Soup disappearing from supermarket shelves amid Bakkavor strike

Supermarket chillers are being left empty of fresh soup amid ongoing strike action at own-label supplier Bakkavor’s Spalding manufacturing site.

Tesco appears to be the worst-affected supermarket, with 22 out of 44 (50%) chilled soup SKUs unavailable at the time of writing, according to The Grocer’s analysis of Assosia data [12 w/e 30 October 2024]. 

Nine out of 35 (25.7%) SKUs were unavailable in Asda, while 11 of 63 SKUs (17.5%) were missing from Sainsbury’s shelves. 

In Waitrose, eight out of 46 (17.4%) chilled soup SKUs were out of stock, while Morrisons had just two out of 28 (7.1%) products missing from shelves.

The Grocer understands the availability issues are being caused, in part, by ongoing strike action at Bakkavor’s Lincolnshire factory.

Workers at the factory make and prepare meals, soups, dips, salads, desserts, pizzas and breads for customers including Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.

However, over 700 of the factory’s workers walked out last month after having “overwhelmingly rejected” a pay offer, according to Unite.

When approached by The Grocer, a Bakkavor spokesman confirmed it had “simplified” its customer offer as a result of the industrial action. 

“Due to industrial action at our Spalding site, we have a shortfall of labour and have therefore simplified our customer offer,” he said. 

“We are maintaining availability of our customers’ favourite soup products and hope to return to supplying our full range as soon as possible.

“In overall terms, we continue to supply around 85% of our normal volume from this site.”

A spokeswoman for Waitrose said: ”We work with a number of suppliers across the category, so have a range of soups – both fresh and tinned – available to customers.

“We’re really sorry if some products aren’t available at the moment, but our partners are always happy to help customers find alternatives.”

Tesco has put out “temporarily out-of-stock” notices on its shelves in affected stores, but had not responded to requests to comment by the time of writing. 

The Grocer has also approached Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons for comment.