Lidl GB has become the first supermarket in the UK to give customers access to an on-shelf refill machine with ‘smart’ pouches for their laundry detergent. The machines, designed by Chilean sustainability start-up Algramo, will be located on-shelf in the store’s laundry detergent section.
They will take up space equivalent to 66 standard Formil single-use bottles but have the potential of filling over 245 individual pouches. Through the machine’s automated, touchscreen experience, customers can pick up the pouch, choose their detergent and follow the on-screen instructions.
Innovative ‘closed-fill’ technology incorporated into the pouch cap allows customers to fill up with the cap still on, enabling faster filling while eliminating the chance of mess and spills. Algramo’s smart technology means that the Formil pouches contain a special chip that allows the machine to distinguish between new and reused refill pouches, so the customer gets their saving of 20p after their first use.
