English Village Salads joined in the support for British tomatoes as part of British Tomato Week with promotional events in two Asda stores.
EVS and its local growers were at stores in Milton Keynes and York to sample tomato varieties and offer shoppers advice, while chefs cooked up a range of dishes using the UK’s finest tomato varieties.
Kelly Colrein, marketing manager at EVS, said: “I was delighted to see the level of customer support for British tomatoes. We really didn’t have to do any selling, as soon as customers tasted them they wanted to buy, some even bought three of four different packs. It was also nice to see children tucking into them; our youngest customer of the day was only 11 months old!”
Julie Woolley from the Tomato Growers’ Association was in Milton Keynes to see a 230 per cent increase in sales of sample lines and two varieties sell out. She said: “EVS and Asda have been extremely supportive of British Tomato Week, which is great for raising its profile. It’s important to encourage customers to buy into UK tomatoes at the start of the UK season. There’s so much more emphasis on provenance and customers were actually thanking us for promoting British produce. We don’t have massive budgets so it’s vital that the major retailers support us so that we get the message across to consumers.”
Barbara Bray, product manager, at EVS who attended the York event said: “At both events we sold out of the UK Extra Special Piccolo Cherry on the Vine. I lost count of the amount of customers that actually said ‘wow’ when they tasted the product. I really believe this is the tastiest tomato in the marketplace this season”.
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