The Cooperative

Business Challenge

Since the introduction of the Courtauld Commitment and packaging taxes, retailers in the UK have been under pressure to reduce the quantity of packaging surrounding their products. The Co-operative carry a large range of private label products – however they do not employ a full time packaging team as their business, like many retailers is centered around buyers. The challenge therefore was to gain an understanding of their overall packaging consumption and what opportunities existed for reduction. The next challenge was to learn how best to implement the recommendations and demonstrate an overall improvement, both in cost and tonnes of material reduced across the business.