Greene King, the country’s leading pub company and brewer, is continuing its commitment to cut waste in its pubs by working with Too Good To Go to save thousands of surplus pints of cask ale from the drain.
Sadly, far too many pints of this quality, fresh product are thrown away in pubs across the UK every year, as it reaches its best by date. Greene King’s Magic Pints initiative will reduce this wastage. Following a successful trial during the 2021 lockdown, the Magic Pints initiative has now been extended in Greene King’s Destination Food Brands pubs throughout the country, encompassing around 650 pubs. This will be rolled out across the rest of the managed estate, around 900 further pubs, throughout 2022.
Too Good To Go lets people buy surplus food and drink through its app to stop it from going to waste. This Magic Pints scheme follows on from the successful Greene King and Too Good To Go partnership in its carvery pubs which saves leftover carvery food from going to waste.
To enjoy Greene King surplus pints of cask ale, simply download the free Too Good To Go app and search for the local Greene King pub with unsold produce. Then purchase your Magic Pints bag, which will contain four pints of excess cask ale for a price of £5.75, collect it at the allotted time and take it home to enjoy! The Magic Pints bag is fully reusable too.
Andy Wilson MBE, managing director of Greene King’s Destination Food Brands pubs said: “Reducing waste is really important to us, so this is a brilliant way to stop great cask ale being thrown away needlessly. It’s so easy to just check the app, see what’s available nearby, buy it and then go and pick it up. It’s good for the customer, it’s good for the pub and it’s good for the planet.”
Already over 2,500 pints of cask ale have been saved from wastage from just 50 pubs in two weeks.
Paschalis Loucaides, Too Good to Go Managing Director added: “I’m delighted to be expanding our partnership with Greene King with the launch of our new Magic Pints offering. We’ve already seen amazing results since we launched our partnership back in 2018, including during our Magic Pints trial last year, and so I’m excited to take our partnership to even greater heights with this new initiative. Our recent survey found that beer and cider are the most likely items to go to waste in pubs and this not only carries a huge cost for businesses, but it is greatly impacting our planet too. That’s why it is fantastic to see Greene King leading the way when it comes to drinks waste in the pub industry – I can’t wait to see the impact we’re going to have together”.
ENDS
Notes to editors
About Greene King
- Greene King was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. It currently employs around 40,000 people across its five divisions: Local Pubs; Destination Food Brands; Premium, Urban and Venture Brands; Pub Partners; and Brewing & Brands.
- It operates c.2,600 pubs, restaurants and hotels across England, Wales and Scotland, of which c.1,600 are retail pubs, restaurants and hotels in the Locals, Destinations and Premium, Urban and Venture divisions, and c.1,000 are tenanted and leased pubs in its Pub Partners division. Its leading retail brands and formats include Hungry Horse, Farmhouse Inns and Chef & Brewer.
- The Brewing & Brands division covers the brewing sides of the business, with quality ale brands brewed at the Greene King brewery in Bury St Edmunds and the Belhaven Brewery in Dunbar. The industry-leading portfolio includes Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale, Ice Breaker and Belhaven Best.
About Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go has a simple mission: to make sure all food gets eaten, not wasted.
In 2016, a group of entrepreneurs witnessed restaurant staff throwing away fresh food. The food’s only problem? It hadn’t sold in time, and no one was around to take it off the restaurant’s hands. The group pioneered a seamless solution: an app that lists businesses’ unsold food so local diners can find, buy and enjoy it.
Now, thousands of Magic Bags are rescued from businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants, and bakeries every day. The success of the app powers Too Good To Go’s wider efforts to drive a food waste movement, working with schools, industries and governments to build a planet-friendly food system.
Press release from Greene King
For further information, please contact pressoffice@greeneking.co.uk