Sainsbury’s sales of English apples have experienced the immediate benefits of the Jamie Oliver effect. Sales of Cox, in particular, have rocketed since the launch of the chain’s latest TV advert.
In the ad, which first aired on September 28, Oliver cooks up a meal of Taste the Difference sausages, Cox apples and sage, and the combined impact of TV and expansive in-store merchandising has pushed sales of the variety up by 80 per cent year-on-year.
The chain has begun a six-week English apple bonanza, blocking a range of apples and pears on a wider shelf area than ever before in stores across the country. Loose or polybagged Conference, Bramley, English red dessert, and Cox will be joined on shelf for the period by a 100 per cent English Gala offer, the first time Sainsbury’s has been able to give its customers an exclusively home-grown option. The Blue Parrot Café children’s range will also be import-free for the six weeks. And the Best of Season range will follow the seasons through some of England’s heritage varieties, with 4-packs of Laxton’s Superb and Lord Lambourne starting the ball rolling this week.
Cox is also being merchandised on a mobile display unit next to the Taste the Difference sausages, to maximise the impact of the TV campaign.
Neil Gibson, apple buyer, said: “Store compliance is very good and the cross-merchandising has definitely worked to date. The fruit tastes excellent at the moment and it is therefore a great time to be promoting it. We hope that by building up sales through the next six weeks we create a momentum that will carry through the whole season.”
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