A new tech solution that brings together logistics providers, retailers and manufacturers is hoping to save food redistribution charity, Felix, millions of pounds in transportation costs, and transform how the sectors work together. Today marks the launch of the first stage of the new platform.
The initiative sees Sainsbury’s come together with GXO, Greencore, Tesco, M&S and Gist. With early support from BCG and Baringa, the group has developed and is trialling the new technology which acts as a ‘mission control’, matching surplus food that needs to be delivered to charities, with spare space on lorries, already travelling across the country. The AI allows it to be both tailored and nimble.
The transformative platform goes beyond transportation, enabling shared visibility of spare factory line capacity, raw ingredients, packaging opportunities, and more, so even more surplus food can reach charities through partnerships across the food industry.
Eight million people go hungry in the UK, 2.1 million of them children according to the Food Foundation, yet most frontline charities say they can’t meet demand for food. The new platform hopes to address this. The project is being led by Alliance Food Sourcing (AFS), a coalition of over 50 leading food companies, convened by Felix and the Institute of Grocery Distributors (IGD).
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Felix (formerly The Felix Project and FareShare) is the UK’s leading food distribution charity and supports more than 8,000 charities and community groups. In 2025, it spent over £5.6 million on logistics, moving 80,000 pallets to 33 distribution centres.
At the same time, approximately 30% of all HGV journeys have spare capacity, according to the Department for Transport. The new technology aims to close this gap, matching Felix food deliveries with spare space on lorries, to get more surplus food to people who need it.
Early trials on track to generate £170,000 in cost savings
Trials with just two partners – Sainsbury’s and GXO – are on track to move 5,300 tonnes of food, save 42,885 road miles and 62.9 tonnes of CO₂, and deliver £170,000 in cost savings, in just six months. Once scaled up across the food industry, it will cut food waste, transport costs and the number of vehicles on the road, ensuring a more efficient distribution of food to charities. It’s also expected to lead to more offers of surplus food by organisations, due to the enhanced access to transportation.
Calling on the food industry to join
AFS is now calling on more food and logistics businesses to join the initiative as it expands trials across the country.
The model will be tested further over the next six months, with the potential to save Felix £1 million in the first full year of rollout.
Partner activity so far
- Sainsbury’s and GXO are offering free consultancy and logistics support – they’ve identified 10 routes for moving Felix food, with estimated savings of around £170,000 over 6 months.
- Greencore is already providing twice-weekly movements within London, free of charge, with projected annual savings of around £18,000.
- Tesco is providing free consultancy to the project.
- M&S and Gist have committed to providing free consultancy and logistics support.
Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s, said: “We believe partnership is key to driving positive change. Our ambitious trial with GXO aimed to optimise our combined transportation networks and reduce the costs involved in distributing food for the incredible charities tackling food insecurity. In our trial alone, we’re looking at charity savings of £170,000. With more businesses coming on board, the potential to scale this up is significant, helping charities direct more of their resources where they matter most, to get more food to people facing hunger.”
Richard Smith, director of food innovation at Felix, said: “This is a really innovative piece of work. Transportation costs Felix millions of pounds a year, and since the conflict in Iran these have risen substantially. Yet these are costs we cannot cut; we need to get the food in and then back out to the over 8,000 charities and community organisations we support. Without our logistics, this food would never reach the millions who need it most. To know this new tech could save so much money is phenomenal, and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped so far.”
Gavin Williams, CEO of GXO UK & Ireland, said: “We’re proud to support a project that helps get more food to people who need it while reducing waste across the supply chain. By bringing together organisations, technology and logistics expertise, this initiative shows how existing transport networks can be used in smarter ways to create meaningful social impact. We’re pleased to be contributing our operational knowledge and transport capabilities to help build a scalable solution that benefits charities and communities across the UK.”
Darren Binns, head of logistics, Greencore said: “It’s brilliant to see the industry coming together to tackle such an important issue, and we’re proud that Greencore can play a part. By making use of spare capacity on our HGV fleet, we can help get more surplus food to charities while reducing transport costs. It’s a simple idea, but one that shows how technology can help the industry go further to make a real difference.”
Nicky Robinson, drector of AFS, said: “AFS brings different businesses together to collaborate and find joint solutions. This new AI-driven tech is a great example of that – matching offers of surplus food with space in lorries and logistics expertise, to get more food to frontline charities more efficiently. We believe the new platform could save up to £1 million of charity costs in the first year of rollout, and we’d love to have even more food and logistics businesses join us, to scale it up further.”
The initiative supports the Government’s National Programme to redistribute surplus food, which aims to triple charitable food redistribution over the next decade.
As every organisation’s network is different, the prototype platform is being co-designed by businesses for ease of use regardless of systems, and around two main types of transport opportunity:
- Fixed route services: Where hauliers have regular and recurring delivery routes that coincide with existing Felix routes and will allow Felix to add pallets
- Near-term movements: Where ad hoc food offers can be added to the platform and then picked up by logistics providers 4–24 hours ahead, in a more reactive way
