{"id":80,"date":"2023-03-23T21:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/negocios\/?post_type=case-study&p=80"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T11:16:14","slug":"booker-olio","status":"publish","type":"case-study","link":"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/negocios\/case-study\/booker-olio\/","title":{"rendered":"Booker and Olio: Flexible surplus food redistribution for the UK\u2019s largest wholesaler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bit about Booker <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Booker Group is the UKs leading food and drink wholesaler, supplying thousands of independent retailers, caterers and small businesses from all across the UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Booker brands include Booker Wholesale, Makro Wholesale, Booker Retail Partners, Booker Direct, Classic Drinks, Ritter Courivaud and Best Food Logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBooker is the UK’s leading food and drink wholesaler, looking after over 400k catering customers nationwide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
How we started working together<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Booker has always made sure that any short-dated food gets donated, rather than going to waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before they partnered with Olio however, the expectation was on Booker branches to find their own local charities to donate to themselves, rather than via a business-wide food waste redistribution model like Olio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Covid hit in 2020, the hospitality sector effectively had to shut down overnight – and restricted retail, too. At that point, Booker found themselves with enormous amounts of stock suddenly available for donation. They had to think on their feet in order to prevent it all from going to waste – so they picked up the phone and called Olio for help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning, the team at Booker were sending excess stock to certain city branches from distribution centres across the UK. Olio volunteers would then collect that food whenever necessary – often at short notice and in big quantities – and share with members of their community via Olio\u2019s app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With hospitality opening and closing on a regular basis over 2020 and 2021 – the flexibility of Olio\u2019s volunteers and redistribution model was a huge help for Booker in stopping any of its food from going to waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How our partnership has developed since then<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Booker is part of the Tesco group, so when Olio and FareShare started working together on Tesco surplus redistribution in 2019, the team at Booker could see just how well it was working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were interested to see how much more surplus they could redistribute with FareShare in the picture. With that in mind, we ran a joint trial in March 2021, after which Booker decided to bring in FareShare alongside Olio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Olio works so well for Booker<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We sat down with Cath Marston, Head of Sustainability at Booker Group, who explained a bit more on how Olio\u2019s flexibility has transformed sharing surplus food across the Booker Group:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: How did Booker\u2019s partnership with Olio come about? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen hospitality closed overnight, we had all this stock still sitting there that wouldn’t have gone anywhere if it hadn\u2019t been for Olio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the relationship started there – and we both realised that in order to rescue all this food during Covid, we had to throw our standard procedures and rule books out the window. We just both went, \u201cright, how do we save this food?\u201d and went from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you look back on those fluctuations, Olio\u2019s flexibility – and your volunteers – were just lifesaving for managing everything at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And after all that thinking outside the box, when Covid calmed down, we started talking about how we could do this on a regular basis. We wanted an ongoing solution that would work across every single branch on a \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: Is there anything in particular that you feel has exceeded your expectations since you started working with Olio?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s been so different working with Olio compared to working with a waste contractor for example. Booker, Olio, FareShare and its charities – we’ve all got that same shared goal of getting to zero food waste, and also feeding the vulnerable in our communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we’ve got that in our hearts – it\u2019s not like a normal business target. I think there’s a passion behind it because we are actually helping our communities. We’re all on that same side, finding a way to make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We at Booker don’t say, \u201coh, it\u2019s got to be done this way\u201d. Olio doesn’t say, \u201cit’s got to be done this way\u201d. We collaborate together with that one goal to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: What would you say to a business that was considering starting to work with Olio? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDefinitely work with Olio. Talk to them about any nuances in your business that you think would be a barrier, because they likely won\u2019t be. There isn’t really any reason for edible food to be disposed of – there\u2019s absolutely no barriers that aren\u2019t surmountable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mean – just look at what we went through with Covid. We had the driver shortages, global supply issues, new restrictions, new rules every couple of weeks – but we all worked together and got around it. So I would be amazed if there’s anything that could stop Olio working for any business.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our joint impact<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Since FareShare, Olio and Booker started working together, we’ve now saved a massive 25 million meals from going to waste. We think that\u2019s pretty amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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