In the pilot phase, all plastic bags were removed from the fruit and vegetable sections of all Bio-Planet stores
Image: Colruyt Group launches national roll-out of reusable bags. Photo: Courtesy of cocoparisienne from Pixabay.
In the coming weeks, Colruyt Group will make every effort to make the use of reusable bags for fruit and vegetables a habit from 2020. From 9 October 2019, the group will start its national roll-out of the bags, building on the lessons learned from the pilot phase in 51 stores.
The pilot stores, including all Bio-Planet stores, replaced their single-use plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable section with an alternative that can be reused up to a hundred times. To make the transition as smooth as possible, all Xtra customers will receive a free set of five bags when they buy fruit and vegetables in the stores of Colruyt Lowest Prices, Spar Colruyt Group, OKay and OKay Compact stores. This special offer runs until 1 January 2020 and is supported by an information campaign that focuses on the benefits that using reusable bags can bring.
There will also be tips on how to turn the use of reusable bags into a new habit as soon as possible, so that everyone can ultimately make a contribution to a better environment. Colruyt Group will stop using single-use plastic bags in all 579 food stores on 2 January 2020.
Colruyt Group aims to support its customers during this important change
In the pilot phase, all plastic bags were removed from the fruit and vegetable sections of all Bio-Planet stores on 19 June. This also happened in some twenty Colruyt, OKay, OKay Compact and Spar Colruyt Group stores near Lier, Kortrijk, Bergen and Dinant. All the Xtra customers of these stores were then given a free set of five reusable bags when they bought fruit or vegetables.
Christophe Dehandschutter, sales director at Colruyt and manager of the project: “The reusable bags were very well received by our customers. This clearly illustrates their motivation and that of our employees to make an active contribution to the ecological transition. It is also confirmed by the fact that we did not see any negative effect on the sale of fruit and vegetables in our pilot stores. In fact, the reusable bags were also popular in stores that were not in the pilot phase. In the end, we received many positive reactions in-store, on social media and by customer service. We used this feedback to fine-tune our communication, working methods and timing for the national roll-out. We really want to do everything we can to make things as easy as possible for our customers.”
Source: Company Press Release