the honor of introducing Mme Garnier, Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs, to the tangible impact of our solutions at Smartway. She discovered our commitments and measured our impact for the retail industry and consumers looking for more purchasing power.
The Government’s commitment to this issue gives us immense satisfaction and strengthens our determination. Her support also testifies to the new government’s priority in the fight against food waste and a zero-waste society.
But the impact of the Smartway solutions and our influence extend far beyond France.
In 2024, Christophe Menez, our co-founder, had the immense honor of meeting and discussing with Madam JIMI Hanako, Minister responsible for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety to the Prime Minister of Japan. A very interesting discussion on Japanese consumer habits and anti-waste.
In addition, we were received at the New-York Embassy and at the CCI of Singapore for discussions on our technology and its impacts to preserve resources and create new sources of revenues.
A promising future and landmark moments for the entire Smartway team.
The Fresh Operating System: the fruits and vegetable management reinvented
Being on the tiles since 2012 with our clients to answer their needs and invent a more resilient model of retail, we know the point of tension faced by stores: the fruits and vegetables. This is the department where food waste is the highest: 4x more waste than in the others!
In response to this major challenge, our teams have been intensely working in 2024 to launch the “Fresh Operating System” (FOS), a technological innovation specifically designed for the fresh products, which perfects the ordering process. The aim is to digitize processes and enable teams to place “THE PERFECT ORDER”, one that limits both shrinkage and out-of-stocks, by combining accurate data analysis and responsiveness to demand variations.
The Fresh Operating System is the technological tool which was missing on the market, offering stores a reinvented way of managing these living and complex products.
2024, another year of trust and improvements
2024 was a year of innovations. But also a year of mutual trust with our hundreds of clients, who have been placing their trust in us for years and benefiting from the many positive impacts of our solution in their stores. Our team is there for them every day, in France and abroad, making sure that Smartway tools are used to their full potential and that teams are on board with this change project. Also, we never stop looking for more efficiency and thus, continuously improving our current solutions, based on feedback from our customers.
To our current clients: thank you again for your trust, let’s keep going on fighting food waste together!
We asked our VP of Delivery & Success Thomas Aydos, to testify on this year of challenge and success:
“2024 demonstrated that the fight against food waste knows no borders. With our expansion into two new continents, Asia and Africa, and the opening of four new countries, we proved that transformative initiatives have an essential role to play in fighting this global scourge. Everyone has a role to play, and we have worked with our partners to bring meaning, concrete methodologies and adapted solutions, creating a lasting impact every day.
In 2025, our ambition remains unchanged: to innovate even more, by rethinking processes and relying on bold technological advances. Together, we will continue to transform challenges into opportunities.”
2025: a strategic year ahead
2025 is nearly here. And with it, a future full of commitment, innovation and action to tackle food waste and reconcile this crucial 3P for retailers: People Planet Profit.
We’re always looking ahead and as food waste has no borders, neither do we at Smartway!
Smartway has no limits to fight food waste
The map of Europe… is not entirely ticked off
France was our birth country then Smartway got its presence in different countries of Europe… But not all! And that is a strategic plan for 2025: to expand in other Nations of the European Union.
So many good dishes from our European neighbors are wasted. So many people are struggling to eat healthy, while they could have access to discounted prices on products nearing their expiring dates. So many retailers invest in some projects with limited ROI, while the fight against food waste with Smartway brings efficient and quick results in economic, people and responsible areas.
Europe, see you soon!
The United-states (U.S), next step of the Smartway adventure
The U.S discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 80 million tons every year, 33% of all food in the U.S.
For sure, we have ambitions across the Atlantic, to help them change this paradigm of waste, tied to numerous factors: their food culture and consumption habits, a rich farm history, the overstock in stores, the challenges to feed a vast territory…
The American retail sector landscape is diversified and demanding: a challenge we are ready to meet!
Europe, United States… Let’s be sure of that: we have no limits to fight food waste and every retailer of the world can benefit from our transformative initiative to be able, tomorrow, to transform net loss into margin.
From Canada to Greece, from Latin America to Germany, food waste is a global curse we plan to tackle everywhere!
A new brand identity to illustrate the “Smart way” to tackle food waste
We are excited to announce that 2025 will be synonymous with a new brand identity for Smartway. We are happy to collaborate with Court-Circuit Circuit-Court, a communication agency which reconnects brands with the world of agriculture and good eating.
A new brand territory, associated with a new website, we can’t wait to share with you in 2025!
2025, a year for fruits and vegetables in retail
After its launch in 2024, the Fresh Operating System will extend on numerous markets in 2025. Launching a new solution is always exciting, but this one has a special flavor: non gencoded products are a real pain to manage in stores, and fruit and vegetables are essential as they represent the freshness of the whole store. This FOS has been a source of fantastic stimulation for our teams, to brainstorm, test and finally build a unique and reliable solution.
The fact that our solution is ready, live on the market and that our sales teams are training to describe it perfectly is a great satisfaction: we can’t wait for retailers to discover the amazing potential of performance the FOS brings to their shelves!
To conclude, Paul-Adrien Menez & Christophe Menez, CEO & CRO of Smartway, reflects on 2024 and sets the stage for 2025:
“2024 was a defining year for Smartway with major expansions and the amazing work of our teams to make ready the Fresh Operating System, an AI-driven solution revolutionizing the fight against food waste in fresh and vegetable shelves. The official launch of this new cutting-edge technology will be a milestone of the next year. And as we look ahead to 2025, our mission remains clear: to scale our impact. We will continue expanding across Europe, reaching countries that have yet to benefit from our solutions, while also setting our sights on other continents. The U.S. market, with its staggering 80 million tons of food waste, represents a crucial opportunity for us to drive meaningful change. Together, we are shaping a world where food waste becomes a challenge of the past.”