Marks & Spencer is launching a major campaign that will champion British farming and the retailer’s support for its nearly 10,000 farmers across the UK amid the current challenging market conditions.
From tomorrow, M&S is launching a six-week campaign – spanning TV, social and in-store – that aims to put the efforts of British farmers and growers at the forefront for customers and highlight its ongoing commitments to sourcing meat, farmed fish, poultry, dairy and fruit, veg and horticulture locally.
With travel restrictions in place, M&S is using ‘farmer cam’ footage on its website and social channels with interviews from farmers and growers across the country. M&S will also air newly re-edited versions of its Fresh Market Update TV series following ITV’s 6.30pm news every Monday to Thursday (Tuesday to Thursday for the first week), which goes behind the scenes at M&S’s Select Farms across the UK producing beef, pork, salmon, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes. M&S will also shine a spotlight on British products across its stores with new décor and signage in place.
Stuart Machin, Managing Director of M&S Food, said: “Despite the enormous challenges they are facing, our family of 10,000 British farmers are supporting us to deliver fantastic quality, fresh food for our customers, so we want to do our bit to support them. That is why we are standing by our long-standing British sourcing commitments, introducing new initiatives to tackle the problems our agricultural sector faces, and – through our new campaign – reminding customers of the incredible food our nation’s farmers produce.”
In response to the challenges facing the farming community, M&S said it has written to major farming unions and Government departments over the last week. The letter encourages the Government to address wider industry challenges around milk volumes and the supply of labour in produce. It also outlines M&S’s ongoing commitments and plans to support each agricultural sector, such as dairy and beef farmers, who are facing mounting pressures as sales in the hospitality industry have plunged by almost 60%. These commitments include paying a fair price for milk and sales initiatives to support farmers including a 100% British meat food box and the introduction of bedding plants to its stores.