Promoting Smaller Brands

05 February 2015, 12:21 pm
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

At this time of year I often spend time out with my sales team visiting retails, and this year is no exception, and I entered in to a debate yesterday I thought I would share with you

The conversation started from the reference point of a recent survey within the speciality food sector where retailers vote for their favourite brands.  Incidentally Cotswold Fayre came out second amongst wholesalers – a remarkable achievement considering our “annus horribilis” in 2014, and puts us in a good position to nab top spot again next year!

However, I digress, back to the top food and drink brands. San Pellegrino was the top soft drink, and Teapigs were the top tea brand – both companies are owned by massive multi-national corporations, Nestle and Tata (Tetley’s) respectively. As independent retailers and wholesalers, would we be stocking brands owned by companies like this? It is a debate that has been had before and no doubt will continue. And I am well aware that possibly independent retailers in the past have erred on the “purist” side and not enough on the “making money from well-known brands” side of the fence. What I am thinking currently though is that maybe the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction if farm shops are stocking Coca-Cola and Cadbury’s Chocolate bars. Ok – perhaps most don’t, but in my opinion, and in that of the independent retailer I was talking to yesterday, it is time to ensure our products are sourced ethically throughout the store.

Surely there is a side to our businesses that should be about promoting the smaller brands above those of the multi-nationals?

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