Winnow Solutions Asia – Business Development Intern

Food waste costs the developed world Hospitality industry $65bn per annum, primarily due to wasted food purchasing costs, but also wasted labour, energy, and disposal costs. We at Winnow believe that food is far to valuable to waste, and that technology can transform the way we produce food. Our team is made of people who all share a passion for food and technology.

Winnow was founded in London, UK in 2013.  Based the successful application of its technology to over 150 sites across the UK, Winnow is now bringing its offering to other parts of the world.  To that end, Winnow is establishing relationships and a presence in various regions, including other European countries, as well as a subsidiary in Singapore with local representatives to serve the APAC market (Winnow Asia). 

This internship offers a unique opportunity to become involved in one of the hottest areas of sustainability, with a rapidly growing startup.

Winnow has now worked with approximately 150 sites to reduce food waste, including hotels, universities and schools, staff restaurants, event/hospitality kitchens, buffets, pubs, and high street restaurants.  Where the system is permanently adopted, pre-consumer waste value is reduced by 50% - 70% over 2 - 12 months, and maintained at these levels, with no detrimental impact to the perceived quality or value of the offer to their customers, and a net saving of staff time due to reduced food preparation and waste handling.  This represents a typical improvement of food gross margins by 2% to 4%, commonly a 40%+ increase in profitability for restaurants.

Savings come primarily from chefs and kitchen teams making better decisions with better data; what you can measure, you can manage.  Some changes may be structural (e.g., layout changes to the offer), and so can be maintained without ongoing monitoring. However, most improvements are driven by behavioral change, and thus require ongoing monitoring to maintain.  We have tested this by removing Winnow and re-introducing it after 1 to 3 months at London restaurants such as The Shed and The Table.  In these tests, waste increased by 30% to 50% from the level achieved and sustained before the system was removed.

Watch our short videos on our youtube channel to see the system in action and a case study.