October 6, 2025 • 12 mins
Welcome to another episode of Retail Reckoning! In today’s show, host Clare Bailey looks into how sustainability and supply chain resilience are no longer just buzzwords - they’re powerful drivers of profit and customer loyalty.
With supply chain disruptions becoming the norm and eco-conscious consumers pushing brands to do better, retailers are faced with new challenges and opportunities.
Clare unpacks the latest risks shaking up the retail landscape, explores the shift towards near shoring and greater transparency, and reveals why greener operations don’t just help the planet—they can boost your bottom line too.
From real-world examples like Aldi and Innocent to actionable steps for building trust and trimming waste, this episode is packed with insights for anyone ready to future-proof their retail business and win over the next wave of customers.
Click play and discover how thinking green can help you stay in the black!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Sustainability isn't just a gimmick, it's a profit driver. And if
you're not sustainable and your competition are, you're going to miss out
on customers who'll move over to those who can make them feel like it's easy
work to do the right thing.
Supply chains and sustainability aren't luxury add ons, they're
(00:21):
frontline strategy. Disruption is baseline.
Eco consciousness is a profit defense. Name your
top three supply chain risks right now without potential closing. Go.
(00:48):
Okay, so permanent disruption, what does that really mean?
47% of UK businesses have reported disruption in the past year,
with 60% saying supply line was more brittle than ever.
Drivers are inflation as declared in mid August
at 3.8%. Energy costs, Ukraine, war,
Red Sea issues. It's coming out of all sources
(01:12):
and we know as the industry that stock issues
are a major problem. Retailers have lost
billions. Delayed stock, disrupted inventory,
cyber attacks. M and S claim they lost around
300 million and a billion
off their valuation, according to AP News, due to
(01:34):
everything that happened to them. We've got to build redundancy,
diversify supplier base and scenario plan for disruption
because disruption is no longer uncommon. It's
the norm. And what does that even mean? What we need to look at
is being more nimble and being able to pivot. There's a couple
of brands who I've noted are working more on near
(01:56):
Shoring. What I mean by that is they're not reliant on
routes out of China, India, Pakistan and so on.
They're near shoring, perhaps to Europe and the UK.
Fat Face and Jules. The PwC
have noted that retail tech investment is up 10% year on year
for things like point of sale, inventory planning,
(02:18):
AI forecasting and lean operations. So
lots of the businesses in this sector, the bigger guys,
are finding ways to be more flexible,
I guess, and more able to respond to the chaos
that we see in the world. I mean, we haven't even talked about tariffs.
Near Shoring appears to be the best choice for
(02:41):
now. It may change in the future. But if you can get
UK or relatively close EU supply
and that there is some level of security
of the supply chain, that would be the best option. Despite it
probably being higher cost on the product. But is it
really higher cost? When you think about the cost of lost
(03:03):
inventory, containers stuck in the Red Sea, containers being
hijacked and so on, it feels sometimes like the world's gone a bit
mad. So my advice would be to test regional
and more local options, investing in
much more transparency about the supply chain and speed of
supply. So you've got much more agility, meaning
(03:26):
if a product takes off and you're on a six month lead time from China,
you can't respond. But if you're on a one month lead time from say,
France, you can. You need to reduce reliance on single points
of failure. That's been the case for supply chains for years. And with the way
things are in the global economies, there is no other
choice but to really work on creating some
(03:49):
level of resilience and also much closer sourcing
options. The other
thing when it comes to supply chains is people are looking at
carbon miles. They're far more cautious,
let's say, about where they spend than they ever were.
Certainly Gen Z. And they are the next generation of
(04:11):
consumers. They may not have the spending power just yet, but they
are your next wave of customers. So I think you need to use
sustainability as a profit engine. 64% of
UK customers are saying they will pay more for green,
whatever that means to them. I mean, you know, define that, but
the point is a third are already switching to
(04:34):
brands because of their ethics and that's coming out of people like
Vogue Business and so on. We do know there is a
growing and burgeoning trend towards
greener and more sustainable products and services.
Aldi have ditched non recyclable packaging by 2026
according to their statements. And I think that that says an awful lot
(04:56):
because as a lower cost provider they are moving
towards also being a lower cost and most
ethical provider. Now, Ms. Have had plan A for many,
many years because there is no plan B. But it's true
if the businesses tell their shoppers
that by shopping with them you're doing the right thing for the planet
(05:18):
without even trying. It drives loyalty, it makes the
lazy consumer much more aligned to our brand.
