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Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 13 January 2018 | The Grocer | 3I
f Marks & Spencer’s food division was hoping to
start the year on the front foot, the events of the past
week will not have helped. As well as disappointing
Christmas trading (p4), it was forced to pull its new
‘cauli ower steak’, amid widespread ridicule over the sheer
preposterousness of the concept, as well as environmental
concerns over the old-style packaging waste involved.
M&S is right to respond to the increase in the number of
vegan, vegetarian and exitarian consumers, though it’s been
quite slow in its response compared with its agenda-setting
work in the past in areas like protein and free-from. There is a
real pent-up demand for new vegetarian meal solutions. Where
is its ready meal equivalent of the chicken kiev, for example? It’s
certainly not the cauli ower steak. Yet, with better execution,
cauli ower is a great idea as a meat alternative. What about a
spicy cauli ower burger kit, for example, complete with a
yummy sauce and brioche bun? That’s adding value. You could
charge a decent premium and no-one would complain, even
without much protein.
And compounding the issue is the environmental aspect.
M&S has won awards for its Plan A campaign, but in recent
months, the media has started to pick up on its pro igate
packaging. And if the cauli ower steak is an extreme example,
there are plenty more. Have you seen the new passion fruit
sachets, for example? Methinks nature did a better job.
You will always be a hostage to fortune if you launch a
campaign called Plan A. You’d better deliver on it, or
commentators will archly call for a Plan B. And it’s particularly
unfortunate because, as new chairman Archie Norman has
identi ed, M&S needs a Plan B in terms of the business too. And
not just on the GM side. The Simply Food store opening
programme, on which its recovery was pegged, has been
slowed as like-for-like sales have gone negative, amid greater
price competition, encroachment into its convenience ‘space’,
the growth of online home delivery, issues with distribution
and availability (p11) – and last but not least, strong new NPD
from big four rivals, such as Tesco’s Wicked veggie range.“ Does M&S need a
Plan B? The tale
of the cauli ower
steak is anotherreason for
suggesting it does”Adam Leyland, Editor“Food is nowhere
to be seen in Mrs
May’s vision of
a less wastefulfuture”
Megan Tatum, features editorA agrant attempt to distract
us from her reshu e it may be,
but Theresa May’s declaration
this week of a war on plastic
waste is valid. Our dependence
on single-use plastic is
disastrous for the environment
and – largely thanks to David
Attenborough – uppermost
in the public’s mind too. The
proposals are a bit sketchy- plastic-free aisles in
supermarkets and a ‘takeaway
tax’ – but May might be on to
something.
Plastic isn’t the only waste
blighting our planet, though.
With an estimated one third
of food produced worldwide
thrown away, food waste is
the third-largest emitter of
greenhouse gases, without
even factoring in the huge
waste of power spent producing
it. Yet food is nowhere to be
seen in Mrs May’s vision. And
there are simple changes that
could make a huge di erence
to the volumes of food ending
up in our bins. Such as the
small amount of funding
we’ve set out in our work with
FareShare, which would see
100 million extra meals eaten.
So come on Mrs May, let’s get
#seriousaboutsurplus.More on page 6; sign our petition
at petition.parliament.uk/
petitions/for more opinion see pages 22 –
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