Supermarket group Southern Co-op has been celebrating a decade of supporting local food and drink producers. The Local Flavours range was first introduced to stores in 2007 and visitors to the recent IW County Show were given free tasters from The Tomato Stall.
“We are one of the very few major retailers who run our local sourcing as a separate entity within our business,” said Kate Hibbert, Southern Co-op Local Sourcing Manager. “This enables us to develop and retain very close relationships with our suppliers and to offer our customers a fabulous range of local food and drink, produced by people who are very passionate about what they do. Our LocalFlavours campaign aims to encourage people to support their local producers. We are also offering discounts on local food and drink in our stores during the campaign so that people can try new things.”
Daniella Tarrant, Sales Manager at The Tomato Stall said: “We have worked with Southern Co-op since 2008, starting with local branches on the Isle of Wight. Now this has now opened up to Hampshire & Sussex with the view that we can continue to grow. We value Southern Co-op’s support and collaboration greatly – together we bring variety, freshness and a clear provenance to the retail sector.”
