UK retailers Tesco and Marks and Spencer will push British-grown produce at stores this summer.
Marks and Spencer will this week (28 April) launch its Best of British Isles promotions and advertisements, featuring fresh produce.
Meanwhile, Tesco customers can expect to see more UK-grown produce on supermarket shelves this year, said Tesco’s fresh food programme manager Simon Reeves speaking at FPJ Live in Warwickshire today.
“You will see more of a push from Tesco to put British produce on shelves. It’s something we are more focused to do,” he said.
Johnathan Sutton, Marks and Spencer technical manager, said: “British is very important to Marks and Spencer customers. We’ve included fresh produce in our British corporate promotion. We feel it’s vital.”
Both retailers have actions in stores to encourage customers to eat healthily and buy fresh produce, Reeves and Sutton said during a question-and-answer session at the FPJ event.
They added that they expected to see further consolidation in their produce supply base over coming years.
“Consolidation is a fact of life and will happen,” said Tom Hind, Tesco agricultural director, also addressing delegates. “We want to build long-term solid partnerships with our suppliers, but it’s likely to be with fewer suppliers.”
On reclaiming market share from discounters Aldi and Lidl, Tesco will continue to focus on price and promotions within the fresh produce category – a strategy it says is working well.
“We are on the start of that journey,” said Hind. “We’ve seen up to double-digit volume growth in produce last year, we’ve not had produce volume growth in Tesco since 2007.”
