In a post on social media, the London-based Sublime Butter said that a new Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range of flavoured butter products was a “rip off” of its own range.
Sublime Butter claims that it had sent samples of its products to Sainsbury’s last year in the hope of securing a listing, and that the retailer had responded by developing “carbon copies” and launching them under its Taste the Difference brand.
However, the claims have been disputed by Sainsbury’s which said the accusations have “no truth” to them.
What each side said
In its post, Sublime Butter singled out the ‘Chimichurri’ and ‘Truffle, Parmesan & Black Pepper’ Taste the Difference flavoured butter SKUs, which went on sale this month.
“Your new range of flavoured butters look great,” the social media post read.
“Did you come up with those yourselves? Be honest now. Because it seems like you’ve gone and accidentally made carbon copies of the ones we sent you last year. You know, the one you pretended you wanted to stock?”
The post went onto criticise “giant supermarkets” for requesting samples and then ripping off smaller brands by copying their products.
It continued: “We find joy helping people to eat better. Bad sportsmanship from big players means that its increasingly difficult to do.
“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so thank you. But also: stop and think. Take the £££s you’ve spent copying us and make something original. Go out on a limb. All these supermarket wars, and you’ve all forgotten the one true basis of any good brand: stand for something. Then, maybe you won’t have to stoop to following in other people’s wake.”
In response, Sainsbury’s said that it values its supplier relationships “deeply” and would not develop products based on samples it has received.
“Every supplier is an essential partner to our business and no matter their size or scale we are committed to fair treatment and trusted partnerships,” a spokesperson for the retailer commented.
“We launched our Taste the Difference flavoured butter range in response to growing customer demand for more flavourful butter and joined several other retailers with launches in this category, based on customer insights and following well-established flavour trends in the market.
“Our own label product development process operates entirely separately and the team has no contact or discussion with suppliers over the brands we stock.”
‘Ideas are difficult to safeguard in law’
Reacting to Sublime Butter’s accusations, Euan Duncan – a partner in the media, manufacturing and technology team at Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP – said that this was not a typical copycat case, as have been seen elsewhere in the sector.
“Instead, Sublime Butter is raising concerns that potentially confidential commercial information - namely, product concepts - may have been used by Sainsbury’s after a potential pitch meeting,” Duncan told Food Manufacture.
“The challenge is that ideas, unless protected as trade secrets or formalised through the licensing of IP rights, are notoriously difficult to safeguard in law.”
Duncan added that the dispute would likely be played out in the “court of public opinion” rather than in a legal one.
“There’s no suggestion the recipes or branding were copied directly,” he continued.
“Rather, the claim is about the broader concept being replicated - which, while frustrating for smaller producers, does not automatically amount to legal wrongdoing.
“The other interesting counter position is whether Sublime is using social media to leverage the power of the Sainsbury’s brand.”