Yes, you've got the zero waste shops where you can take something and refill
it and so on, but that's more hassle y than Aldi telling
us that they'll have no non recyclable packaging. M and s
telling us everything they do is going to be as green as possible because that
(05:41):
just makes our lives that bit easier. So I would say for any business, large
or small, you've got to make your sustainability
credentials visible and you need
to translate it into the marketing and in store experience. Sell the
story. I've seen some brilliant imagery in co ops.
I was in Lincolnshire at the time, so I think it would be under Lincolnshire
(06:02):
co op. All credit to them. They had images of wind turbines in
the toilets, but it sold the story and it was
everywhere. And you felt like by shopping with them you were doing the right
thing. I would say if you can make your customers
feel like by shopping with you they are doing the right thing, then you're going
to win. That kind of
(06:25):
leads us to storytelling versus trust.
If you've got information about something, sustainability,
supply chains, ethical purchasing and so on, whether that
be through trained staff, QR codes on products that
someone can click to find out more, labels which carry the
clear messaging, I think there's a red tractor, isn't there, in the sustainability
(06:47):
for food and so on. All of that goes a long way.
And I think one of the brands that I feel is the most innovative
in this or certainly has been a leader is
Innocent. Because you'd get your little smoothie with telling a story. It's
got a funky picture on it sometimes. It wore a little woolly hat
too, which is quite funny and innocent. Told us about
(07:09):
where the food had come from and it told us about how it was made
and so on. And more and more brands are doing that now and
I can see a quiet shift towards
those brands that feel more honest and
more aligned to our personal values and our care
for the planet, for those of us that care. So my advice on
(07:31):
this is you need to be really authentic.
Customers have got to see you as real. You need to make sure that
staff are well trained so that if customers talk to them, they know
exactly how to get across the positioning, the messaging and
tell the story and even down to products and
labeling. It needs to somehow relate them back to something that
(07:54):
they can buy into. Not just because
it's a good value for money product or because it's
something they fancy buying, but because when they buy
it, it makes them feel good about themselves. And that's
really, really important. Similarly linked to
my earlier episode, I just want to reinforce that
(08:16):
heritage doesn't mean impunity because
despite the fact a company may have been going for years,
literally hundreds of years, the evidence from Woolworths,
Debenhams, Clares, River Island, WH
Smith, it proves that being trusted
isn't enough and that the legacy of those businesses in the
(08:38):
years they've traded isn't protection against the economic stresses
everybody's feeling these days, we need to constantly
reevaluate and pivot businesses where necessary
because consumers expectations are changing.
So what more could those businesses have done? For example, to show
that they were reducing wastage, that they were being more sustainable? What
(09:00):
stories were they not telling that they might have been able to tell.
And that's the sad fact. Lots of businesses
almost become complacent and think, well, you know, we've been around for years,
we're doing really well, but they're not telling the stories that are relevant to
today and to today's customer. And unfortunately, that
means they're losing their customers to other people.
(09:23):
The other issue I've got with supply chains is wastage.
Wastage is basically lost profit. 40%
of retailers reported cost savings in the first year of their
eco investments by looking at lean packaging
and inventory management in a much more focused lens.
Because less waste was better margin. It
(09:47):
stands to reason that's what the Japanese car industry did
in, I believe, the 80s or 90s with the kaizen culture.
They worked on kaizen, which meant reduced waste.
I think the word for it was muda. Kaizen,
or total quality management, as it became known, was all about
reducing waste to increase profitability. And that's why the Japanese car
(10:09):
industry did so well. And simply by
doing the right thing, you can actually increase profits. But the
principle is you invest in lean
packaging, lean inventory and eco
efficiency and you will make more profit. It stands to
reason. You can tell the eco story on your social media, your
(10:30):
website, your blog, your packaging and so on, but you also make more money.
So my advice would be look at your waste, optimize your stock
levels, make sure your supply chain is efficient and functional, and remove
inefficiencies that are going to leak margin effectively. It's all
about auditing past errors, shoring up the supply
chain, getting rid of dross, as we said in one of the earlier
(10:52):
episodes, making sure that you eliminate the long tail of
underperforming products, small operational fixes,
but many of them result in significant financial
gains later. So to wrap up,
supply and sustainability aren't just corporate social responsibility,
they are power plays. Relying on heritage
(11:14):
leaky supply chain and forgetting to tell your story,
that's your decline path. Retail winners this year and
next are pivoting packaging. Well, persuading
customers and convincing people that by buying from
them, they're doing the right thing as well as satisfying their own needs.
