Bidfood (Caterplus)

Sustainable Development at Bidfood

Bidfood is committed to providing safe, affordable and nutritious food products to the foodservice, hospitality and retail communities. Priorities include maintaining the highest standards of food quality and safety, providing a safe working environment and offering training and development opportunities for staff. There is an ongoing drive to reduce Bidfood’s environmental impact by reducing energy usage and promoting recycling.

Material sustainable development issues

• management of credit risk
• food safety and product integrity
• reducing energy, waste and impact on the environment
• employee engagement
• the skills development of staff
• impact of crime on stock shrinkage
• broad-based black economic empowerment through employment equity and procurement

Sustainability

Managing credit risk, food safety and employee development are our top sustainability challenges, although the pursuit of savings through a reduced carbon footprint remains a priority.

Management of credit risk

In tough economic circumstances, sustainability has to be seen against a backdrop of hard business issues as well as in terms of our responsibility towards society and the environment. This year, a critical stakeholder group to our business, the restaurants we supply, have seen their turnover drop drastically. Many now pose a credit risk to our business as they hover or fall into bankruptcy. From a sustainability point of view, we have an obligation to reduce this risk, both to maintain cash flows in the short term and preserve our lines of business in the future.

Food safety and product integrity

Phasing in of the Consumer Protection Act and increased consumer awareness of food safety and quality issues give Caterplus the opportunity to leverage the company’s high standards to competitive advantage. An important outcome of this vision is the forthcoming launch of our house brand, positioned around both food safety and food quality.

We began by working with various authorities to improve food testing technology, such as DNA tracking, and will work towards building a database that can provide faster results on site.

Following engagement with customers (e.g. major restaurant franchises), we are this year employing a dedicated team to establish a policy and implementation plan for food safety and quality standards. All Caterplus suppliers will be audited and assisted to achieve the company’s industry-leading standard.

Reducing energy, waste and impact on the environment

Diesel consumption has decreased, partly as a consequence of reduced shipping volumes, but also a result of more efficient routing and investment in driver training. Generator diesel consumption was also down as a result of fewer power outages. At our new distribution centre in Cape Town similar advanced technologies to those previously pioneered at Linbro Park were employed to reduce the facility’s footprint. Initiatives include the use of low-energy lighting and the use of ammonia as a refrigerant in controlled atmosphere storage facilities.

This year we employed a specialist contractor to manage waste at Linbro Park. Cardboard packaging, plastic shrink-wrap packaging, paper and light bulbs are collected, measured, separated and dealt with according to the latest waste handling standards. This initiative provides us with a benchmark against which our environmental progress can be measured in the future.

The pilot programme to convert used cooking oil into fuel for our vehicles at the Chipkins Catering Supplies branch in George continues. Since September 2007, the branch has been buying used oil back from its customers, selling it to a local converter and buying it again for use as bio-diesel in a number of trucks in our fleet. In addition, we plant trees to partially offset our carbon footprint. The ultimate aim is to achieve carbon neutrality.

Employee engagement

Despite open and receptive engagement, the company suffered strike action during wage negotiations. Caterplus has a decentralised system of engagement with its employees, aimed at sensing and responding to issues through the most direct communication channels possible. Most employees are represented through unions and negotiate independently with each of the 29 different business units. Important forums for staff engagement are equity committees, health and safety committees and ‘green areas’ where teams communicate and share best practice in an effort to drive continual improvement. Reinforcing our commitment to good industrial relations (IR), we retrained all operations management in HR and IR skills that are directly applicable to the work situation.

In response to difficult market conditions Caterplus rationalised operations, merging four business units into two. This was achieved with the minimum impact on staff. Retrenchments were avoided.

The skills development of staff

Skills development is an ongoing challenge of high importance to both the company and its employees. Our policy is to promote talent from within and improve employment equity within the business. Every driver receives intense training in driving and customer service skills. Through this investment we have maintained last year’s improvement in accident claims as well as service levels.

In partnership with Durban University, a nine-month, supervisor management training programme has been developed, culminating in a nationally accredited certificate. The pilot programme started with 17 candidates. There are plans to roll out the programme to the rest of the country.

Impact of crime on stock shrinkage

Crime continues to be a challenge, but our investment in awareness programmes to improve employee value systems (embodied in First for Service), tighter security and improved surveillance have cut the incidence of stock theft.

Broad-based black economic empowerment through employment equity and procurement

We appointed a black female national transformation manager to drive recruitment, training and development and employment equity reporting. Reporting across all BEE indicators is improving, with particular progress being made in the registration and logging of suppliers under the DTI code of good practice procurement code.