Lidl's Roadmap to a Zero-Waste Supply Chain

Lidl has more than 382,400 employees globally, operating around 12,600 stores and more than 230 logistics centres and warehouses in 31 countries.

As part of the Schwarz retail group, Lidl Great Britain (Lidl GB) first established itself in 1994, with stores across England, Scotland and Wales.

It aims to drive sustainability in the food and drink retail sector, expanding its initiatives to tackle food waste.

Lidl GB has revealed a new food waste reduction target to line up with Food Waste Action Week.

After exceeding its financial year 2025 goal of achieving a 40% reduction in food waste, the company has raised its five-year target from 50% to 70% by 2030.

To help reach this goal, Lidl is extending its partnership with the charity Neighbourly, trialling its Surplus Saviours initiative in the Midlands across the summer.

This scheme allows charity volunteers and customers to collect unsold surplus food, helping people to support their local communities.

The trial is expected to redistribute more than 5,000 tonnes of food to those in need, providing fresh and chilled items that are approaching their use-by dates.

Matt Juden-Bloomfield, Head of Sustainability at Lidl GB, says: “At Lidl, we set ambitious targets that challenge how we operate and inspire innovation when it comes to food waste.

“We’ve made good strides, but we know we can do more. With that in mind, we have increased our targets to ensure we remain accountable and also introduced some exciting new trials to take things to the next level.

“We remain committed to accelerating our progress in this space and collaborating closely with our industry peers to drive lasting impact for both the environment and the communities we are at the heart of.”

Strengthening circular economy loops

Lidl is also trialling a new animal feed in the Peterborough region, aiming to strengthen the circular economy.

This will involve the retailer repurposing unusable fresh bakery products, including croissants and loaves of bread, to create animal feed.

Lidl GB is also working in partnership with WRAP, a global non-governmental organisation (NGO).

This collaboration aims to identify practical and data-driven ways to cut waste in the supermarket.

Estelle Herszenhorn, Director of Food System Transformation at WRAP, says: “For the past 10 years, Lidl GB has been an active and engaged signatory of WRAP’s UK Food and Drink Pact.

“It has been fantastic seeing them offer loose fruits and vegetables and adopting best practice labelling. Both practices help shoppers reduce their household food waste.

“In-store, Lidl GB’s initiative on matching bakery products with demand aligns with WRAP’s priority of preventing food waste before it occurs.

“We are delighted to see increased paths for redistribution where food is surplus – a move WRAP also encourages.”

Optimising in-store operations

Lidl has updated its in-store bakery to help achieve its food waste reduction goals.

It is working on aligning the amount of products to the level of demand throughout the day, which has helped reduce bakery-related food waste by 30% in financial year 2025.

This focus on demand planning allows the retailer to manage inventory more effectively, ensuring that production matches consumer behaviour patterns more closely.

Furthermore, the Lidl Plus app gives customers a 20% discount on in-store bakery items after 7:00pm, further reducing the levels of food waste produced by the supermarket.

By incentivising the purchase of goods near the end of the trading day, the retailer creates a mechanism that could clear stock that would otherwise be discarded.

Advancing supply chain goals

In terms of advancing its sustainability goals, Lidl GB has donated 50 million meals since 2016.

Its Feed it Back scheme works by redistributing high-quality surplus food, delivered in partnership with Neighbourly.

Each Lidl store across Great Britain is linked to local charitable causes, which allows the company to benefit as many people as possible nationwide.

Through these integrated supply chain adjustments and strategic partnerships, the retailer continues to refine its operational footprint across its logistics network.