Operating Review
Best for food...
In October 2006 we were voted Supermarket of the Year at the Retail Industry Awards and in November we again achieved outstanding success at the industry’s annual ‘quality’ awards, winning more than half of the 25 categories. We have made further investments in raising the quality of our food and, while we are always pleased to be given awards, the best recognition is that of customers buying more through their weekly shop.
During the past year more than 5,000 own brand products were new or have been improved. This included the work we did providing customers with clear and honest labelling, leading the way on ingredient standards and the way in which products are sourced.
In September 2006 we relaunched our Taste the difference premium range, which comprises nearly 1,400 products and is a £1 billion brand. These products meet strict quality standards and now contain no artificial colours, flavours or hydrogenated fats, a move we are completing on all own label products. This is a huge task given the sheer volume of products we sell.
In January 2007 we made a number of changes to our basics range to enable customers to make healthier choices. This included adding our Wheel of Health multiple traffic light label to around 200 food and drink products, lowering of salt, sugar and fat levels where possible, and removing unhealthy vegetable oils from the entire range of products over time. In April 2007 we became the first UK retailer to announce the intention to remove all artificial colours and flavourings from own-brand soft drinks and we will complete this work by June 2007. These are just a few of the many improvements we have made.
Customers value quality, fresh and seasonal food and we work with suppliers to source as many products as possible from the UK, celebrating the freshness and seasonality of British produce. We have continued to increase sales of organic food and we source all organic primary chicken, beef, pork, milk, eggs, and in-season lamb from the UK. We sell around 1,000 different organic products and there are now more than 400 products in the Sainsbury’s SO organic range, our second largest sub brand.
