'It’s great': M&S launches £3.80 ‘surprise bags’ of surplus bakery treats across Northern Ireland
Launched today in M&S Craigavon, the new partnership with Too Good To Go will allow customers to pick up pastries, cookies and bread worth at least £10.20 at 12 local participating M&S stores
M&S Food is teaming up with Too Good To Go to offer customers across Northern Ireland ‘Surprise Bags’ packed with surplus bakery products at a fraction of their retail price.
The bags will contain three to four items, including pastries, cookies and bread, with a minimum retail value of £10.20, for just £3.80.
The Northern Ireland launch bagan today (Tuesday) at M&S Craigavon and follows a trial in selected stores across the UK.
Customers can order the Surprise Bags through the Too Good To Go app and collect them from participating stores Monday to Saturday, one hour before closing.
Other stores taking part across Northern Ireland include M&S Abbey Centre, M&S Ballymena, M&S Banbridge, M&S Belfast, M&S Belfast Boucher Road Simply Food, M&S Belfast - Upper Road Simply Food, M&S Bangor, M&S Coleraine, M&S Crescent Link Retail Park Simply Food, M&S Lisburn, M&S Malone Lisburn Rd and M&S Newtownbreda.
The partnership forms part of M&S Food’s wider efforts to reduce food waste, with the retailer committed to halving food waste by 2030.
It comes shortly after M&S announced that more than 130 million meals had been donated to charities through the redistribution of more than 57,000 tonnes of surplus food from its stores.
M&S already has a number of measures in place to reduce food waste, including repurposing surplus bread into frozen garlic bread, selling extra-ripe bananas at reduced prices and reducing the price of unsold food before stores close.
The retailer said no food goes to landfill, with inedible food that has passed its use-by date sent for anaerobic digestion to generate renewable energy.
Ryan Lemon, regional manager at M&S, said the new partnership would give customers another way to access surplus bakery products while helping reduce waste.
He said: “It’s great to be involved in this new launch with Too Good To Go to help reduce food waste. Our in-store bakeries are incredibly popular with customers, and at the end of the day, customers will now be able to order and collect surprise bags offering fantastic surplus bakery products at great value.
"By finding new ways to re-purpose surplus products, we’re helping ensure more food is enjoyed rather than wasted. This partnership is another positive step towards reaching our goal of halving food waste by 2030.”
Chelsea Kerr, managing Ddrector at Too Good To Go UK & Ireland, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with M&S to help make their surplus food available to even more customers across the UK and Ireland.
"Food waste is a huge challenge, but partnerships like this show how simple it can be for businesses and consumers to take action together. By giving food that might otherwise go unsold another chance to be enjoyed, we’re making it easier for people to save good food while also getting great value.
"M&S is a much-loved brand across the UK, so we’re excited to be working together to make saving food from going to waste a simple and accessible part of everyday life for even more people.”