The Client

Continente is a hypermarket owned by Sonae, a multinational business group based in Maia, Portugal. It was the first hypermarket chain in Portugal, opening in 1985 in the city of Matosinhos, and to this day is a benchmark in the country's food retail sector.

The problem

The aim was to sanitize the utensils, tools and objects in the Continente stores, in the fishmonger, butcher, baker and delicatessen sectors, as well as the store baskets. Sanitizing was done by hand washing in specific stalls or, when the size of the equipment didn't allow it, in places like washing rooms, where the equipment was placed on the floor and washed with hoses. In ergonomic terms, employees spent a lot of time performing repetitive movements, constantly flexing their backs and spending long periods of time in contact with water and chemicals. A Continente shop spent 23 hours a day washing utensils and work tools, with closing employees spending up to 53% of their working time on sanitising tasks.

The Solution

Continente acquired a Multiwasher as it is a washing appliance with the capacity to wash and sanitise more than 90% of work utensils and tools. It eliminates the need for the employee to carry out this cleaning manually, thus contributing to the improvement of working conditions, safety and operational efficiency. Due to its IoT features, it also supplies daily reports containing a wide range of information, from washing records to data on the usage of water, energy and chemicals. Two Continente shops conducted 30-day trials to test the quality and efficiency of the Multiwasher, and following these, purchased the machine. Major savings of water (around 76%) and detergent (around 19%) were found, as well as lower degradation of equipment and uniforms.