Benchmarking for Healthy Stores

What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking uses data to make comparisons of performance. It can help store directors and owners promote continuous quality improvement for health-enabling stores by:

  • Increasing knowledge of best practice policy and performance targets
  • Providing data to monitor and review performance
  • Providing accountability to improve performance for the community
  • Giving motivation by comparing performance to other stores.

How did Benchmarking for Healthy Stores come about?

Benchmarking was identified by the remote food retail sector as a priority in submissions to the Parliamentary Inquiry into food pricing and food security in remote Indigenous communities. Benefits include consistency in store management, operation standards, and governance of food security.

The Benchmarking for Healthy Stores project builds on other projects over the past two decades conducted in collaboration with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to generate a strong evidence base around what strategies can be effective to support healthy food environments and food systems.

Remote stores are leading the way globally in healthy food retail. The purpose of the Benchmarking for Healthy Stores project is to co-design a process to provide store directors/owners with the information they need to continue to make strong healthy food policies for the benefit of their communities.

Our partners

Our six partner organisations employ health professionals who support health-enabling initiatives in remote stores. We acknowledge the valuable contributions of these health professionals in the co-design of the benchmarking model and its implementation. Our partner organisations are:

  • Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation
  • Katherine West Health Board Aboriginal Corporation
  • Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation
  • Sunrise Health Service Aboriginal Corporation
  • NT Health - Barkly, Big Rivers, Central Australia and Top End Regions
  • Outback Stores.

What is Benchmarking for Healthy Stores?

The Benchmarking model rates the healthiness of remote  stores, shows them how they compare with other stores, and provides support for the implementation of health promoting best-evidence into practice and policy. We are testing whether providing this support to stores can help improve their healthiness rating over time.

We hope this project shows that the Benchmarking model is user-friendly for remote stores and effective in improving uptake of health-promoting store policy and practice by store owners to ultimately increase customer purchase of healthy food and drinks.

If found to be effective, we also hope it will result in policy commitment to benchmarking for healthy stores across Australia by the remote food retail sector, food retail organisations, and government.

There is exciting opportunity for this evidence to inform a National Voluntary Code of Conduct for remote stores led by the National Indigenous Australians Agency and the Northern Territory Government Remote Stores Program.

Assessment

The benchmarking assessment ranks a store’s healthiness across four areas:

1. Policy

The Policy Action Progress Audit e-survey assesses adoption of Healthy Stores 2020 Policy Actions.

2. Practice

The Store Scout App is used to assess the healthiness of store practice by observing in-store practice. This assessment also uses the Good Tucker App to identify healthier/less healthy choices.

3. Purchase

Store Sales data is linked with nutrient and food classification datasets to assess:

  • Overall Healthiness of purchases
  • Sugar purchases
  • Fruit and Vegetable purchases
  • Top product contributors to healthy, unhealthy and sugar purchases.

4. Price

The Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) protocol will be used to assess the price and affordability of healthy and less healthy foods, meals, and diets by collecting food price data in-store.

Environment

Alongside the Benchmarking assessment, the influence of environmental level factors on food retail policy and practice is assessed using The Environment Scan e-survey.

Study aims

  • CO-DESIGN: To co-design the best benchmarking approach for remote community stores with key partners.
  • IS IT USER FRIENDLY AND HELPFUL?: Test the Benchmarking model to see how easy it is to use, check its value-for-money and see if it helps improve store healthiness and improves healthiness of customer purchases.
  • KEEP IT GOING: Find out how to best keep the Benchmarking going and roll it out to all remote stores in Australia.

Who will benefit?

With the engagement of the remote food retail sector, communities, government, and non-government policy-makers, we are developing a benchmarking model that can be used by public health programs across Australia.

Investigator team

Chief investigators

  • Prof Julie Brimblecombe, Monash University
  • Dr Emma McMahon, Menzies School of Health Research
  • Dr Leisa McCarthy, Menzies School of Health Research
  • A/Prof Megan Ferguson, The University of Queensland
  • Prof Bronwyn Fredericks, The University of Queensland
  • Ms. Nicole Turner, Indigenous Allied Health Australia
  • Emeritus Prof Amanda Lee, The University of Queensland
  • Prof Joanna Batstone, Monash University
  • A/Prof Christina Pollard, Curtin University
  • Prof Louise Maple-Brown, Menzies School of Health Research

Associate investigators

  • Ms. Khia De Silva, Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation
  • Ms. Simone Nalatu, Health and Wellbeing Queensland
  • Mr. Adam Barnes, Department of Health NT
  • Ms. Clare Brown, Apunipima Cape York Health Council
  • Mr. Eddie Miles, Menzies School of Health Research
  • Prof Ross Bailie, University of Sydney
  • Prof Anna Peeters, Deakin University
  • Prof Gary Sacks, Deakin University

Research team (including Monash Data Futures)

Who to contact

Prof Julie Brimblecombe
Email - Julie.brimblecombe@monash.edu

Emma van Burgel
Acting Project Coordinator
Email – emma.vanburgel@monash.edu