Review of the Year: Grocery’s biggest moments of 2025

Comeback of the year: Sir Dave Lewis

It’s been a turbulent year for drinks giant Diageo, with former CEO Debra Crew quitting by mutual consent in July after failing to lift spirits or sales during her two-year tenure. Following Crew’s exit, most onlookers felt the Smirnoff owner needed either a safe pair of hands to steady the ship or a star name capable of injecting some impetus back into the business. After toying with the former, in interim boss Nik Jhiangiani, Diageo chair John Manzoni went all in on the latter, sensationally appointing former Tesco CEO Sir Dave Lewis to a role he was reportedly overlooked for some 12 years prior.

Lewis was already a respected figure in fmcg after a near-three-decade stint at Unilever. However, it was turning around Tesco’s fortunes that made him a household name in grocery. After guiding Britain’s biggest retailer through a slew of profit warnings, spiralling debt and a major accounting scandal, Lewis stepped down in 2020 and appeared to have little appetite to return to frontline duty after five years away from the limelight.

Exactly what motivated the 60-year-old to pull his big old CEO boots on again remains unclear. But Diageo has pulled off an almighty coup in persuading him to do so.  

Marketing stunt of the year: the sweet sandwich trend

Marks and Spencer launching a strawberries and creme sandwich was truly the viral WTF moment UK grocery didn’t know it needed. Inspired by Japanese ‘sweet sandos’ and timed to coincide with Wimbledon, the £2.80 M&S Red Diamond Strawberry & Creme Sandwich was the first in what became a surprisingly long list of dessert-inspired sandwich SKUs.

While journalists, influencers and grocery marketers were falling over themselves to liveblog their first taste of the “best sandwich ever” (these people really need to get out more), the R&D teams at Tesco and Aldi were busy cooking up plans of their own.

Just a few weeks later, a birthday cake sandwich was listed as a main course in Tesco’s lunchtime meal deal, while Aldi’s take was made with sponge slices as the ‘bread’ rather than brioche (apparently in response to consumer criticism of the brioche-style bread offered by the others).

All three were, thankfully, limited edition only. The Grocer’s verdict? Let them eat (real) cake.

Early exit of the year: Liquid Death pulls out of the UK

Liquid Death went big when it launched into the UK market in August 2023. Wild marketing campaigns and festival tie-ups led many onlookers to predict the trendy US water brand would make a big splash on this side of the pond. And it did, initially.

But by February this year, the festival-sponsoring, zombie-referencing, pedal-to-the-metal challenger was quietly exiting the UK after sales dripped in at just £2.0m in the 52 weeks to 7 September 2024, according to NIQ data – not enough for it to rank among even the top 30 largest water brands in the UK.

Liquid Death remains a huge deal in its domestic US market, but over here it wasn’t long before its famously eye-catching cans were being sold in Home Bargains for 39p each and on a 3-for-£1 offer. What a way to go.

Edgelord of the year: Ricky Gervais

It’s easy to criticise Ricky Gervais. It’s fun, too. The boorish not-funnyman was certainly deserving of opprobrium in November, when he claimed posters for his Dutch Barn Orchard Vodka had been banned from London Underground. They hadn’t – because they existed only on social media. It was a PR stunt! So far, so boring.

Here’s the edgelordy bit: in typical fashion for the 64-year-old Gervais, the fake ads were juvenile, tasteless and as funny as stepping on the third rail. One featured the strapline ‘Welcome to London. Don’t forget your stab vest.’ Another read, ‘Don’t jump, you’ll make everyone late for work, you selfish prick!’. In an online video, Gervais faked outrage about the non-existent ad ban. “F**k censors,” he ranted. No, Ricky: f**k you.

Honourable mention goes to the equally odious Jeremy Clarkson, for also lying about an ‘edgy’ booze ad being barred. In July, he posted an Instagram video for his Hawkstone Lager brand. It featured a group of farmers singing “Hawkstone. F*** me, it’s good”. The clip had been banned by the – yawn – “fun police”, Clarkson claimed. It hadn’t. Not a single industry watchdog was even aware of it. What a loser he is.

Sugar crash of the year: Urban Legend doughnuts go under

It turns out that people don’t want healthy doughnuts. Well, not enough people, anyway. When Urban Legend went under in September it prompted a great deal of navel gazing – and it wasn’t to check whether said navel had shrunk after switching to the brand’s products.

So, what went wrong exactly? There are many answers to that – and The Grocer examined it at length in both long and shorter form pieces – but as ever when healthier takes on treat foods fail, it seems to have come down to taste.

The tech was ingenious, the mission was admirable, but as one consultant told The Grocer at the time, unlike with Krispy Kreme, shoppers rarely found themselves wanting to scoff the lot. Urban Legend ultimately fell into a snacking no-man’s land: not genuinely healthy, but not tasty enough to satisfy the craving for a treat. Its failure has shown once again that reformulation may end up playing a smaller part than expected in tackling the obesity crisis. Subsidised fruit & veg, anyone?

PR shocker of the year: Waitrose sacks autistic shop worker (who was later employed by Asda)

“Being a partner means more than just having a job – it means having a voice, a stake, and a shared responsibility in how the business is run,” says the John Lewis Partnership on its website. That is, of course, until you don’t have a job any more because you’re autistic and ask to be paid for the work you do.

Tom Boyd, 28, had clocked up more than 600 hours as a “volunteer” at Waitrose’s Cheadle Hulme Store in Greater Manchester, but that arrangement was ended by the retailer in July when his mother, charity worker Frances Boyd, asked for him to be offered “just a few paid hours” of work.

Unfortunately for Tom, volunteers do not have the same rights as employees, but that didn’t stop the inevitable media storm that followed. And quite rightly. Whoever decided this was an acceptable way to treat a loyal worker would be advised to look up ‘compassion’ in the dictionary (and check out ‘optics’ while they’re there, too). Thankfully, the sorry saga did have a happy ending: a few days later, Boyd was offered a paid role by Asda. “When we heard about Tom and his desire to find meaningful work, we knew he’d be a fantastic fit and we are delighted to offer him a role at his local store,” said an Asda spokesperson.