Henderson Technology, the Henderson Group company which is revolutionising retailing technology, is celebrating two significant wins after collecting the ‘Innovative Business of the Year’ award at the Business Eye Awards, and ‘Mobile App of the Year’ award for its partnership with the team at Gander and successful launch of the Gander App at the recent inaugural Belfast Telegraph IT Awards.

Northern Ireland’s leading business awards took place at ICC Belfast, with the category claimed by Henderson Technology being awarded for innovation in action, as well as evidence of how innovation has helped to contribute to business success.

Judges said that, “Henderson Technology’s growth from an in-house IT department into a successful exporting company and a clear innovator in the field of point of sale technology made the company a stand-out winner in a highly competitive category.”

One such example of Henderson Technology’s innovation in practice was recognised at the Belfast Telegraph IT Awards ceremony at The MAC, Belfast, which served to recognise the best people, products and companies in one of the most important and fastest growing sectors of the Northern Ireland economy.

Gander is the world’s first real-time mobile app, developed to help food stores clear significantly more of its reduced to clear, often yellow labelled, food produce.

As items are stickered in store, they are displayed on the app and once that item is sold it is automatically removed, providing an instant feed of all reductions in-store at any time, making it simple and effective for the shopper.

Henderson Technology partnered with Gander in 2019 to bring this sustainable technology solution to life in stores supplied by the Henderson Group in Northern Ireland under the SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOxtra brands, via its award-winning EDGEPoS System.

Judges commented that this is, “A truly original app that delivers multiple benefits. Firstly, enabling local shoppers to achieve greater cost savings from their groceries. Secondly, providing business with an avenue to increase revenue.

“But in addition, this app helps to solve a huge widespread societal difficulty – the reduction of food waste. An innovative and necessary app which has an extensive potential market.”

Environmentally, food waste is an increasing global crisis, with a large proportion of it completely avoidable. From a business perspective, reduced food can cost retailers up to 7% of their turnover.

Darren Nickels, Head of Henderson Technology said, “It has been exciting to have partnered with Gander to bring this unique initiative to life in an industry global first, and to introduce it to the Northern Ireland market. We are of course very proud to have this work then recognised at the first annual Belfast Telegraph IT Awards.

“As an innovative and forward-thinking technology supplier, we are committed to helping all our retailers reduce food waste. As part of the Henderson Group, we believe that initiatives like this will help us tackle the moral and environmental problems associated with avoidable food waste.

“It has also been an opportunity to provide our retailers with means to increase revenue otherwise lost to waste and increase footfall. We are looking forward to seeing this app grow and to witnessing its positive impact for our retailers, loyal shoppers and the environment.”

The Gander app can be downloaded via the Apple or Android app stores and used to locate reduced items at your nearest SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and ViVOxtra store.

Gander is rolling out across the UK and ROI following the successful launch of the app in NI, to help drastically reduce waste at a National level.

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