Environmental award winning Spirit Pub Company has selected Specialist Waste Recycling (SWR) as its waste management partner over the coming years to develop its industry leading and forward thinking approach to recycling, waste management and waste minimisation.
The multi-million pound deal builds on other projects that the companies have been working on together in recent years and will see SWR manage the waste collections, including residual general waste and glass, from all Spirit managed pubs. SWR's operations team is migrating all 789 pubs across to its service in an intensive five-week project; a core capability that was an important factor in Spirit's partner selection.
The partnership involves other companies in Spirit's supply chain working together to help Spirit achieve its operational and environmental goals. The majority of recyclable material produced in pubs is backhauled by Kuehne + Nagel (K+N), Spirit's food logistics provider, to central hubs where it is bulked up by K+N and then managed to best effect by SWR.
This unique arrangement is both operationally efficient and provides SWR a complete view of Spirit's waste, enabling highly detailed reporting and analysis. This view will provide the ability to identify further improvement opportunities as the partnership evolves.
Spirit has also installed SWR's Smash & Grab glass crushing machines into the majority of its London pubs where space is at a premium. Having the volume of glass bottles reduced has facilitated the backhaul of glass from these pubs by K+N providing significant savings and freeing up valuable floor space back of house.
Vance Fairman-Smith, Spirit's Head of Supply Chain, said: "Having already achieved a great deal in the area of waste and recycling we needed a partner that was genuinely innovative and flexible in approach in order that we can continue to develop and improve our sustainable practices. We have found SWR unique in its willingness and ability to help Spirit drive this agenda and work right across our supply chain, and now we are live, SWR's service delivery has really impressed us. The roll out has been very efficient and highly professional."
Giles Whiteley, CEO at SWR, said: "Everyone at SWR is really pleased to be extending our working relationship with Spirit. Our capabilities are an extremely good fit for their needs but more importantly both companies share an ethos of improvement and challenging the status quo. The word partnership is often used too readily but that is the genuine approach to this relationship."