Cologne-based Foodforecast Technologies has rolled out its AI-powered software in the UK, with a particular focus on reducing food waste in the baking sector.
According to WRAP, bakeries in the UK generate 75,000 tonnes of entirely preventable food waste every year, costing the industry £1.1bn. The German start-up is looking to change this by bringing its forecasting platform to bakery operators of all sizes, including at supermarkets, foodservice outlets, and forecourts.
Foodforecast’s UK expansion is being funded by an €8m (£6.9m) Series A round led by Shift Invest in the Netherlands and the European VC ECBF, with repeated participation from Future Food Fund and Aeronaut Invest – it has benefitted from the EU’s InvestEU Fund as well. There’s also a dedicated UK team headed by Greg Nixon guiding its market entry and providing hands-on support.
The software provider highlighted how bakery presents one of the most acute food waste challenges in food retail. Products like fresh bread, pastries, and sandwiches have shelf lives measured in hours, not days, requiring accurate forecasting that standard planning tools simply cannot handle, it said.
In the earliest stages of its development back in 2019, Foodforecast worked alongside multiple bakery businesses to test and refine its technology in live environments. This helped shape the way the platform thinks about intra-day demand and the daily rhythms of a real operation. Additionally, it generates highly accurate daily predictions by combining each operator’s previous sales data with external factors such as weather, local events, seasonality, and more, delivering forecasts that reflect the real world, not just historical averages, the firm added.
The platform integrates directly with existing POS and ERP systems, meaning operators are up and running with no disruption to their current setup, noted the company.
Having been commercially launched in 2022, Foodforecast is currently deployed at more than 5,000 stores across Europe, ranging from small craft bakeries and large chains to sushi brands and leading operators such as SSP Germany. To date, it has helped save more than 8,800 tonnes of food from going to waste, with customers reporting up to 34% waste reduction, sales uplift of as much as 11%, and more than 90% automation of previously manual ordering and production planning processes.
“Every operator defines success differently, whether that’s minimising waste, maximising availability, or freeing their teams from manual planning. Our technology adapts to what matters most to each business and delivers it automatically,” commented Justus Lauten, co-founder and CEO of Foodforecast.
Another recent move to aid UK businesses in reducing food waste across their supply chains came from non-profit The Chancery Lane Project, which partnered with WRAP to update Runa’s Clause – a practical contractual tool also designed to support sustainability goals and operational efficiency.
No comments yet