I'm Claire Bailey, retail champion, and you've been listening to Retail reckoning.
(11:38):
Yeah. Retail reckoning.
Retail reckoning. No space for
dusty shelves. Cause retail
reckoning owns the floor. It.
Sustainability isn't just a gimmick, it's a profit driver. And if
you're not sustainable and your competition are, you're going to miss out
on customers who'll move over to those who can make them feel like it's easy
work to do the right thing.
Supply chains and sustainability aren't luxury add ons, they're
(00:21):
frontline strategy. Disruption is baseline.
Eco consciousness is a profit defense. Name your
top three supply chain risks right now without potential closing. Go.
(00:48):
Okay, so permanent disruption, what does that really mean?
47% of UK businesses have reported disruption in the past year,
with 60% saying supply line was more brittle than ever.
Drivers are inflation as declared in mid August
at 3.8%. Energy costs, Ukraine, war,
Red Sea issues. It's coming out of all sources
(01:12):
and we know as the industry that stock issues
are a major problem. Retailers have lost
billions. Delayed stock, disrupted inventory,
cyber attacks. M and S claim they lost around
300 million and a billion
off their valuation, according to AP News, due to
(01:34):
everything that happened to them. We've got to build redundancy,
diversify supplier base and scenario plan for disruption
because disruption is no longer uncommon. It's
the norm. And what does that even mean? What we need to look at
is being more nimble and being able to pivot. There's a couple
of brands who I've noted are working more on near
(01:56):
Shoring. What I mean by that is they're not reliant on
routes out of China, India, Pakistan and so on.
They're near shoring, perhaps to Europe and the UK.
Fat Face and Jules. The PwC
have noted that retail tech investment is up 10% year on year
for things like point of sale, inventory planning,
(02:18):
AI forecasting and lean operations. So
lots of the businesses in this sector, the bigger guys,
are finding ways to be more flexible,
I guess, and more able to respond to the chaos
that we see in the world. I mean, we haven't even talked about tariffs.
Near Shoring appears to be the best choice for
(02:41):
now. It may change in the future. But if you can get
UK or relatively close EU supply
and that there is some level of security
of the supply chain, that would be the best option. Despite it
probably being higher cost on the product. But is it
really higher cost? When you think about the cost of lost
(03:03):
inventory, containers stuck in the Red Sea, containers being
hijacked and so on, it feels sometimes like the world's gone a bit
mad. So my advice would be to test regional
and more local options, investing in
much more transparency about the supply chain and speed of
supply. So you've got much more agility, meaning
(03:26):
if a product takes off and you're on a six month lead time from China,
you can't respond. But if you're on a one month lead time from say,
France, you can. You need to reduce reliance on single points
of failure. That's been the case for supply chains for years. And with the way
things are in the global economies, there is no other
choice but to really work on creating some
(03:49):
level of resilience and also much closer sourcing
options. The other
thing when it comes to supply chains is people are looking at
carbon miles. They're far more cautious,
let's say, about where they spend than they ever were.
Certainly Gen Z. And they are the next generation of
(04:11):
consumers. They may not have the spending power just yet, but they
are your next wave of customers. So I think you need to use
sustainability as a profit engine. 64% of
UK customers are saying they will pay more for green,
whatever that means to them. I mean, you know, define that, but
the point is a third are already switching to
(04:34):
brands because of their ethics and that's coming out of people like
Vogue Business and so on. We do know there is a
growing and burgeoning trend towards
greener and more sustainable products and services.
Aldi have ditched non recyclable packaging by 2026
according to their statements. And I think that that says an awful lot
(04:56):
because as a lower cost provider they are moving
towards also being a lower cost and most
ethical provider. Now, Ms. Have had plan A for many,
many years because there is no plan B. But it's true
if the businesses tell their shoppers
that by shopping with them you're doing the right thing for the planet
(05:18):
without even trying. It drives loyalty, it makes the
lazy consumer much more aligned to our brand.
Yes, you've got the zero waste shops where you can take something and refill
it and so on, but that's more hassle y than Aldi telling
us that they'll have no non recyclable packaging. M and s
telling us everything they do is going to be as green as possible because that
(05:41):
just makes our lives that bit easier. So I would say for any business, large
or small, you've got to make your sustainability
credentials visible and you need
to translate it into the marketing and in store experience. Sell the
story. I've seen some brilliant imagery in co ops.
