Harald Mießner, BILLA Board Member for Sales: ‘At BILLA, we live from selling food and not from wasting it. If they are still left over, our various food rescue initiatives come into play. In 2023, despite legal hurdles, we donated goods worth 50 million euros. But when products can neither be sold nor donated, innovative ideas are needed. I am impressed by how successfully the pilot project with KÖNIGSHOFER is developing and I am delighted that it is being rolled out to all our BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores."
If they cannot be sold or donated, horses, sheep, rabbits & co benefit
The traditional company KÖNIGSHOFER, based in Ebergassing in Lower Austria and employing around 50 people, is one of the largest and most modern animal feed producers in Austria. The animal feed producer receives bread and pastries that cannot be sold or donated from all BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores in Austria and processes them into high-quality animal feed.
Andreas Pieler, Managing Director of KÖNIGSHOFER GmbH: ‘We are very pleased about the partnership with BILLA. The pilot project has already shown that we have recognised a sensible way of using valuable food and have created a win-win situation for everyone involved. The fact that we now receive unsaleable bread and pastries from all BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores throughout Austria is very enriching for our production."
BILLA has been taking important measures to save food for many years
The top priority is to order according to demand in the stores in order to avoid surplus goods and still offer customers a diverse range. Since 2013, BILLA has been offering seasonal fruit and vegetables with blemishes that would otherwise end up in the bin during production under its own ‘Wunderlinge’ brand. In addition, BILLA offers fruit and vegetables with minor visual defects or no packaging in its stores in 3-kilo bags for three euros each. Products with missing packaging or minor damage are processed into flawless convenience products by employees. This also gives salads, bananas, apples, peppers etc. a second chance. Food with an imminent expiry date is sold at a discount of 25% or 50%. The food retailer also cooperates with companies such as Too Good To Go.
Together against food waste: BILLA donated food worth €50 million to more than 120 social organisations in 2023
A key pillar in saving food is donating it to charitable organisations. Every single BILLA and BILLA PLUS store in Austria supports neighbouring social supermarkets and charitable cooperation partners with food donations - a total of more than 120 organisations across Austria. Successful co-operations have been in place for many years, for example with the Team Österreich food bank of the Red Cross, Caritas, the SOMA social supermarkets and smaller local organisations.
Handling food donations is a logistical challenge that the BILLA teams in all BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores throughout Austria master on a daily basis in close cooperation with the various organisations and their helpers. In particular, the relatively small quantities per store per day and the current legal framework make the collection a challenge. Thanks to the commitment of BILLA employees in the stores and the thousands of volunteers, BILLA was nevertheless able to donate products worth 50 million euros to charitable organisations in 2023.
According to the retail association, the majority of all food disposed of is generated in private households (58%), followed by the catering industry (19%), while the proportion from the food retail sector as a whole is significantly lower (9%).
Source of waste volumes: Handelsverband
