Morrisons has put its wine aisle next to fresh produce in trial move to capitalise on the rise in popularity of scratch cooking and dining at home.

The retailer is carrying out the trial at its 'fresh lab' concept store in Kirkstall in Leeds, where it is working on a range of new retail concepts. The wine aisle had been moved next to the store's extended fresh produce section in which fruit and veg is laid out market-style, often on beds of crushed ice to keep the produce fresh.

The retailer wanted to take advantage of the growing number of people eating in, said group commercial director Richard Hodgson. When shoppers were choosing their produce for an evening meal, a short step would now take them into the wine aisle where they could choose something to go with it, he added.

In the past few weeks, the retailer had also started arranging the wine aisle by style rather than country of origin, and had developed point of sale material to help shoppers discover what types of wine went well with different foods, he said. Customer feedback had been positive and Morrisons had introduced more fine wines priced £30 and upwards, he added.

Spar said its second ­consecutive wine festival promotion, which ran from 28 April to 8 June, boosted sales of its Spar-branded wines by 18.5% over the ­period. The festival featured discounts of at least 25% across more than 50 French and Australian wines, from leading brands to Spar own label.

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