Sainsbury’s teamed up with its suppliers and the Tomato Growers Association (TGA) to mark the beginning of the inaugural British Tomato Week at the chain’s Holborn hq.
The staff canteen was awash with British tomatoes on Monday lunchtime, as Sainsbury’s launched a major in-store support project for home-grown toms.
Sainsbury’s sells just short of 40 per cent of the UK tomato crop and at around 65 per cent, the proportion of its sales that are produced domestically is higher than any of its high-street rivals.
Category buyer Tristan Kitchener told the Journal: “We are getting fully behind British tomatoes and building up to the peak of the season with a concerted promotional programme. The main reason we favour British tomatoes is the consistently high quality element. But our customers are also very supportive of home-grown tomatoes and through our marketing efforts we aim to get closer to them.
“We are the growers’ interface with the customer. We want to shout more about what Sainsbury’s is doing with its UK suppliers - there are still a lot of customers that believe that tomatoes come from Spain all year round.”
The TGA’s Gerry Hayman has spent the week at various promotional events and said that the support of the retailers for a TGA initiative has been better than ever before. “As well as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Somerfield (see page 9), M&S and the Co-op have made their own individual efforts. British Tomato Week has given them a good outlet to launch the season and illustrate their support for British growers,” said Hayman.
There will be further coverage of British Tomato Week in next week’s FPJ.
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