With every £1 in £5 spent in our Northern Irish stores on local Irish lines, we’re rightly proud of the range we have and the positive impact Asda has on the Northern Irish economy. So working with our Corporate Affairs Team we organised an event at Stormont to showcase the range and announce our ambitious plans for 2010.

The event was really well attended and we were thrilled it made GMTV on which the Enterprise Minister made some really positive comments.

It was my first time at Stormont and it was a suitably iconic venue. However I think we caused a bit of a stir as to get all the chillers in we had to open some doors that were last opened when the clintons visited!

The event was also featured on GMTV news:

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As blogged back on 18th November, Steve was short-listed for the Marketing Initiative of the Year from the British Free Range Egg Producers Association for his work on free range eggs.

Anyway – HE WON! Well done Steve.

Here’s the footage and spot the moment when I had to make a quick decision when the winner is announced.

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Riddlers is a family-run 4th generation fish company based in the South West. They have been landing processing and selling fish from the local harbours of Brixham, Plymouth and Newlyn since the 1920’s. So when we were seeking a quality company to partner with to open a brand new fish counter in our Newton Abbott store there was only 1 choice.

One of the biggest barriers to customers buying fresh fish is not knowing how to deal with it. However Rowes has a dedicated team on their counter in Asda to provide full advice.

Here are some pictures taken last week when we ran a Masterclass filleting & preparing fresh fish for the public and I’ve included some footage of the Radio advert we recored to promote the launch.

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Mrs Michelle Clinton recently got in contact with us asking what we are doing at Asda to clearly communicate which of our fruit and veg is produced in Britain and also which of it is in season. We have developed the following provenance label shown below which now features on all of our British fruit and veg packaging:

I take on board your point that the label is quite small on some packaging so I have had a chat with Helen in the produce team who oversees the labelling and she is going to see what can be done to make the British label more prominent on pack.

With regards to promoting “season’s best” produce such as apples and plums at this time of the year, obviously if it has the British label it will almost certainly be “in season” with the exception of perhaps potatoes which can be stored through the winter. However, we now put regular articles in the Asda magazine highlighting what’s in season at present such as the two-page article which recently featured in the September edition of the magazine below.

Thank you for your feedback, as always we will endeavour to improve our labelling to promote locally produced British produce.

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Well, how did this come about? Let me explain.

It’s the job of our Corporate Affairs Team to keep their finger on the party political pulse (lucky them!!). Anyway, this year the Tories decided to try something different at their conference and instead of all exhibitors being in one area they separated out the retailers into a ‘Market Place’. So Paul, Bernard, Guy and Mark asked us to come along and tell the local story and we were happy to support. We created a stand that is similar to the one we take to the Agricultural Shows, organised sampling of our lines (Edwards of Conwy Pies and Tan Y Castell Welsh Cakes were particular favourites) and asked some of our suppliers to come along and chat to the delegates. We even raised over £600 for charity.

It was hard work (check out how tired I am at set-up on Sunday night!) but very interesting.

Not being there on any particular political footing (that was for Paul and the Team) we were able to talk to the delegates about what we do on local and we definitely changed some people’s perceptions.

Whatever one’s political beliefs it was fascinating to see how the whole event came together from a logistical and security point of view, to see and talk to talk to some famous people and observe the obvious confidence the Party feels in the Election run-up.

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We’ve had a request from Sarah Tapp, a customer from Nottingham. Thanks for getting in touch Sarah.

She gets straight to the point which I like – “Please sell Hollands meat puddings and meat pies in Hyson Green!”

Well Sarah, like all our products we give the most relevant choice of pies in our stores which means we have the delicious Hollands range across the North West, keeping it tight to its Lancashire heartland.

In your area of the Midlands we have Pukka Pies of Leicester as the regional choice but that also allows us to stock local pies within the chillers too and in your case I’m delighted to announce the launch of the AE Chambers range.

AE Chambers is located in Hucknall Road off Arnold Street, Nottingham, and is a family business. This is the first time they have supplied a supermarket with their products and we’re all excited about the opportunity.

Here’s a picture taken yesterday of local MP Liz Blackman with Dave and Phil Chambers and store colleagues Samantha and Torban that we hope will be in the newspapers this week (Sarah, this is your sneak preview!!)

So please give truly local AE Chambers a chance and I’m sure you’ll be delighted when you try this award-winning range!

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It’s British Food Fortnight – a time for us all to celebrate the food and drink of the British Isles!

And it’s only here because of an amazing women called Alexia Robinson. I first met Alexia in a very uninspiring room here in Asda House, but she lit it up with her passion for the subject and the openness of our discussion about the role large supermarkets play in the promotion of British food.

As the founder of lovebritishfood.co.uk she decided some years ago that a fortnight every year highlighting British food would be a great idea, so here we are!

This year the Fortnight falls between 19th September and 4th October.

To celebrate we at Asda have put aside two dedicated areas in our produce section with the best in season British fruit and veg, a similar space in core chilled where our local Lake District cheese is on sale, and promoted many meat lines. We also have put three adverts in the national press.

The local team have rolled back the prices of over 100 local lines, developed point of sale to highlight this to customers in store and launched 100+ new fresh local lines. I decided to go and see what the competition was up to – take a look at the video.

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Hi, I’m Paul and I work in the Local Sourcing Team and I think I’ve got one of the best jobs at Asda! I love good food and that’s what I work with every day.

We have over 6,000 local products in our stores from Cornish Rattler cider in St Austell store to Simon Howie bacon in Elgin. My job as Customer Planning Manager is to make sure the range has the right products at the right price for the customer, to tell them about the lines via our marketing and help our small suppliers sell as much as they can in our stores.

Outside of work it’s about family and sport! I have a gorgeous wife, two great children, play cricket for Ilkley CC and run over the moors (though my Dad can still beat me!)... oh and I’ve got a veggie patch and have my fingers crossed for my first asparagus crop in Spring 2010!

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