As part of its ongoing commitment to providing its customers with high quality food from accredited suppliers, Lidl is proud to unveil its rebranded fresh British meat and poultry range. The range has been given a brand overhaul to demonstrate the strong commitment and enthusiasm Lidl has for working with great British farmers and sourcing its produce as locally as possible. Not only does the refreshed range provide customers with a clearer insight into the provenance and traceability of the fresh British meat and poultry they are buying from Lidl, but a vast majority of the products now bear the Red Tractor logo.
In the most recent Food Labelling Audit, carried out by Red Tractor in May 2011, it was revealed that the UK’s largest discounter1 Lidl is the highest performing supermarket with 80% of its British fresh produce2 bearing the Red Tractor logo, establishing itself as the supermarket with the largest proportion of its fresh British products carrying the Red Tractor mark; confirming food has been sourced from Red Tractor-assured farms and produced to the scheme’s robust standards.
Polls undertaken on social media networking sites such as Facebook, have indicated a growing trend amongst consumers wanting to know where their meat has come from and to have the assurance that those farms have met the high standards of quality that Red Tractor insists upon. A recent poll³ showed that 66% of UK consumers prefer their fresh meat and poultry to be British, and 68% of UK consumers would be more likely to purchase a product with the Red Tractor logo on it over one that doesn’t. This shows that not only are customers shopping more consciously with regards to quality and animal welfare issues, but that people are keen to buy home-grown products.
This overall trend towards buying British can plausibly be attributed to both economic factors motivating consumers to want to strengthen British farms and businesses, as well as a number of key events taking place in 2012, in which the Queen’s Jubilee has brought a focus on championing home-grown products, as well as hopes being firmly placed on Great Britain’s teams this summer.
A Lidl spokesperson says, “We have brought about this rebrand in order to highlight to our customers that we are proud of the quality of our fresh British meat and poultry range, and that we are determined to support British farms by sourcing our fresh produce as locally as we can. We have also listened to our customers who look for confirmation on the high standards we insist upon when providing them with our quality, fresh, British meat and poultry. Through this, we are re-confirming to our customers what we already do to promote home-grown products, and are, hopefully, changing the misconception that our fresh meat and poultry is not, in fact, British. We are pleased to say that our Birchwood and Strathvale ranges are British and bear the Red Tractor logo to certify good standards from farm to pack. We will continue to do our bit to help boost the UK economy by buying fresh meat and poultry from British farms”.
David Clarke, CEO of Red Tractor, says, “Lidl’s growing range of Red Tractor products demonstrates their continued commitment to quality food from quality Red Tractor farms, ensuring their customers have complete confidence in the food they are buying. This is a very exciting time for us as we are working very closely to ensure that assured food continues to receive the level of support and recognition that it rightfully deserves.”
With special thanks to Massey Ferguson for kindly lending us the red tractor for the photoshoot.
1As shown in Kantar World Panel statistics March 2012
2According to independent Red Tractor survey of samples taken in Food Labelling Audit May 2011
3Facebook poll on Lidl UK Facebook page carried out April 2012
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