The Local First for Fresh campaign, run by Sainsbury’s and potato supplier Greenvale AP, rocked into action last week, with fresh new potatoes from across the south-west delivered directly from the field to stores in as little as 15 minutes.
Producers in Somerset started deliveries of new potatoes into nine Sainsbury’s stores on June 1.
Two families - the Bults and the Beres from West Newton, Bridgwater - will supply all the early loose potatoes into nine stores in Devon, Somerset and Dorset for the duration of the four-to-six week season.
B&B Potatoes harvests the spuds at 6am each morning and delivers them straight into Sainsbury’s stores throughout the day.
“The potatoes arrive in store looking nice and fresh,” says Michael Bult. “And they taste lovely - they taste like new potatoes should.”
Greenvale AP and Sainsbury’s launched the Local First for Fresh campaign in 2003.
The project saw, on average, an 80 per cent uplift in sales in 2006, with the Telford store enjoying a massive 300 per cent increase.
David Baxter, operations director at Greenvale AP, said: “It’s well proven that consumers want local, fresh food, and Sainsbury’s has recognised that. It’s all about provenance and tying in with local growers, and Sainsbury’s now wants to roll out this type of local sourcing across other produce.”
The campaign encompasses 30 stores from Cockermouth, in Cumbria, to Truro, in Cornwall, which are all supplied by farmers within a 35-mile radius.
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