Sacre bleu! A website based in the south of France that “sources fine foods from around the UK and Europe” has started stocking products from frozen discount chain Farmfoods.
Thistle Authentic Foods, which operates from a rustic village near the gastronomic heartland of Bordeaux and claims its range of products are “specially selected for their high quality”, is displaying the Farmfoods logo across its website and is offering customers Farmfoods frozen vegetables, curries, meat and breakfast products.
Evelyn Wood, who runs the Thistle Authentic Foods website www.thistleauthenticfoods.com, declined to comment on details of the Farmfoods range. She would also not say whether the frozen food was a hit with locals or just expat shoppers desperate for a taste of home.
Thistle Authentic Foods operates on a click and collect basis and its existing range suggests it has a thriving customer base of homesick Brits hunting for familiar UK favourites.
Other products on offer include Scottish black pudding, back bacon and ‘chip shop-style’ jumbo sausages. It also sells Pukka pies and Cornish pasties, as well as UK takeaway favourites such as chicken tikka masala.
A spokeswoman for the notoriously media-shy Farmfoods also refused to comment on the website or if the site was an official Farmfoods supplier.
The latest Kantar Worldpanel market share data released this week revealed Farmfoods increased its sales by 2.5% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to 31 October, holding on to its 0.6% share of the grocery market.
Meanwhile, the discounter also hit the headlines following reports that it had linked up with Asda to make a bid for rival frozen discounter Iceland. The deal could see Farmfoods - which currently has approximately 300 stores across the UK - take 200 stores from the deal and transform it into the UK’s leading discount frozen food specialist, with a high street presence two-thirds the size of Iceland.
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