Discovery Vitality announces HealthyFood partnership with Checkers and Checkers Sixty60

In response to shifting shopping habits, the HealthyFood benefit is also being updated to give members the choice of an in-store and an online grocery partner with the chance to earn 75% back on healthy food items at both, says Discovery Vitality. This comes alongside other enhancements to Vitality, including the launch of Vitality Fitness: a first-of-its-kind platform to find and book exercise classes.

Commenting on the new partnership, Dinesh Govender, CEO of Discovery Vitality, says, "We are delighted to add Checkers to encourage even more Discovery Vitality members to make healthy food choices. Vitality’s HealthyFood benefit has been rewarding positive behaviour change for almost 15 years. The addition of Checkers as a partner promises an even greater health impact."

Neil Schreuder, chief strategy and innovation officer at Shoprite, says, "We are obsessed with providing transparent and unrivalled value to our customers. We are incredibly excited that Checkers and Sixty60 customers will be rewarded for making healthier food choices through our partnership with Discovery Vitality. The rise of Sixty60 also means that consumers can now get access to healthy food on-demand, making healthier living more effortless."

The rise of grocery delivery services

Grocery delivery has become wildly popular, with a marked increase in the number of households that use a combination of in-store and online channels to buy groceries, Discovery Vitality says. In 2023, 34% of Vitality members who ordered groceries online did so at least weekly, a testament to the increasing reliance on online grocery purchasing due to the convenience it offers.

Discovery Vitality adds that almost 60% of Vitality members have different retailer preferences when they shop in-store versus online. For this reason, Discovery Vitality will give its members the ability to select both a preferred in-store partner and a preferred online partner to maximise their HealthyFood rewards. 

Exercise anywhere with Vitality Fitness

For over 25 years, Vitality’s fitness benefits have driven hundreds of thousands of members to get healthier and rewarded, says Discovery Vitality. In continuing to evolve and meet the personalised fitness preferences of its members, Discovery Vitality will be introducing a first-of-its-kind platform to find and book exercise classes in 2024.

The Vitality Fitness platform will offer Vitality members wide access, flexibility and variety, to empower them to achieve their exercise goals. The four main features of the Vitality Fitness platform enable members to:

1. book a class at any one of over 400 fitness facilities nationwide. Vitality members enjoy 24 free visits a year, and can also pay safely and securely with Vitality Pay or using Discovery Miles
2. instantly join a Virgin Active or Planet Fitness gym for an activation fee of R499, with 75% discount on monthly membership fees
3. pay-as-you-gym with Virgin Active or Planet Fitness. Vitality members enjoy three free visits, and
4. Exercise outdoors: running or cycling with Team Vitality, and via a new partnership, play padel with 20% off all Africa Padel bookings. 

Govender says, "Over the last 25 years, Vitality’s iconic gym benefit has helped over a million Vitality members get active and rewarded — with one Vitality member entering a gym every second. While many of our members enjoy the 75% discount at Virgin Active and Planet Fitness, there are others who are seeking out different forms of exercise, and even more who have not found their ideal workout routine. The fitness sector is quite varied and fragmented, making it tough for enthusiasts and beginners alike to navigate. And that’s why we’re addressing individual exercise needs through Vitality Fitness."

More ways to earn physical activity points

Discovery Vitality says that to get more Vitality members to work out more often, it is also expanding its physical activity points structure and introducing a new concept of exercise snacking — 15 minutes of moderate or high-intensity workouts that earn 100 Vitality points — as well as longer duration low-intensity workouts that earn 200 and 300 Vitality points to encourage and recognise endurance training.

"The focus of the updates is to make healthy eating and exercise even more accessible, affordable and attractive to Vitality members and South Africans in general. A healthy diet and physical activity are significant contributors to living a longer and healthier life, so these additions help achieve Discovery's core purpose of making people healthier and enhancing and protecting their lives," says Govender. 

"We have to find ways to address unhealthy eating behaviour and physical inactivity. Globally, improvements in diet could potentially prevent one in every five deaths. In addition, each year, 3.2-million deaths are attributable to insufficient physical activity. We believe that coupling Discovery's proprietary actuarial, clinical, and behavioural science IP with great partnerships to incentivise healthy lifestyle behaviours can change the world," Govender adds. 

Discovery Vitality adds that to encourage healthier diets, Vitality members get up to 25% back on their grocery spend on thousands of healthy food items at partners Woolworths and Pick n Pay; these rewards are boosted for Discovery Bank clients who get up to 75% back. In 2022, members were rewarded on over 70 million healthy food items on the benefit.

The Vitality HealthyFood benefit enhancements will be implemented in late 2024, concludes Discovery Vitality. 

For more information, visit www.discovery.co.za. You can also follow Discovery Vitality on Facebook, X or on Instagram.