Tesco’s Finest line has undergone a major overhaul, with the retailer introducing 400 new products and ditching a further 200 from the range.
UK managing director Chris Bush said he hoped to achieve double-digit sales increases from the makeover of the 1,500-strong range, which already accounts for sales of more than £1.4bn a year, according to Kantar.
Bush vowed that the products were all “as good, if not better, than the leading brands”, and that pricing would be “accessible”, although some of the products will go up in price. A Tesco spokesman said the price had been maintained on most of the products in the range.
The relaunch will be backed by a multimillion-pound advertising campaign launching next week under the strapline: “Made by passionate people.” Tesco will also embark on a major social-media drive to flag up the quality of its new products, providing information about individual farmers, growers and producers.
The overhaul comes 18 months after the relaunch of Tesco’s Everyday Value range and is twice as big, according to UK group commercial director, John Scouler.
Scouler said Tesco had run customer-panel taste tests against leading food and drink brands and that any of its Finest range that failed to match up had been sent back to the drawing board or scrapped, with Tesco Finest baked beans among those ending up on the cutting room floor.
Some of the new lines have already appeared in store, including Tesco flowers, sales of which are up 20% in the past two weeks, according to the retailer.
Scouler said he was thrilled by the early sales results, with Tesco revealing it had sent its product teams around the world to find new items. Among the new developments are 160 new prepared meals, including an all-new Indian range, and 22 new Finest wines, which will launch at the end of the month.
Products such as cakes have been redesigned with windowed lids and sides to show off the quality, while Tesco said it had gone to great lengths to make the packaging of many products more suitable for gifts, hoping to achieve a big boost in sales in the run-up to Christmas.
“It’s a big, big relaunch,” said Scouler. Tesco is using its Finest brand to sponsor the upcoming series of ITV’s flagship drama Downton Abbey.
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