Corby Company Shop voucher scheme pulled after popularity sees shelves picked clean

A summer holiday food voucher match-funding scheme has had to end early after shoppers descended on a popular Corby food redistribution store.

Families eligible for free school meals in Corby were able use their vouchers at the town's Company Shop and these received match funding from food giant Nestle.

The match-funded voucher scheme has now been withdrawn by the Company Shop Group, which sells surplus brands to members.

A spokesman said: "Thanks to a generous donation from our industry partner Nestle, we have been able to run a summer holiday voucher scheme which has provided thousands of local children and families most in need with access to essential food and products during a critical time.

“Since launching the nationwide scheme at the start of the school holidays, we have seen a significant uptake of vouchers across all our stores and as a result, all available vouchers have been redeemed and the scheme has now come to an end.

“We completely appreciate that this has temporarily increased demand in our store, and that members may have had different shopping experiences to what they would usually expect."

Those eligible for the national scheme signed up to receive the Company Shop Group voucher – worth £15 a week – and had access to essential food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, that are on average up to 53 per cent off the normal retail price.

Reports on social media said that the Company Shop was struggling to keep up with demand with reports of empty shelves.

One person commented: "We went last weekend, got in around 11.30 and shelves were cleared, most fridges empty and freezers empty except the vegan/vegetarian one.

"People coming out before we got in had trollies full of Sprite cases, Vimto cans and fabric softener - never seen such chaos.

"There should be some sort of limit on how many people can get or each product, especially when some people are genuinely in need and not being greedy at all."

Another shopper said: "I got there at 8:30am today, in shop at 9:45am... was 90% empty."

The spokeman said: "There has been an increase in demand because we opened to key workers. We opened the store up to anyone receiving government support.

"We have pulled the scheme early. There's been more demand than normal but the scheme will be coming to an end. We do appreciate for loyal members that it will have been a very different shopping experience.

" We are starting to get back to normal and welcoming everyone back.

Those with vouchers have a month to use them from the date they have been redeemed - 40,000 vouchers have been used so far.

The spokeman added: "We are hugely grateful for the ongoing support, patience and understanding that our members have shown, during a period in which we have reached thousands of families in need across Northamptonshire, at a time when they needed our help the most."

People eligible for membership are employees who work in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) food supply chain, NHS workers including volunteers, students, GP Practices and NHS Dentists, police officers and special police officers, fire service staff and people in receipt of a qualifying pension from the same groups.

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