Henderson Group, which owns Spar brand in Northern Ireland, has invested over £80,000 to enhance and innovate the dailyDeli lunch on the go range.
The move is part of it response to changes in shopper behaviour around lunchtime purchases due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown, with a recent report by Lumina Intelligence finding that while 34 per cent of people are planning to continue to work from home in the future, 38 per cent will seek out ‘at-home to go’ alternatives from local stores for their lunch.
The retailer has partnered with food to go specialist Around Noon, which has manufacturing facilities in Newry in Northern Ireland, to develop the newly revamped range of sandwiches, wraps, salads and snack pots to capture this opportunity for growth within the market.
The new look brand now includes two new sub-ranges to create 12 new products. The Nice and Simple range uses key simple ingredients to provide great value for money, while the Choice range brings a selection of Under 400 calorie, vegan and vegetarian options of sandwiches, wraps salads and snacks to please every food mood.
Neal Kelly, fresh foods director at Henderson Group which also holds the franchise for Eurospar and Vivo in Northern Ireland said working with adaptable local suppliers will always allow them to react to market changes quickly.
“Over the past year with more and more shoppers choosing Spar and Eurospar for all of their shopping occasions, we have closely monitored the shift in consumer behaviour and identified opportunities to grow our lunch on the go options,” he said.
“It is this need for forward thinking and quick turnarounds that makes our working with local suppliers such as Around Noon even more important. Adjusting our products to fit the market is crucial to the success of our retailers, and whether working from home or back in the office, we know consumers will continue to seek out ‘to go’ lunch options. It’s more important than ever that we provide a broad range of quality food to go options to fulfil their daily needs.”
The company has also invested in fully recyclable labels, sandwich and wrap boxes with all salad and snack pots made from 50 per cent recyclable material, which are also fully recyclable.
The new dailyDeli range will be available in over 130 Spar, Eurospar, Vivo and Vivoxtra stores and supermarkets, including all Henderson Retail operated outlets.
