Asda scoops BBC award

Congratulations to ASDA for winning the BBC Food and Farming award for best retailer. The BBC Food programme has a strong leaning towards specialist foods and in particular those produced by smaller scale and locally supplied businesses.

For four years AMS Ltd have been developing our ‘local’ strawberry sales with ASDA. This system enables the grower to grow and pick fruit for distribution into their nearest ASDA stores. The products’ freshness and eye-catching labels featuring regional landmarks have proved an instant winner with the consumer. There appear to be higher impulse sales for locally-grown products and higher sustained levels of repeat purchases. There is an increased level of work that both the growers and we need to undertake to get a product on the shelf. Central distribution systems are efficient for most products most of the time. Because products are dependent on their freshness, missing out the depot system can be made to work. From a growing point of view, the Locals allow us to use varieties and systems more constructively. Varieties such as Florence have a very good flavour and have established repeat sales, although their susceptibility to bruising makes them difficult to supply through the conventional depot system. It is easier to plan production of Flamenco later in the season in the knowledge that there is a local sale rather than producing the near universal Everest. Feedback from store managers on how a grower’s deliveries are performing provides a good guidance as to what is working well and can be developed. At this year’s awards, the food writer and television personality Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall made reference to the negative press that supermarkets receive. We can testify that ASDA’s award was earned through their policy of allowing growers to have a degree of security in their production and a positive promotion of British agriculture. Supermarkets set standards for food production and handling through their own objectives and using third party accreditation requirements from growers.

The Locals system has allowed some quite small growers to start and remain in business while food safety issues can be dealt with under the umbrella of a larger berry business. In response to the continuing expansion of the Locals scheme, Well-Pict European and AMS are looking for growers in Lancashire, Wales, the Midlands and Yorkshire.