Sainsbury's is gunning for Tesco on top-fruit as it looks to claw back lost market share at the start of the UK season.
The retailer, once the leader when it came to English top fruit has had its crown stolen by Tesco in recent years, but it is now preparing to fight back and grow sales by 10 to 20 per cent this season, said apple buyer Neil Gibson.
"We're number two on apples and they're ahead of us, so that's what we've got to go for," he said. According to TNS figures, Sainsbury's market share for UK apples last season stood at 19.7 per cent, compared with Tesco at 22.6 per cent.
However Gibson said: "The first few months of the season last year we grew UK apples by five per cent, while Tesco actually dropped 0.8 per cent. The gap is not that huge and I'm confident I will close some of it this season. We've always punched above our weight on UK apples."
A series of initiatives are being lined up to give Sainsbury's a strong start to the season, with the main set-piece being a six-week 100 per cent English start on Gala apples and Conference pears.
"It's our biggest emphasis on English ever," said Gibson. "In the past, I don't think we've made it clear enough in store when we're selling English. We've always had a lot, but perhaps it's not obvious enough. The six-week push at the beginning of the season will get the message across that we're very much behind the season."
Kicking off the season will be a major promotion on the recently-derided Discovery apple, a fruit Tesco's Martin de la Fuente has already raised question marks over.
Gibson said they were prepared to give it a further chance: "There's been doubt on Discovery, but a lot of people do really like it. We're trying to give it a bigger push than before to get it to stand on its own two feet."
As a result, the fruit, which will be sold as a red dessert apple, will now be going into 300 stores, up from 200 last year, and will be heavily promoted with a money-off promotion on bags of eight.
"Another thing is to get away from is how it is grown. Some growers use it as a pollinator and its not top of their lists. We've got growers who really focus on the quality of it, and there's no reason it won't sell if the quality is right."
On top of all this activity will be an increased focus on older varieties which will be highlighted in four-packs throughout the season, under the brand Season's Best.
"We'll have more varieties that anyone else on English this year," said Gibson. "We're putting much more emphasis on varieties than Tesco, which is focussing mainly on the mainstream."
Nine different varieties will be going into the Season's Best packs, from Winter Wonder and Delbar Estival to St Edmun Pippin and Katy.
"We're looking to sell the weird and wonderful and create a halo effect around the whole category," he added. "We're trying to explain that there's more than just Cox when it comes to English apples."
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