Eat Well, Live Well

What does ‘Eat, Well, Live Well’ mean for Spinneys?

‘Eat Well, Live Well’ has been a company mantra for some time internally. We’ve always encouraged our colleagues to stay fit and healthy. We have brought this through to our customers in healthy product offerings as well as encouraging participation in sports events. In 2020 we want to focus on this as well as broaden the ‘Live Well’ approach to include sustainability.

How will the ‘Eat Well’ segment be promoted in stores?

Within the fresh categories, we’ll be focusing on highlighting nutritional values and benefits to customers, thereby making it easier for them to select the healthier products.

From a product perspective, in categories like bakery, we are introducing a lot more dietary alternatives to our already broad range to meet our customers‘ needs, such as more breads and pastries made from gluten-free flours. Vegan croissants have already been introduced. We have been building the range of vegan and vegetarian products available in the fresh, frozen and grocery range. We have also started to segment these sections in stores, to make shopping and navigation easier and more convenient.

When it comes to deli, it’s more about guiding our customers. Our aim is to make it easier for them to figure out which items are vegan and vegetarian, and to identify the kilojoules, carbohydrate and fat content and so on, in the meal combinations they’re ordering. We’ve already introduced this into most of our stores and will continue to do so.

Sports nutrition is an area Spinneys is pushing. Tell us about this.

We have sections in stores that are clearly demarcated under Sports Nutrition, which will be offering high-end protein bars and shakes and other products specifically looking at high-protein diets. Keto and paleo-friendly meals are also available in the deli and frozen categories.

All these ranges are being demarcated so that customers are able to easily locate the items they require for their specific diets and lifestyles.

How does the ‘Live Well’ segment tie in with sustainability?

We know we have a long way to go in order to become a truly sustainable organisaton. It’s all about taking small steps towards that goal and doing better together. We invite our customers to join us on this journey. One of the ways in which we plan to do this is by reducing the amount of plastic that goes out of our stores from early 2020 onwards. Both paper and plastic bags will be available at checkout for the same price, so we hope our customers will opt for the former which are recyclable. This is one way to help eliminate single use plastic. We’ll be able to track this initiative through the year in the big stores, so we can see how much plastic we’ve saved over 12 months.

Our commercial team is leading an investigation into how we could reduce the amount of secondary plastic that goes into the packaging of fresh products. We’re also working with our suppliers to minimise the use of these materials.

We’ve also invested in renewable energy sources and currently have a few solar projects under trial in our stores. One such location is The Villa Store where the entire roof is covered in solar panels, which has helped us reduce our reliance on the electrical grid. At present about 25 per cent of the store’s power comes from solar energy. More stores will have this in the future.

What about working with local businesses?

We do our best to support local producers whenever we can. The Spinneys UAE Farmers’ Club is devoted to driving and developing better sustainable farming production standards. The club currently has eight growers and suppliers.

Are there any other projects Spinneys is involved in that are related to the ‘Live Well’ mantra?

The Spinneys Dubai 92 Cycle Challenge is our flagship event and several of my colleagues participate in it. Over the course of the event we visited several schools to talk about safe cycling initiatives and road safety.

The company will also be launching the Spinneys Park Run Series in early 2020. These will be 2.5km and 5km runs around our flagship stores. Our aim is to get our customers to join us and get active.

Spinneys also organises the Eat Well Live Well Festival every year in February. It runs over two days so that every individual who works in the company gets a chance to attend. There are cricket and volleyball tournaments, soccer, running races, etc. It is great for team building and fostering a spirit of healthy competition and camaraderie.