A supermarket giant Tesco

ity programme focuses on energy savings, transport efficiency, packaging optimisation and the search for more eco-friendly and lightweight raw materials.

For example, continual product development has enabled the company to drastically reduce the amount of fluff pulp – its main raw material – used in its production processes and it ensures that all its fluff pulp comes from suppliers that subscribe to responsible sourcing programmes. And every Ontex plant has an action plan to reduce electricity consumption. In fact, Ontex’s Belgian production plants are all run exclusively on renewable energy and its plant at Buggenhout has deployed a large number of solar panels on the roofs of its major warehouses – an initiative other plants are looking to follow. Also at Buggenhout, an energy recuperation unit recycles part of the mixed waste to provide energy to heat the entire site in the winter and cool it in summer.

“It is vitally important that we behave responsibly by reducing energy consumption and raw material volumes as well as minimising waste,” says Charles Bouaziz. “We are also working with our key suppliers on the development of alternative, biodegradable raw materials. But we have to also remember that the primary goal of everything we do is to satisfy our customers and consumers, and the fact is that at the moment most alternative materials cost more and, particularly in the current economic conditions, most consumers don’t want to pay any more. So we have to look to increasing the scale of our operations to get production cost economies that will help to offset the increased costs of these alternative raw materials.

“For Ontex, customers and consumers will always come first and all our operations – in R&D, production, marketing and sales – have to work together to understand their needs and then to satisfy them in ever better ways.” n

A SUPERMARKET GIANT

Tesco operates over 200 stores throughout Hungary and is now the third largest employer in the country, providing employment for over 22,000 people. Industry Europe reports on the group’s strategy to deliver the best quality, service and variety in a highly competitive market, which helped it to achieve revenues of £1,606 million in 2012.

British retail giant Tesco opened its first supermarket in Hungary in 1995. From the beginning, Tesco intended to carry out an expansion plan that covered the whole of Hungary. The aim was to establish and rapidly increase the number of stores in order to reach as many customers as possible. Now, 18 years on, as well as continuing to extend the chain of hypermarket stores, more emphasis has been placed on the establishment of local convenience stores. The point of this strategy is to attract customers during their daily shopping routines in addition to their once a week main shopping trip.