I was in Lincolnshire at the time, so I think it would be under Lincolnshire
(06:02):
co op. All credit to them. They had images of wind turbines in
the toilets, but it sold the story and it was
everywhere. And you felt like by shopping with them you were doing the right
thing. I would say if you can make your customers
feel like by shopping with you they are doing the right thing, then you're going
to win. That kind of
(06:25):
leads us to storytelling versus trust.
If you've got information about something, sustainability,
supply chains, ethical purchasing and so on, whether that
be through trained staff, QR codes on products that
someone can click to find out more, labels which carry the
clear messaging, I think there's a red tractor, isn't there, in the sustainability
(06:47):
for food and so on. All of that goes a long way.
And I think one of the brands that I feel is the most innovative
in this or certainly has been a leader is
Innocent. Because you'd get your little smoothie with telling a story. It's
got a funky picture on it sometimes. It wore a little woolly hat
too, which is quite funny and innocent. Told us about
(07:09):
where the food had come from and it told us about how it was made
and so on. And more and more brands are doing that now and
I can see a quiet shift towards
those brands that feel more honest and
more aligned to our personal values and our care
for the planet, for those of us that care. So my advice on
(07:31):
this is you need to be really authentic.
Customers have got to see you as real. You need to make sure that
staff are well trained so that if customers talk to them, they know
exactly how to get across the positioning, the messaging and
tell the story and even down to products and
labeling. It needs to somehow relate them back to something that
(07:54):
they can buy into. Not just because
it's a good value for money product or because it's
something they fancy buying, but because when they buy
it, it makes them feel good about themselves. And that's
really, really important. Similarly linked to
my earlier episode, I just want to reinforce that
(08:16):
heritage doesn't mean impunity because
despite the fact a company may have been going for years,
literally hundreds of years, the evidence from Woolworths,
Debenhams, Clares, River Island, WH
Smith, it proves that being trusted
isn't enough and that the legacy of those businesses in the
(08:38):
years they've traded isn't protection against the economic stresses
everybody's feeling these days, we need to constantly
reevaluate and pivot businesses where necessary
because consumers expectations are changing.
So what more could those businesses have done? For example, to show
that they were reducing wastage, that they were being more sustainable? What
(09:00):
stories were they not telling that they might have been able to tell.
And that's the sad fact. Lots of businesses
almost become complacent and think, well, you know, we've been around for years,
we're doing really well, but they're not telling the stories that are relevant to
today and to today's customer. And unfortunately, that
means they're losing their customers to other people.
(09:23):
The other issue I've got with supply chains is wastage.
Wastage is basically lost profit. 40%
of retailers reported cost savings in the first year of their
eco investments by looking at lean packaging
and inventory management in a much more focused lens.
Because less waste was better margin. It
(09:47):
stands to reason that's what the Japanese car industry did
in, I believe, the 80s or 90s with the kaizen culture.
They worked on kaizen, which meant reduced waste.
I think the word for it was muda. Kaizen,
or total quality management, as it became known, was all about
reducing waste to increase profitability. And that's why the Japanese car
(10:09):
industry did so well. And simply by
doing the right thing, you can actually increase profits. But the
principle is you invest in lean
packaging, lean inventory and eco
efficiency and you will make more profit. It stands to
reason. You can tell the eco story on your social media, your
(10:30):
website, your blog, your packaging and so on, but you also make more money.
So my advice would be look at your waste, optimize your stock
levels, make sure your supply chain is efficient and functional, and remove
inefficiencies that are going to leak margin effectively. It's all
about auditing past errors, shoring up the supply
chain, getting rid of dross, as we said in one of the earlier
(10:52):
episodes, making sure that you eliminate the long tail of
underperforming products, small operational fixes,
but many of them result in significant financial
gains later. So to wrap up,
supply and sustainability aren't just corporate social responsibility,
they are power plays. Relying on heritage
(11:14):
leaky supply chain and forgetting to tell your story,
that's your decline path. Retail winners this year and
next are pivoting packaging. Well, persuading
customers and convincing people that by buying from
them, they're doing the right thing as well as satisfying their own needs.
I'm Claire Bailey, retail champion, and you've been listening to Retail reckoning.
(11:38):
Yeah. Retail reckoning.
Retail reckoning. No space for
dusty shelves. Cause retail
reckoning owns the floor. It.
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