Tesco harnesses the healthy power of consumers

Tesco has seen a dramatic uptake in purchases of its healthier food ranges since introducing front of pack nutritional labelling and this offered far better prospects for improving the nation's diet than regulation, claimed chief executive Sir Terry Leahy last week.

Giving the 28th Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association annual lecture, Leahy said that by working with consumers through approaches such as Tesco's guideline daily amount labelling, “we can achieve far more in the field of health and nutrition than we can ever achieve through regulation”

Leahy said the same philosophy applied to attempts to create a sustainable UK food chain. Rather than exhortations to “buy British”, he claimed success was far more likely to be achieved by tapping into consumer demand for suppliers they can trust and growing demand for local and seasonal provenance. But it was essential to meet changing consumer lifestyles, he added: “Opportunities for growth will go to those who make life easier for them.”

“In the battle for trust, ethical considerations weigh equally as heavily,” said Leahy. He added that consumers did not just want the industry to do the right thing, they wanted help in doing the right thing themselves. “If we can meet this demand we can be the engine of behavioural change.”

Tesco introduced guideline daily amount (GDA) labels in April 2005. Since then around 2,000 Tesco own-label products have carried the information and by the spring of next year every own label product would feature them, said Leahy. He reported that Tesco's research had shown that consumers found GDAs easy to use.

In the first eight weeks of labelling, for example, sales of a standard salmon and cucumber sandwich had fallen by 30%, while a healthier alternative had risen by 85%. This experience had been repeated across various ranges, such as vegetable curry with less fat, where sales had risen by 33%, said Leahy.

“Something pretty remarkable is happening in our industry,” he said. “These are not marginal changes: you are more likely to bring about behavioural change if you harness the power of consumers, rather than fight it.”