M&S adds new lines to Our Best Ever premium range

M&S has introduced five new ‘Our Best Ever’ products, bringing the premium range to 12.

The new lines include an £8 lasagne ready meal, a £3.30 ham and cheese sandwich, a £5 pack of two fish cakes and a 120g pot of smoked salmon pâté for £3.

There’s also a ‘sharing sized’ 590g chicken kiev, containing two large chicken breasts, for £10. Its arrival coincides with the 40th anniversary of M&S’s first chicken kiev in 1979.

They join existing Our Best Ever products such as the popular prawn sandwich and steak pie.

It follows the appointment last year of April Preston as M&S’s product development director, moving from the role of executive and head of food innovation at Harrods.

A spokesman said M&S was streamlining the development process by reducing the time it takes a product to reach the market from 24 weeks to just six.

It would enable the retailer to “respond to customer behaviour and demand more quickly, whilst offering more competitive pricing across all product lines”.

From September next year, M&S’s joint venture with Ocado will see its products replace Waitrose’s on the online supermarket’s website.

Commenting on the new lines, M&S’s spokesman said: “With Our Best Ever steak pie selling 20,000 within two days, and Our Best Ever prawn sandwich still a top three sandwich seller each week, we’re confident the latest instalments will go down a treat with shoppers looking to tantalise their taste buds.”