With 43% of prominent food and drink placements in UK grocery stores containing HFSS products, compliance was one of the most pressing challenges facing retail planning teams when the legislation was introduced. Now the legislation is embedded, here is how CADS and StoreSpace® help you demarcate controlled zones, manage floor plans and avoid fines under the HFSS rules.
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High Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS) legislation came into force in October 2022 for stores over 2,000 sqft. It controls where HFSS products can be located in store and bans volume price promotions on qualifying products.
The legislation has been positioned as the biggest dietary intervention in the UK since wartime rationing, designed to tackle the country’s obesity crisis. Particularly when 43% of prominent placings of food and drink in UK grocery stores contain HFSS products, according to the IDG.
Here is how CADS retail planning teams help retailers demarcate controlled zones, manage floor plans and avoid fines under HFSS compliance rules.
HFSS legislation applies to any retailer operating a store over 2,000 sqft that sells high fat, sugar and salt products. This covers the majority of UK supermarkets, convenience chains and large format retailers.
The rules restrict where HFSS products can be displayed and promoted in store. Retailers who fail to comply face fines of up to £2,500 per offence, making accurate store planning and clear documentation essential.
Managing HFSS compliance requires a combination of macro and micro space planning. Retail planning teams must be able to demonstrate to enforcement bodies that they understand where controlled zones are within each store. They must also show that HFSS products are not located within them.
In practice this means maintaining accurate, up to date floor plans that clearly show controlled zone boundaries. It also means ensuring planograms assigned to fixtures within those zones do not contain HFSS products.
HFSS controlled zones cover several specific areas of the store. These include: gondola ends and free-standing display units. Any display unit within 2 metres of a till point, self-checkout or queuing area. An area covering 3% of the total sales floor, measured as a semi-circle around each store entrance.
Any HFSS product placed in these locations puts a retailer in breach of the regulations. As a result, knowing exactly where these zones fall within every store across an estate is a critical first step in any compliance programme.
Accurate, clearly demarcated floor plans are the foundation of any HFSS compliance strategy. Without them, it is impossible to consistently identify which fixtures fall within controlled zones across a large or varied estate.
StoreSpace® fixture fields let you categorise fixtures located within HFSS controlled areas. These are then highlighted clearly on the floor plan and shared with store teams via StoreSpace® on any mobile device. This gives every store manager a clear, consistent reference point for where the boundaries sit.
A bay details report can then be run to show which fixtures are affected and which planograms are currently assigned to them, giving compliance teams a complete picture in one place.
StoreSpace® macro space planning software simplifies HFSS compliance by bringing floor plans, fixture data and planogram information together in one place.
Store managers can demonstrate to enforcement bodies that they understand where demarcated non-HFSS areas are within their stores, with clear visual evidence to support them.
Many of our customers use planogram segments created in tools such as Nielsen IQ. Where those segments carry HFSS product attributes, this adds a useful third data source alongside floor plans and fixtures. Together, these three sources give retail planning teams everything they need to manage controlled zones with confidence.
CADS retail store planners support this process end to end, from producing accurate as-built surveys to configuring StoreSpace® for estate-wide HFSS compliance management.
Retailers who breach HFSS regulations faced fines of up to £2,500 per offence. For large estates with multiple non-compliant stores, the financial exposure can be significant. Beyond the direct cost, enforcement action also carries reputational risk and operational disruption.
For example, a retailer with 200 stores found to have non-compliant gondola ends across the estate could face substantial cumulative penalties. Proactive compliance management, supported by accurate floor plans and clear zone demarcation, is a far more cost-effective approach.
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Tell me moreCADS helps retailers optimise store layouts, demarcate HFSS controlled zones and maintain compliance across the full estate.
With over 40 years of retail planning experience, our team supports leading UK retailers with expert space planning and StoreSpace® software. Together, these give retailers everything they need to stay compliant with confidence.
Contact us today to find out how CADS and StoreSpace® can simplify HFSS compliance across your retail estate.
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