Category buyer Ben Lainton is a relative newcomer to Somerfield’s produce buying team. Prior to joining the produce division, he worked in the supermarket’s PACE team. Here Lainton worked closely with suppliers to remove the avoidable costs from the business. He is now keen to transfer this ethos to his new role in the soft-fruit sector.
Lainton explains: “It is vital that we work in unison with our suppliers, as these guys are experts. By using their knowledge we can, in the long run, improve the customers in-store experience. I am on the phone to our suppliers three to four times a day gathering information.”
The supermarket has also initiated “Meet the Grower” sessions. Lainton says: “I am keen to understand the issues that are of concern and we can only improve the business by listening to our suppliers and our customers and moving forward together.”
Lainton explains that the Somerfield stores place their orders for berries, so Lainton is also looking to work with the operations teams in understanding their requirements. “Strawberries form an important part of the Somerfield offer. We need to understand what our stores want, for example Cornish stores want Cornish strawberries and we must be able to meet such demands. We are also keen to be able to offer year-round quality strawberries, as well as meeting demand for raspberries.”
The supermarket has promotional activities planned for the summer and Lainton will be working closely with stores. He is also keen to measure the importance of locally sourced fruit across the country to the consumer in each region. He explains: “We are eager to have a good summer for the UK strawberry market. Our PR team is also assessing the importance in different areas of the UK to locally sourced produce. We believe that in some areas, this is valued more strongly than others.”
Lainton says the supermarket is also looking to drive quality and holds the importance of benchmarking high in its list of priorities. He says: “We host regular panel sessions and hold tasting sessions with our suppliers. It’s important we look to give our customer a good priced and great tasting quality product.”
The blueberry offer is an area which Lainton feels has future potential. He says: “Currently we are looking to get these into our larger stores, we are trying to get the right produce for the right stores and we want our customers to be happy with the best berries we have to offer.”
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