Aldi Süd and Nord rely on more sustainable packaging

Author: Osman Cetinkaya
Date: 15.01.2019

Partnership with start-up sponsorship program

ALDI Süd and ALDI Nord are now cooperating with the start-up accelerator program TechFounders. The aim is to reduce plastic consumption and promote solutions and innovations in the field of packaging.

ALDI Süd and ALDI Nord are the first supermarket chains to cooperate with the start-up accelerator and the TechFounders program. The program itself has been on the market since 2014 and brings start-ups together with large companies. The partnership will help ALDI to find innovative start-ups more easily.

Less packaging thanks to innovative start up solutions

ALDI Süd and ALDI Nord want to use various measures to significantly reduce the volume of waste, according to the motto: “Avoid. Reuse. Recycling”. The aim is to reduce the use of packaging materials by up to 30 percent by 2025. In addition, by the end of 2022, 100 percent of ALDI’s private label packaging should be recyclable.

Rayk Mende, Managing Director Corporate Responsibility and Quality Assurance at ALDI Nord, comments: “With this partnership, we would like to actively support young founders and promote the topic of plastic reduction and sustainable packaging in the industry together with them”. In the course of the partnership, the focus will not only be on financial support for the start-ups. ALDI would like to support the participants also as a source of inspiration and as a mentor.

Already in July 2017 ALDI took measures and decided to abolish the disposable plastic bags and to demand 20 cents instead of 10 cents for the bags until the final sale. The earnings generated in this way will be used entirely for sustainable projects, including the support programme. “We are delighted that the partnership gives us the opportunity to promote innovative start-ups and, if possible, find new marketable packaging solutions together. At the same time, as an established company, ALDI is dependent on innovative ideas to remain well positioned in the area of responsibility in the future,” says Philipp Skorning, Group Buying Director at ALDI SÜD and responsible for Quality & Corporate Responsibility.

Comprehensive training programme for participants

In a first step, the food chains will search for start-ups for innovative cooperation projects together with TechFounders. Once these are found, a 20-week TechFounders accelerator program follows in which the start-ups further develop their ideas and business models. In addition to the cooperation project, the accelerator program offers start-ups comprehensive coaching on topics such as pitching, business case, HR, sales & marketing, venture capital, legal topics and contacts with top-class mentors.

“We identify the most exciting start-ups for ALDI SÜD and ALDI Nord worldwide and initiate pilot projects to develop sustainable packaging and approaches to avoiding packaging. Our strength is that we understand the needs of both, start-ups and established companies. Cooperation is a win-win situation for both sides: ALDI benefits from the innovative strength and agility of the start-ups, the founders from individual coaching and our unique network of mentors and investors” says Heiko Huber, Managing Director at TechFounders.