East End Foods has picked up a plethora of listings with the mults for its own-branded range of spices, lentils and rice.

Sales into supermarkets have grown 43% over the last year and are on track to reach £8.5m to £9m this year, said senior business development director Alka Kapoor.

The West Midlands-based wholesaler, which operates its own import and processing chain, has picked up 61 new listings with Tesco over the past two months, taking its total listings with the retailer to 103 [BrandView.co.uk]. It has also won listings in Morrisons, Asda and Waitrose and is rolling out display bays into The Co-op Group stores.

“We’ve been in the multiples for 10 years but have only aggressively gone into their business in the past three-and-a-half,” said Kapoor. “We import whole spices and grind them here in the UK and I think that quality story has got through to the consumer.”

Larger 100g spice packs were particularly popular in the mults, she said, because they contained significantly more than general herb and spice brands and were not in glass jars, so were cheaper. Its 100g pouch of paprika, for example, costs 62p at Waitrose, while a 48g jar of Bart paprika retails at £1.79.

The 100g packs had become popular with foodies and British Asians alike, Kapoor added. “That’s where we’ve come in as a brand leader - we appeal to second and third-generation Asians who want the convenience of smaller pack sizes.”

Tesco was being particularly pro-active in increasing its range to meet demand, she added. “Tesco takes the ethnic consumer quite seriously - there aren’t many chains between the board and the world food team,” she said.

In July, oriental foods wholesaler Wing Yip secured listings in Tesco for four new stir-fry sauces.

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