Asda is dropping Silver Spoon as its main sugar brand and switching most of its branded business to rival Whitworths.
From this month, Whitworths Sugar owner Napier Brown will be rolling out 35 products to Asda stores after cutting the number of Silver Spoon lines from 31 to two.
Asda said the decision to move away from Silver Spoon, which is owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), had been based on the fact it “always strived to provide the best value to our customers”. However it stressed its relationship with Silver Spoon had not ended and planned to keep some lines. It will continue to carry ABF’s premium brown sugar brand Billington’s and stevia sweetener Truvia.
Last month, ABF reported that an “especially competitive year within the UK packed sugar market” had seen Silver Spoon revenue and operating profit fall from the previous year.
ABF this week told The Grocer that, while it understood Asda’s rationale, it believed the provenance and British heritage of the Silver Spoon brand made it a good fit for Asda shoppers.
Napier Brown has also secured a new contract with Booker that will take 20 of its lines into the wholesaler, including new packs for foodservice and cash & carry customers.
“We have seen Whitworths sugar grow from strength to strength,” said UK MD Jon Tanner. “These latest announcements are part of Napier Brown’s ambitious plan to double the size of its business over the next three years.”
The average price of a 1kg pack of Silver Spoon granulated sugar has been 88p at Asda over the past four weeks, compared with 99p for 1kg of Whitworths granulated.
9 Readers' comments