Amid England and Scotland’s first matches at the World Cup, a social media ban for the under-16s and Andy Burnham winning the Makerfield by-election – and in all likelihood setting up a contest to be the next Labour leader and PM – it’s been a busy week in grocery.
Brands have been vying for our football spend, with Asda among the supermarkets extending late-night delivery hours and Cheestrings launching limited-edition World Cup packs. But there’s a darker side to the tournament too, with shop theft up 6% on the daily average in the run-up to England’s game.
Cost pressures are showing up elsewhere in retail. Waitrose became the latest supermarket to hike the price of its main lunchtime meal deal, increasing it by 10% to £5.50. One area bucking the trend is weight-loss treatment. The new Wegovy weight-loss tablets, which received regulatory approval last week, are already driving a surge in interest. Boots said it had seen “thousands more sign-ups for more info over the weekend”, Superdrug reported sign-ups up 130% overnight, and Asda Online Doctor has grown by more than 50% as customers turn to it for weight-loss support and other services.
The NPM debate
Health policy is proving just as contentious. The Scottish government’s insistence that it will not switch to the new 2018 nutrient profiling model has well and truly set the cat among the pigeons. The country says it has “heard the message” of the worried food industry about the confusion and economic impact of such a move. But the Obesity Health Alliance is calling on government to stand behind healthier food reforms regardless.
Adding to the regulatory picture, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has received funding from the government to develop a new system of mandatory health reporting and targets for major food companies. It’s not just health driving change either – sustainability targets are under scrutiny too. Supermarket attempts to meet emission reduction targets will fail if they only concentrate on farm-based emissions, warns a new report by climate NGO Madre Brava.
Government is also shaping the agenda closer to home. In an exclusive interview with The Grocer this week, Wales’ new rural affairs minister Llyr Gruffydd said he is planning roundtable talks with supermarkets as part of a wider push to drive new opportunities for local producers and bolster food security. Welsh food businesses, he added, have a “great story to tell”.
On retailer/supplier relationships, The Grocer has for the first time published the results of the annual Advantage Buyer Survey. This highly respected benchmark assesses the performances of fmcg suppliers based on the opinions of more than 2,000 retail buyers. There will doubtless be great interest in the list of category and competency winners, but it’s the assessment of supplier capabilities in the broader sense that is of most value.
‘Instagrammable’ sushi
Away from policy, one category is having a particularly good run: the UK cannot get enough of sushi. Seafood industry body Seafish’s Sushi in Multiple Retail 2026 report showed sales surged by 13.6% in value to £228m and by 2.9% in volume to 11,280 tonnes in the year to May, with younger consumers, Japanese culture trends, sushi’s ‘Instagrammable’ look and health credentials all credited.
Back in drinks, the fruit lager trend shows no signs of abating. Budweiser Brewing Group is the latest mega-brewer to jump on the bandwagon with a duo of brews from its Stella Artois and Bud Light brands. But will they stand out among the plethora of fruit beers already hitting retailer shelves?
It’s been a turbulent week for people moves in drinks too. The big news was the departure of Diageo GB MD Barry O’Sullivan just over a year after he was promoted to head up the Guinness owner’s domestic business. Replacing him in the autumn will be Unilever’s UK MD Marc Woodward, who is well known to CEO Dave Lewis after their time together at the personal care giant. There have also been reports major job cuts are on the cards as “drastic” Dave looks to stamp his mark on the Johnnie Walker owner.
On the fresh side, fresh foods editor Grace Duncan spoke to clotted cream maestro and committed Cornwall enthusiast Nicholas Rodda about being the fifth generation of his family to run Rodda’s, the gravitas such tradition provides in export markets and, most importantly, the brand’s move into the on-trend cottage cheese market.
That sense of brands punching above their weights runs through fresh produce more broadly. The category has historically been dominated by own-label lines and a race-to-the-bottom approach to pricing, but branded growth is now outpacing the wider category in fresh fruit. You can read more about it in this week’s Focus On: Fresh Produce.
And as ever, we’d love to hear what you think. Drop me a line at sarah.vizard@thegrocer.co.uk with any feedback – and have a great weekend.
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