Many familiar Irish brands set to disappear from Tesco

IIMII

Irish Times, Sat, May 02, 2009
by CONOR POPE

DOZENS OF grocery brands which are popular in the Republic will start disappearing from the shelves of Tesco stores from Tuesday as the retail giant launches a major restructuring of its stock.
Industry sources say many familiar brands will be removed from stores close to the Border and in at least one new store in Cork from next week as Tesco seeks to more closely mirror the product offerings and prices available in its British stores.
Up to 13 stores in Border counties as well as a large Tesco Extra outlet in Cork will initially be affected by the change aimed at combating the continued migration of shoppers from the Republic across the Border in search of better value.
Consumers in the Republic are considered more brand conscious than shoppers in other jurisdictions, but the economic downturn, coupled with a weakened sterling, has seen British chains such as Sainsburys and Asda operating in Border towns profit from a dramatic increase in cross-Border business.
When they travel North, consumers from south of the Border are willing to buy cheaper but less familiar products and Tesco is understood to be keen to stress-test this shifting brand loyalty.
Some established Irish brands will retain a presence on the shelves but many will see their prominence significantly downgraded as the retailer moves to wean shoppers off certain products. While the move will initially affect only a small number of stores, Tesco is understood to be keen to implement the changes across the State.
Camile O’Flanagan of Barry’s Tea confirmed that the range and amount of its products stocked by Tesco Ireland’s northeastern shops as well as one Tesco outlet in Cork will fall. She said some of its familiar brands would have significantly smaller displays while others would be dropped altogether. “We are a major player in the Irish tea market and it would be a concern for us if people could not get our products.”
In the affected branches, Tesco has adopted UK planograms – the layout plans illustrating how and where products should be displayed – so the stores will now replicate the layout and design of stores in Britain.
Tesco declined to comment but a source familiar with the retail giant’s operation confirmed it would be making “a significant announcement” on Tuesday.
He insisted it would be more focused on lower prices than range and denied it would negatively impact on products sourced from the Republic.
© 2009 The Irish Times

darc

The Headline is "Many Familiar Brands will Disapear from Tesco"
No where does it specifically mention irish brands in particular but a general reorganiksation of their stocking systems which may see x amount of brands dropped of which some will be irish brands.

Total different story to another thread that claimed Irish Brands alone were being targeted.

IMO, its a mistake by Tesco to remove brands (Irish & international) and reminds me of when they first came into Ireland and replicated the UK model. - It failed miserably.

Sir Oxman

"When they travel North, consumers from south of the Border are willing to buy cheaper but less familiar products and Tesco is understood to be keen to stress-test this shifting brand loyalty.
Some established Irish brands will retain a presence on the shelves but many will see their prominence significantly downgraded as the retailer moves to wean shoppers off certain products."

The other thread said some Irish brands were going to be replaced/removed, downgraded is another term which basically means Tesco will be purchasing less from Irish companies/distributors.

I can't see Tesco removing international brands, these are sold in their UK stores too - they may source them from UK distributors and ship them over themselves.

IMO, it makes business sense for a company to try and recapture lost trade across the border which is happening day in, day out.
If a store in the Republic is selling (at the same price) the same brands people pouring North are willing to buy to reduce their weekly/monthly food bill, then so be it.

Apparently there will be an announcement by Tesco next Tuesday.

netwhizkid

This coming from the same Tesco who targets 9 years old wearing GAA jerseys north of the border. Aldi and Dunnes Stores between them offer the discount quality goods and more normalised brand names at good quality. Anybody who shops at Tesco for valu is kidding themselves. I made athe mistake of getting Steak in Tesco once and I swear the soles on Army boots would be more tender and tasty, my dog even took around a day to eat and died two months later from old age.

ejmaztec

netwhizkid wrote: »

This coming from the same Tesco who targets 9 years old wearing GAA jerseys north of the border. Aldi and Dunnes Stores between them offer the discount quality goods and more normalised brand names at good quality. Anybody who shops at Tesco for valu is kidding themselves. I made athe mistake of getting Steak in Tesco once and I swear the soles on Army boots would be more tender and tasty, my dog even took around a day to eat and died two months later from old age.

Are you sure your dog didn't die of too much whine?:P

Cabaal

Really shows what Tesco care about more then anything (their bottom line), atleast Lidl and others have improved Irish stock over time

DMC

Its a very interesting move.... dunno if it will work or what.. but lets see..

If they are going to basically use their NI warehouses to stock the border stores with UK sourced goods, then they are foregoing the Irish distributors. Take a box of Weetabix. Made in UK, shipped over here through existing channels. But if Tesco use their NI channels, then it will be the same box of Weetabix, on the same shelf, yet delivered to the store in a different way. The crucial thing there is, they are going to pay Irish VAT rates on sales, so that might work.

As for the Barry's Tea mentioned in the quoted article I've seen people up north buy Punjana tea instead of the usual Barry's Tea that they might buy down south for years. So people are trying something different when cross border shopping

But what might not work is the downgrading of Irish produce. For the likes of Glanbia, Kerry etc, the thought of more cheap milk from the continent would gall farmers etc, leading to boycotts etc. I can't see them completely remove all Irish produce.

If it works, it will **** Dunnes and SuperValu up the ass with no lube, as they are tiny in grocery terms up North nowadays.

How far will brand loyalty, especially for Irish products stretch?

That's my impression, but I wait to see what Tesco has in store (koff) for us on Tuesday.

ScouseMouse

I am currently lowering the prices in my small shop. I can only do this by buying from the UK. The sooner the irish distributors cop themselves on the better.

