Waitrose Launches Healthy Store Brand

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June 7, 2011

U.K. supermarket chain Waitrose is rolling out Waitrose Love Life, a line of “ nutritionally balanced foods,” which will hit store shelves by the end of the month.

This marks the retailers largest private label launch since Essential Waitrose was introduced, and includes 270 products. The retailer also plans to start using the Waitrose Love Life logo on products and ingredients across the entire product mix, highlighting nutritional benefits to customers.

The new line is designed to complement the staple grocery items in Essential Waitrose and the more indulgent products from Duchy, Heston and Menu From Waitrose, “and it answers a demand from over half of Waitrose customers to help them include a wider range of whole food ingredients and avoid saturated fats in their diets,” the company said in a statement.

The product launch will be supported with a quarterly magazine, recipe cards and a dedicated section on Waitrose.com, encouraging MyWaitrose members to share recipes and tips.

“We’re well aware that most of us eat too much saturated fat, salt and sugar but we rarely hear about the important nutrients that we’re not getting enough of,” said Waitrose nutritionist Dr. Joanne Lunn. “Variety is key to getting the balance right. Many of us get stuck in a food rut, eating similar types of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We need over 40 different kinds of vitamins and minerals every day for good health and no single food provides the correct mix of the important nutrients.”

Soya Certification for PL
Waitrose is also the first U.K. grocer to commit to sourcing 100 percent of the soya in its private label products from Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) certified sources by December 2015.

The commitment follows ongoing work by World Wildlife Fund to reduce the negative impact global soya demands are having on the Cerrado savannah in Brazil and other regions. The Cerrado is currently disappearing at a faster rate than the Amazon rainforest -- due to ever-increasing global demand for soya -- used in the majority of feed given to livestock destined for supermarket shelves, according to a Waitrose statement.

"Supermarkets account for the vast majority of food purchased in Britain, so we share a collective responsibility to ensure we’re not damaging the world’s precious resources with the ingredients we source,” said Quentin Clark, Waitrose head of sustainable sourcing. "This is a challenging commitment --- our farmers use many tons of soya each year to feed their animals. But we and our customers need to be confident that Waitrose is part of the solution, not the problem."

This soya announcement follows another Waitrose announced commitment to switch to only certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2012.

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