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NEWS ALDI AGAIN NAMED AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE SUPERMARKET ALDI has come out on top in Canstar Blue’s 2020 supermarket ratings for the third year in a row. The German grocery giant rated best for the freshness of its fruit, vegetables and meat, the quality of private label products, store layout, deals and specials available, value for money and overall satisfaction. Foodland has been the only chain to stop ALDI’s winning streak in the past nine years, having taken over the top spot in 2013 and 2017. In this year’s results, Foodland managed to edge out ALDI in two categories, earning the only five-star ratings for variety of products and customer service, and accessibility of staff. “Winning the hearts of our customers is what we strive for every day,” ALDI Australia Group Director Simon Padovani-Ginies said. “Our commitment to providing the highest quality products at incredibly low prices is clearly being noticed by Australian shoppers. This is a proud moment for ALDI and our many Australian business partners.” Completing the top five of Australia’s best rated supermarkets, in order, are Foodland, Woolworths, Coles and IGA. WOOLWORTHS AND BUPA REWARD HEALTHIER EATING Woolworths Everyday Rewards and health fund Bupa are teaming up to reward customers for choosing fresh fruit and vegetables. It comes as an Ipsos survey of 2,000 participants conducted for Woolworths in June found that eating more fresh fruit and vegetables was the number one food priority for Australians over the next year. The partnership, which launched earlier this month, will give Bupa Health Insurance members access to exclusive bonus point offers when they link their Woolworths Everyday Rewards account to Bupa. To help encourage healthier habits, Bupa customers can collect three points for every dollar spent on fresh fruit and vegetables and Macro Wholefoods Market products for the first 60 days after linking their account. Woolworths Director of Everyday Rewards Hannah Ross says the partnership is an important evolution of the supermarket’s broader strategy to support its customers’ health and wellbeing. “We know our customers want to make healthier eating choices, and we’ve been working hard to make it easier and more affordable to do so,” she said. “This focus on wellbeing has only accelerated in the pandemic, with our customers telling us their number one food priority over the next 12 months is eating more fresh fruit and veggies. “We’re delighted to be teaming up with Bupa to support this positive intent with extra rewards on purchase that can help kickstart new habits.” WOOLWORTHS RELEASES ‘MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT’ Woolworths Group has released its first ‘modern slavery statement’ outlining the steps the company has taken to identify, manage and mitigate the specific risks of modern slavery in its operations and supply chain. The retailer says the statement, building on the “strong foundations” of the group’s ‘responsible sourcing program’, is consistent with reporting obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 and is an important milestone in the group’s human rights strategy. “Our modern slavery statement is an intuitive next step of our work to embed human rights into the way we go about our business every day, so that every decision we make has our purpose and values at heart,” Woolworths Group General Manager Quality, Sustainability & Health Alex Holt said. “Although our supply chains are complex, our goal is to ensure that human rights issues are understood, respected and upheld.” In July 2018, Woolworths Group launched its responsible sourcing program to manage human rights risks in its supply chain. Since then, more than 2,000 suppliers are said to have become part of the program, meaning they meet the social compliance requirements to supply Woolworths branded products. The modern slavery statement describes the work the group has undertaken in FY20, including: • The methodology and outcome of three different forced labour risk assessments conducted across the group’s key trade commodities, non- trade supply chain and operations. • Efforts to mitigate these risks, including strong policies, contracts, monitoring and worker engagement using case study examples. • How the group is responding to increased human rights risk in response to Covid-19. • Plans for continuous improvement demonstrated through a baseline effectiveness framework and FY21 activities. “Our success will be measured by how well we can ‘know and show’ both where slavery risks are in our supply chains and what we’re doing about it,” Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said. “This is the standard we’re striving towards in our ways of working, because it’s the right thing to do and it’s what’s expected by our customers, stakeholders and the communities we serve.” 6 RETAIL WORLD SEP, 2020