Last week, I had a rep from Masterfoods (Mars) in doing a survey as to why I am not buying form them. She knew the answer, but still had to ask the question.


PRICE

Elmo

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0502/tesco.html

A nail in the coffin of the Irish Economy???? Job losses in Irish companies?????

Are local brands good or should we look towards manufacturing international brands?

Cabaal

11 stores closing, I think Aldi and Lidl are affecting then more then they'll ever admit

meditraitor

Whats the big deal, it business at the end of the day.
Its easier/much cheaper to buy and wholesale goods from the Uk with the weakness of sterling and the cost of labour.

I dont know why they didnt do it months ago..............

MOH

netwhizkid wrote: »

This coming from the same Tesco who targets 9 years old wearing GAA jerseys north of the border.

Eh, no.

my dog even took around a day to eat

Why would you eat your dog?


Was in two Tesco's near the border over the weekend, both were half cleared out, and closed on Sat and Sun. Only announcement from Tesco today so far seems to be this - just ignores the whole "irish produce" question:

05/05/2009 - 09:53:30
Tesco has announced a 20% cut in the price of around 12,500 products at 11 of its outlets in border counties.

The British retailer is making the cuts in stores from Louth to Donegal in an effort to stem the tide of shoppers going north of the border to avail of significantly lower prices.

It also says it will be reducing the price of milk, meat and poultry across the country from this week.

Elmo

meditraitor wrote: »

Whats the big deal, it business at the end of the day.
Its easier/much cheaper to buy and wholesale goods from the Uk with the weakness of sterling and the cost of labour.

I dont know why they didnt do it months ago..............

Loss of Irish jobs, people cannot buy products if they aren't employed. Part of the spin off industry to shops is suppliers and spin off industries to suppliers are producers and spin offs to producers is agriculture which is still a major component of our economy.

Cost of Labour is only lower due to the weakness of sterling. When it was strong it averaged out about the same.

Jip

There's threads all over the place on this, the most active being in Rip off Ireland, do we really need another ill informed one ?

Cabaal wrote: »

11 stores closing, I think Aldi and Lidl are affecting then more then they'll ever admit

They only closed for the weekend apparently in preparation for this new enterprise.

Elmo

Jip wrote: »

They only closed for the weekend apparently in preparation for this new enterprise.

I didn't stated that they were closing anything. I only went with the report on RTÉ.

Jip

I never said you did either.

Tipsy Mac

Irish suppliers have a lot to answer for, items like butter and bread which have zero VAT are more expensive in Ireland than they are in Northern Ireland, perhaps the suppliers will see sense after their sales slump.

Elmo

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Irish suppliers have a lot to answer for, items like butter and bread which have zero VAT are more expensive in Ireland than they are in Northern Ireland, perhaps the suppliers will see sense after their sales slump.

Bread and Butter has 0% vat on them in NI as well.

Tipsy Mac

Elmo wrote: »

Bread and Butter has 0% vat on them in NI as well.

Yes that's my point, there's no VAT excuse caused by the government for a price differential here V's the North.

meditraitor

Elmo wrote: »

Loss of Irish jobs, people cannot buy products if they aren't employed. Part of the spin off industry to shops is suppliers and spin off industries to suppliers are producers and spin offs to producers is agriculture which is still a major component of our economy.

Cost of Labour is only lower due to the weakness of sterling. When it was strong it averaged out about the same.

But its business, and the common market does not allow for protectionism! If Ireland is not competitive then we only have ourselves to blame.

Im trying to think of something that we do which is more competitive across europe to use a comparison but for the life of me I cant? Why is that now?

Tesco is only doing what any large multi national would do and that is keep its costs down, all this tesco bashing is pathetic and reeks of sour grapes.

Elmo

meditraitor wrote: »

But its business, and the common market does not allow for protectionism! If Ireland is not competitive then we only have ourselves to blame.

Im trying to think of something that we do which is more competitive across europe to use a comparison but for the life of me I cant? Why is that now?

Tesco is only doing what any large multi national would do and that is keep its costs down, all this tesco bashing is pathetic and reeks of sour grapes.

No but the common market allows for one country to significantly affect its own currency to provide some protectionism to its businesses.

Perhaps we should just stop all production, all financial institutions and be hand feed by Europe.

It is not sour grapes, it is the simple fact that we are going to lose jobs and eventually Tescos will close shops because of it. You will also note that I was quite far to Tesco when writing my OP.

foggy_lad

The grocery chain is to close 11 of its stores in border counties this evening and reopen them on Tuesday with a larger range of cheaper goods.

they will never compete with the northern stores or with aldi/lidl with cheaper "tesco value" products! people want a certain quality for the price they pay and reducing the quality is not going to help tesco at all.

what tesco need to remove are the extras in store like all the food tasting stalls etc these all cost money and lead to branded products being more expensive. also make the tills more customer friendly and faster by making the belts longer so customers can put their trollyload onto it then place the trolly at the other end to load the shopping and get rid of those useless bag-packers.

also they need to cut the amount spent on store refits as their customers are paying for unnecessary refurbishments.

Jip

Judging by this post and the one in the Tesco Price thread also here you don't know what Tesco have done.

Also the food smapling stalls usually cost nothing, if anything they may cost the manufacturer a couple of freebies in order to get their product such prominence in store, a retailer would not pay a manufacturer or supplier to come in and do this.

You also had people whinging around here about the state of some of their older stores, now you complain that they don't need to refit it.

dudara

Threads merged

dudara

Elmo

dudara wrote: »

Threads merged

dudara

The title is incorrect, it should really read that Irish products will be reduced and moved to a less prominent position.