Marks and Spencers to Spice up Rivalry
Posted by opal2009 on November 5, 2009
Marks and Spencers
by Wendy Wan
Marks and Spencers announced yesterday that they will be selling around 400 branded grocery and household products in all of its UK stores for the first in its 125 year history. This follows after a successful 16 month trial in its stores in North East and South East England.
The brands that will be entering the doors of M&S over the next year will include such big brands as, Coca Cola, Marmite, Kelloggs and Heinz. To keep up with the competition all of the products have been price matched against the major supermarkets, ushering in a new twist in the supermarket wars.
John Dixon, Executive Director of Foods at M&S said, “there are some products that we could simply never compete with, like Marmite and Kit Kat, and other areas where, whilst we have a great M&S equivalent, the leading brand dominates the market.”
It is hoped by Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman of Mark and Spencers, that by including such big brands in M&S will provide customers with a one stop shop rather than having customers go elsewhere to buy them, saving cutomers time and making life easier for busy individuals.
In recent months making life easier for customers has become a matter of urgency with Waitrose planning on opening hundreds of smaller convenience stores that will see it compete directly with M&S Simply Food.
M&S’s upmarket food business has been hit in the recession, with shoppers switching to cheaper rivals. However, it has held its ground by introducing “Wise Buys” and new products.
The entering of the big brands hopes to attempt to close the gap between rival Waitrose. “Adding the nation’s favourite brands to our mix offers our customers more choice and strengthens our position as the UK’s leading quality food retailer,” continued John Dixon in a statement.
Over the coming months shoppers will see the big brand names sitting amongst M&S’s own brands. Each store will offer a selection of the range chosen according to its size, starting from around 50 products in smaller stores and up to the full range in larger stores.
