A business in growth - digital transformation
Launching a new website
In September, we began our digital transformation journey with the launch of our brand-new website. The website was built in partnership with The RAD Consultancy Group and is our first customer-facing investment in technology on this journey. Our website provides us with the platform to better connect with and serve the needs of our members and customers.
Retail Industry Awards: Best Use of Technology (Multiple)
In October, we saw our pioneering work with Retail Insight recognised with the Retail Industry Award for Best Use of Technology. The technology uses cutting-edge AI to reduce food waste across our food business. This forward-thinking initiative saved 1.8 million meals from going to landfill during its first full calendar year and is helping our co-op achieve its ambitious goals on sustainability.
Technology Implementation of the Year
Retail Technology Innovation Hub awards 2025
October saw us recognised in collaboration with Trust Retail as we took home the award for Technology Implementation of the Year (UK) at the Retail Technology Innovation Hub awards 2025.
Trust Retail implemented five self-checkout terminals at our first fully cashless store at Ipswich Station. This deployment transformed the customer experience for over three million annual passengers, eliminating cash handling entirely whilst streamlining operations.
The software first, hardware agnostic solution provided autonomous checkout functionality with full refund capabilities, setting new standards in retail efficiency.
This implementation demonstrated scalable technology that enhances customer journeys through faster, more secure transactions whilst reducing operational costs for the retailer.
Digital compliance
This year we took several steps forward in our digital compliance journey, notably becoming the first UK retailer to rollout full digital compliance when maintaining our coffee-to-go machines from both Barista Bar and Costa Coffee.
Alongside this, we digitalised 17 compliance processes from till note checks to our delivery temperature checks. Digitalising these processes not only decreases our paper usage considerably but also improves our visibility of compliance centrally.
Our relocation of our Hellesdon Food store also saw the completion of our electronic shelf-edge labels (ESEL) rollout. Now all 120 of our Food stores are equipped with ESELs, further reducing our paper usage as well improving the operational efficiency of every site.
Self-checkout replacement project
We invested over £600k in a project to replace our existing Self-Checkouts (SCOs) across our Food store estate with brand-new units from Trust Retail.
The new SCOs were piloted in our Food store on Vernon Street in Ipswich, where the technology improved transaction efficiency and customer satisfaction. The rollout was supported by software and IT company QCom and standardised our self-checkout experience. They are sleeker, more modern and feature an intuitive user interface that better meets customer expectation.
Beyond the improvement in appearance and customer experience, Trust Retail’s SCO solution has the potential to improve our shrinkage through in-built camera technology. The solution has the potential to reduce customer waiting times through colleague headset integration as well as advanced age verification technology.
The new SCOs also feature a ‘Supporting our communities’ button which allows our members and customers to donate directly to either their stores chosen Local Giving charity or our Community Cares Fund for the first time when using a SCO.
Funeral modernising with eFD
We completed a major digital upgrade across our funeral operations with the rollout of eFD, a leading funeral management system, provided by Seker. The system has been designed to enhance efficiency and sustainability with our funeral business, while ensuring we’re ready for any legislative changes.
This project marks the start of a wider move towards digitising the funeral arrangement process. The new platform now serves as the operational hub of the business, managing everything from client arrangements, payments, stock and service pricing to diary management, fleet coordination, document storage and client communication.
The rollout of eFD replaces a wide range of manual, paper-based tasks with streamlined digital processes. This transformation not only improves accuracy and speed but also supports our wider sustainability focus by significantly reducing paper use across its branches and administrative teams.
