Sainsbury’s says it has a strong pipeline of startup brands going forward for its new Taste of the Future trial bays.
The project went live in 69 Sainsbury’s stores this week with 30 SKUs from 11 small challenger brands grouped under the Taste of the Future banner. If the products prove successful they could then win a full listing with the retailer.
Information on the bays explains ‘Everything here is on trial - if you love it, we’ll keep it!’ Products featured in the first wave include salmon skin crisps Sea Chips, alcoholic kombucha Bootleg Booch and teas and drink powders from Aduna, an Africa-inspired food brand.
These will be updated every 14 weeks with a completely new raft of products.
Sainsbury’s head of Future Brands Rachel Eyre told The Grocer it had a long list of suitable startups to come into the project. She said the brands chosen generally touched on more than one emerging trend, such as the Bootleg Booch, which covered craft alcohol and the growing popularity of kombucha.
Participating brands have not been given a hard sales target in order to secure a listing - rather success will be viewed across a number of factors, explained Eyre. This will include sales but also feedback from consumer panels, how popular they are with existing Sainsbury’s customers and ability to attract new shoppers.
“At Sainsbury’s we want to offer our customers the most innovative and interesting products around,” said Eyre.
“We’re dedicated to helping our customers test and trial new innovations in the grocery space, and can’t wait to hear what they think of these options.”
Eyre hailed the wider Future Brands project, which launched a year ago, as a major success, with 150 brands now included as part of the portfolio.
“We want to build suppliers’ perception that we are best in class for challenger brands and we want customers to see Sainsbury’s as the retailer that is supporting these brands.”
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