The FT reports today that M&S is to continue and expand its use of non M&S branded products. It’s food business seems to have been a large part of its sucess in recent years, almost imposing itself on the rest of the business and expanding into clothing real estate. The store in Ealing for one has adapted and been totally remodelled to cater for the bulging food section.
I hadn’t realised they’d started selling products like Tetley tea and Hellman’s mayo (probably because it was a limited trial), but this is going to increasingly be part of their offering. This will bring them more into direct competition with Waitrose, which is the only supermarket in the same part of the market as M&S, price/quality wise.
You have to wonder what this’ll do to M&S’ existing suppliers and how their mix of imports vs. local suppliers will change. I have to say I do like Waitrose’s approach in trying to convince people that as many of it’s products as possible, are local. And I hope M&S go down the same road and not just in terms of how they position it.
However, I still prefer to beat the drum about using local shops though – I barely seem to use supermarkets at the moment and I’ve gone so far as to scope out the local shops in locations I’m planning to move to. If only there were more local shops to chose from.
