The new 400g ‘Best in Season’ pack retails at £3.50, with each pack featuring at least two different varieties of tomato carefully selected by growers in Essex, Cambridge and Hertfordshire. The varieties will flex and change based on the grower’s insights into what is performing well.
Meanwhile, Co-op has launched 225g packs of ‘Co-op Irresistible Sugardrop Tomatoes’ and ‘Irresistible Piccolo’. Both SKUs are retailing at £2.25 per pack and will contain 100% British tomatoes throughout the season, which runs until August.
Sugardrop tomatoes are a trademarked variety sold by only two other retailers, with the SKU rolling out in Co-op convenience stores first.
“As a convenience retailer and longstanding supporter of British growers and farmers, championing home-grown produce on our shelves is important to us,” said Co-op technical manager Charlotte Lonsdale.
“Snacking tomatoes continue to grow in popularity and our new offer celebrates the very best of the season and provides the breadth of choice and newness that we know our members and customers are looking for in this category.”
The new lines join the retailer’s ‘Irresistible range’ which has received a new look and packaging design which transitions away from plastic to recyclable cardboard and a plastic top seal which can be recycled kerbside. This will save 77 tonnes of plastic a year, Co-op has said.
In related news, Co-op CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq has said that the group has made ‘significant progress’ towards a ‘complete recovery’ from a recent cyberattack.
“While there is still work to do to unwind the operational and technical impacts of the actions we had to take to block the criminals, our systems are now stable, our food stores again have more of the products our customers want and all our businesses are continuing to serve our member-owners," Khoury-Haq wrote on LinkedIn earlier this month.
