Following trials at its Middleton store last year, Asda is now rolling out its refill proposition to four more supermarkets by the end of 2021 as part of its drive to reduce the use of plastic packaging.
The retailer will be trialling new refill configurations in partnership with several leading brands as it looks to find the best ways to encourage participation amongst shoppers.
The four additional refill stores will all feature a wider range of core products. Brands involved include Yorkshire Tea, cereals from Kellogg’s and Nestlé, Napolina pasta, and Tilda rice. There is also a new ‘prefilled’ trial in partnership with Unilever.
The largest refill store to date will open in York in October with 18 standalone bays featuring over 70 branded and own-label products in a refillable format. New product types will include dried Mars pet food, such as Whiskas and Pedigree, and additional ranges of snacking, desserts and baking products.
Standalone refill fixtures and specific aisles featuring branded and own-label cereals, pasta, rice, tea, coffee, pet food, laundry, and toiletry products will also be added to Asda’s stores in Glasgow (August), Rugby (August), and Milton Keynes (December).
Meanwhile, all four stores will feature Persil, Radox, Simple and Alberto Balsam products from Unilever in stainless steel reusable bottles. These will be tested in two refill formats; ‘refill on the go’ where shoppers can refill their bottle using a machine in-store and, in a global first for Unilever and Asda, ‘return on the go’ where shoppers can pick up pre-filled bottles off the shelf and return them in-store once used. Unilever will also be testing the scheme in selected Co-op stores later this year.
“Asda share our ambition and urgency to tackle plastic pollution, so it’s great to scale up our partnership with them and continue to test different refill models in their stores,” said Sebastian Munden, Unilever UK & Ireland’s Executive VP & GM.
“By testing and learning what works best in-store, we can understand how to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to make sustainable choices, whilst still using the brands they know and love.”
Last week, Unilever announced that it was trialling a new paper-based laundry detergent bottle.
Asda revealed that following the launch of its first refill zone at its Middleton store last October, sales of several products outstripped their packaged equivalents with shoppers travelling from outside their local area to use the sustainable offering.
“We know that reducing packaging waste matters to our customers and they have embraced the refill options available at the Middleton store, with many of the products available already exceeding expectations,” said Susan Thomas, Director of Commercial Sustainability at Asda.
“Our ultimate goal is to make refill and reuse a part of every Asda shopping trip and to achieve this we have to make it easy, accessible and affordable for all our customers to shop this way. Middleton was a great introduction to how customers engage with refill products and we are now looking to accelerate these learnings by trialling different refill options in more stores to understand which aspects can potentially be developed further.”
NAM Implications:
- Asda refill patently gaining momentum…
- …in response to shopper demand.
- Time to climb aboard?
