Doing it right: How Olio is supporting Iceland's sustainability and food waste goals
A bit about Iceland and Olio
Iceland is the UK’s leading frozen food specialist.
Under the direction of Richard Walker (Executive Chairman, Iceland Foods) and his father, Malcolm Walker, the business has become a champion for sustainability, driving more ethical ways of operating in the retail industry.
From reducing single-use plastics, to eliminating palm oil from their own-brand products, supporting charities or helping local communities – sustainability has been at the core of Iceland’s operating model since it was founded in 1970.
How we started working together
Before Iceland started working with Olio, they hadn’t sent any food to landfill for years. Even so, further reducing food waste was still one area of sustainability that the team wanted to focus on.
In 2021, we set up an initial pilot across three of Iceland’s stores, after Olio’s CEO Tessa Clarke met with Iceland’s CEO Richard Walker in 2021.Â
The results were overwhelmingly positive, and in early July 2022, we began a phased rollout across Iceland’s 950 stores.
Why Olio works for Iceland
There were a couple of reasons that Olio worked well for Iceland right from the start. Rebecca Reese, Retail Change Manager, who explains how she and the rest of the team found adopting Olio:
Q: What sold the Iceland team on signing up to Olio?
We were looking at other potential avenues to use, but what it really boiled down to for us was what impact the solution was going to have on our store teams. We really didn’t want to give them additional work to do.
Luckily, the Olio model was great because we could see that it wasn’t going to put stores under any extra pressure. It was obvious from the pilot that the process was really simple and it’s something they could pick up very easily.
Q: How easy did you find rolling out Olio across your stores?
It couldn’t have been easier to connect the Olio Collect software to our Iceland in-store devices – there was no development needed. It was as simple as just getting the app on there. All store staff need to do is scan a QR code, which lets Olio volunteers nearby know whether or not there’s food to collect that day.
Q: Aside from Olio’s operational simplicity, was there another element of Olio that you felt worked particularly well for Iceland?
It was clear to see that the majority of staff were really behind the programme from the get-go.
Q: Could you tell me a bit more about how Olio positively affects the lives of your staff in Iceland stores?
Since we first started working together, the feedback I had from store staff was just amazing.Â
It was obvious that with Olio, we were doing something that our store staff were already very engaged with. We had people saying “Wow – that’s great that we’re starting to work with Olio – I’ve been volunteering with them for ages! I’m really going to champion this in my store”. We had someone else saying “I look after the community kitchen for my area, and I really support reducing food waste”.
Q: And how about for other teams? Â
“The impact data we get from Olio is a huge help. It’s straightforward to understand, we know it’s accurate, and we can use it however we need to. We cascade down that data to the right teams as soon as we receive it – for example, our Sustainability team uses it as a proof point to demonstrate the department’s impact to the wider business.”
“That data has also helped with Olio adoption and compliance in stores, because we can show colleagues the impact they’re having through Olio.”
Q: Did you face unexpected curveballs when implementing Olio? If so, how did our team help you overcome those challenges?
“Any issues we’ve had, we’ve managed to work through quickly and easily with the Olio team.”
“The great thing about our relationship is that we’re able to deal with any issues as soon as they’ve arisen. The team are very receptive to feedback, and we feel comfortable that any reported issues – on either side of the partnership – will be dealt with in good time. That’s made life really easy for us.”
Q: How likely are you to recommend Olio to another business?
“10 out of 10! For any business considering working with Olio, I’d say absolutely do it. I think it’s such a good operation to have in store – and personally I really believe in it, too.”Â
“Businesses should all be using something to get rid of their edible waste, and using it to feed their local communities.”Â
Adding a layer of discounting on top of our redistribution partnership
In 2025, our partnership grew to include two brand new ways for Iceland to sell more of their discounted food, before redistributing anything left via Olio’s volunteers.
Any discounting solutions needed to integrate seamlessly with their existing surplus food donations, without creating extra operational burden for their retail teams or store colleagues. Here’s how we helped them with two tools that did just that:
Solution 1: Reductions Feed
Via Gander, Olio’s Reductions Feed connects with Iceland’s cloud-based inventory to display a live feed of their discounts on Olio’s app.
This feed acts as an extra marketing channel for Iceland to promote their reduced-to-clear items to thousands of local Olio users.
Reductions Feed also impacts sales of full price products, with 70% of Olio users who visited Iceland buying additional, full price food items during their visit.
Solution 2: Lucky Dip
Lucky Dip bags – or bundles of reduced-to-clear groceries – have given Iceland one more avenue to sell discounted food.
With Lucky Dip, Iceland advertises mystery bags of discounted food in our app to Olio users living near their stores.Â
Payment happens in-store, rather than in our app, so bag sales go straight to Iceland’s bottom line, and generate instant revenue.
With Olio’s Food Waste Heroes Programme already in place across Iceland’s estate, any bags that don’t sell are rescued by a local Olio volunteer – so nothing goes to waste.Â
Get in touch
Get in touch with Olio today to see how simple it is to share your surplus food with people in your community.
Note: To find out more about Iceland’s Doing it Right strategy, click here. The impact figures in this case study represent Olio and Iceland’s joint impact from July 2022 up until February 2026.