Sainsbury's Supply Something New

Sainsbury’s recognise that many customers want to buy food grown or reared locally which reflects regional tastes and traditions and supports the local economy.  This scheme will help link small producers to the right contacts in Sainsbury’s and allow Sainsbury’s to take advantage of the production flexibility and great creativity that smaller suppliers can bring. This will also provide an extensive variety of products to their sainbury’s stores.

Processes

Feedback from small suppliers highlighted that they often don’t know how to get best access to Sainsbury’s and the right people they should be dealing with. Following a successful pilot in May 2006 Sainsbury’s are launching a new scheme to make it easier for small and medium sized suppliers to gain business access to their stores and make their own local products available to more customers. The scheme, named ‘Supply Something New…’ (to tie in with their ‘Try Something New…’ customer marketing campaign) is in partnership with Food from Britain, and will see top representatives from the supermarket take to the road every month in a search for new, innovative, large and small UK suppliers. 

Successful producers may start by supplying just a few stores in their region and if their products prove to have a wider appeal, Sainsbury’s aims to help them build their businesses by expanding distribution.

Impact

  • Over £6 billion British products were sold in Sainsbury’s stores last year and Since March 2006 they have sourced almost 1,000 product lines from Northern Ireland, an increase of 30% since August 2005.
  • By providing regional products to local stores the environmental impacts and economic costs of food miles are reduced.
  • Increased collaborative and partnership working with Food from Britain (FFB) and the Regional Food Groups. Helping member businesses develop and expand profitable, sustainable markets for their products, making use of regional strengths, whilst raising consumer awareness of the excellent products available from their region.
  • Sainsbury’s will look to use a network of over 3,500 small, local producers and are looking to increase this number over the coming year by 50%.
  • This innovative project will help to deliver Sainsbury’s CR report claims that they are committed to doubling the products sourced locally in Scotland from 500 to 1,000 lines

See also

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