From values to value: how Charlie Bigham’s cut food waste, redistributed surplus food and saved £168,000

Problem

Charlie Bigham’s recognised that food waste reduction was the right thing to do. Their colleagues consistently voiced how strongly they disliked throwing away food, an instinct shared by the Founder, Charlie.  

Not only did food waste reduction align with their values, but they knew it would lower their environmental impact whilst offering clear cost-benefits – though for the company, they were driven and motivated by purpose, care and a collective desire to do better.

The challenge, however, was clear: to meaningfully reduce waste, the business first needed visibility into where and why food waste was occurring.

Solution

Target, measure, act

The first step for the business was to understand where and why food waste was occurring, enabling them to develop strategies to address it at source.

WRAP’s structured framework for food waste reporting helped enable this by providing clarity on measurement and practical tools for identifying hotspots. This led to several operational improvements:

• Smarter production planning: Waste mapping provided insight to tackle overproduction through better aligning volume with demand and improving ingredient efficiency.
• Examining cook yields: Looking at yields at every stage helped identify where avoidable waste was creeping in.
• Optimising processes with technology: This included recipe prepping, planning and cooking processes.

Turning surplus food into social impact

For unavoidable surplus food, Charlie Bigham’s introduced safe repurposing strategies, such as diverting ingredients to local charity partners.

This sparked valuable partnerships to not only redistribute food to FareShare South West, City Harvest and the Coronation Food Project, but also created opportunities for team volunteering days and allowed the business to give back to the communities they are part of.

Making food waste reduction part of the culture

For Charlie Bigham’s, reducing waste isn’t just an environmental target, it’s a reflection of the pride they take in the food they produce. To embed this mindset into their everyday culture, the business ran food waste reduction awareness raising workshops alongside implementing the identified operational changes.

These sessions helped overcome challenges such as some teams initially viewing waste as an inevitable part of food production. By sharing real data and demonstrating how small changes could make measurable impact, teams began to see waste reduction as central to quality, not just an additional task.

The result was genuine, cross-team buy-in and a cultural shift that continues to grow.

Impact

Operational changes such as recipe optimisation delivered £165,000 in ingredient savings in FY2025, compared with their 2021 baseline, alongside £3,000 in reduced waste collection costs. Through their charity partnerships, the business has redistributed 350,000 meals from surplus food.

Beyond the numbers, the biggest difference has been the cultural shift. Food waste reduction is now second nature and is called out routinely by the kitchen teams where risks still exist. Across the business, teams are deeply engaged, taking pride in ensuring nothing is wasted. A shared sense of responsibility and excitement in leading the way, continues to inspire them to push further.

Their food waste reduction journey has been transformational for Charlie Bigham’s. A previously ambitious target – achieving zero excess operational food waste* by 2025 – is now embedded in how they work.  

Small, consistent actions have added up to significant reductions, creating real pride across all teams. This success has been championed by everyone, from stakeholders and operations through to leadership, with Charlie himself setting the tone from the top.

^{*This excludes less avoidable waste such as inedible parts, food waste in effluent and food waste from essential quality and safety testing; however, the business continues to explore ways to tackle these food waste sources as well.}

WRAP, the UK Food and Drink Pact, and the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap have played a vital role in our food waste reduction. The structured framework gave us clarity on how to measure waste consistently, while providing practical tools to identify hotspots. It gave us the initial push to more closely monitor our food waste data. Most importantly, being part of this initiative has helped us focus on long-term, sustainable improvements, ensuring food waste reduction is embedded into our culture and future planning.

Claire Gibbs, Head of Food and Sustainability