Welcome to Health Food Business
Consultation? what consultation?
At a time when we are all working extra hard trying to reverse the downward trend in sales which is affecting the whole industry, I am incensed that a successful brand which we have been happily selling to our customers for many years is no longer available to us.
I refer to Alpro soya products. The loss of major selling chilled and ambient desserts has been a blow. Many customers do not like the Provamel range and do not understand why I can no longer supply them with their preferred Alpro range.
What really annoys me is that, when I complained, I was told that independent retailers had been consulted and fully supported the change.
Well, I wasn't consulted. After 23 years running a successful business
I think my views should be considered. Who were the retailers who apparently agreed to the removal from our shelves of a top-selling range?
A similar thing has happened with our former main supplier of
pre-packed wholefoods.
They changed the physical dimensions of their packs, meaning that fewer lines could be stocked in the available shelf space. And they removed the word 'organic' from the product description on their labels, relying instead on the pack colour and a faint logo to identify their organic lines.
When I complained, I was told that retailers had been consulted and had
approved the changes. Well I wasn't consulted.
Who were these retailers who agreed that organic products should no longer be described as such? I'm told that it is up to me as a retailer to inform my customers that green bags are organic and brown bags are non-organic!
Clearly the people who invented this system have no retailing experience. It really annoys me when customers complain to me that I no longer stock such-and-such organic line. I do stock it, it's just that the label doesn't say the product is organic.
Sometimes I wonder if some of our wholesalers and manufacturers have any customer experience at all, or do they invent these crazy ideas sitting in an office all day?
Mike Barker
The Health Warehouse, Darlington
Alpro responds:
Having worked with the health food trade for many years we fully appreciate the difficulties that the industry is facing and the struggle that is taking place to reverse the downward trend in the health food retailer sales. Indeed, we have been facing the same decline in the sales to the health food trade ourselves.
The launch of Provamel was a response to this trend as we believe that independent retailers need something which is unique and exclusive to them to allow them to compete with supermarkets on both price and convenience. Our research has also told us a large proportion of health food shoppers actively seek organic products that contain natural flavourings. Provamel soya products are 100% organic, only contain natural flavourings and are only sold to the health food trade.
Provamel uses only the highest quality organic whole soya beans. Using only natural and organic ingredients means that the taste and structure of some Provamel products is different to their Alpro equivalents which are not organic. We are aware that some products need to be improved and are working on this to try to find solutions as soon as possible. Keeping within organic legislation means that it is not easy to find an overnight solution. However, we are working on it as a priority.
Under European organic law it is illegal to fortify any organic product by adding ingredients like calcium and vitamins which means we are unable to add any additional nutrients to our 100% organic products.
For this reason we continue to supply a number of Alpro products to our health food wholesalers including Alpro sweetened soya milk with calcium and vitamins (blue pack), Alpro unsweetened soya milk with calcium and vitamins (orange pack) and Alpro Dark Chocolate Dessert with calcium. Local health food store retailers can still order these products to sell on shelf if they choose to.
Thank you for taking the time to express your views, we do appreciate feedback from the industry as it is only through working with you that we will be able to move our product range on and better meet the needs of the industry. If you would like to talk to us about this in person please feel free to call us on 0800 111 4224.
Many Thanks,
John Allaway, Commercial Director at Provamel
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