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Safeway results - Local Economies
- Indicator 4.1
- Indicator 4.2
- Indicator 4.3
- Overall commentary and examples of good practice
- Supermarket comments
Indicator 4.1
Issue: Support for the local economy
Indicator: Company policy on sourcing food 'locally'and 'locality' foods
Safeway Stores plc does not have a written corporate policy on local, locality or regional products retailed.
However, the company is committed to a ‘UK First’ buying policy where product and specification are available, including red meat, apples, pears, dairy and organics. The Company’s objective is to play a full role in reducing Britain’s high food import bill by buying British products wherever these meet their standards.
Safeway store managers are able to identify potential products that they wish to be stocked in their stores, and report these back to head office, where the products are assessed to see if they meet Safeway’s requirements and can be stocked.
Regarding allocation of a proportion of overall food promotions budget to ‘promote’ the sale of local and locality foods, Safeway is unable to provide this information as it does not allocate promotional budgets to individual product areas.
Indicator 4.2
Issue: Support for the local economy
Indicator: Local and regional sourcing and promotion
No data was given on the percentages of foods sourced and sold as local or locality foods. No data was given on whether and how local/locality foods were promoted during 2002/03.
Regarding whether Safeway have ‘promoted’ local and locality food during 2002/03, Safeway is unable to provide this information as it does not allocate promotional budgets to individual product areas.
Safeway did not provide clear data on whether or not they have dedicated staff responsible for sourcing local and locality foods. They commented that their buyers are employed by commodity group and that local and locality foods are managed within their respective parent categories.
Indicator 4.3
Issue: Support for the local economy
Indicator: Company policy on sourcing food 'locally' and 'locality' foods – store shelf survey
A store shelf survey of local and locality foods stocked by retailers - focusing on apples, potatoes, fresh milk, pre-packed cheese, fresh beef and fresh lamb - was conducted by Sustain and the NFWI. The final survey sample consisted of just 7 stores. This sample was smaller than desired, and had a more limited geographical coverage than desired, thereby reducing the extent to which the store survey findings can be taken as representative of the retailer’s overall performance in terms of local sourcing.
Bearing these limitations in mind, of the Safeway stores surveyed it was found that none had local apples, local milk or local beef in stock, and only 14% (i.e. 1 store) stocked local potatoes, 14% stocked local cheese and 14% stocked local lamb. Of the local foods stocked, there were few varieties (on average 2 local potatoes, 1 local cheese and 1 local lamb cut).
Stocking rates for locality foods were better, with 14% of stores stocking locality apples, 43% stocking locality potatoes, 71% stocking locality milk, 86% stocking locality cheese, 57% stocking locality beef, and 71% stocking locality lamb. The average number of different varieties of these locality foods were: 1.2 varieties of locality milks, 2 varieties of locality apples, 2 varieties of locality beef, 2 varieties of locality lamb, 2.7 varieties of locality potatoes, and 9.1 varieties of locality cheeses in stores.
None of the Safeway stores had any customer information leaflets on local foods, and just 14% of the stores surveyed (ie 1 store) had an in-store display of local foods.
These results indicate that in practice Safeway is stocking a small selection of local products. Safeway’s stocking of locality products in mainland stores was higher than one might have expected based on the limited policies and information provided in the response to the Module questionnaire.
Overall commentary and examples of good practice
Safeway stated that it does not have written policies on sourcing local and locality food. It also did not provide figures or answers in response to most of the questionnaire. Safeway stated at the start of the questionnaire that the company ‘does not record data in any of the ways requested by this module’, hence the limited data provision. This is reflected in the relatively low overall marks gained.
Safeway has chosen to focus on sourcing British food products, rather than on sourcing local and locality products according to the definitions given. This partly explains the lack of data provided in completing much of the questionnaire, and hence their low overall marks. Safeway states that they intend to achieve more sourcing of British foods in several ways:
- By helping British producers to improve their standards to meet Safeway’s requirements, for example, Safeway is working closely with producers to improve the consistency in quality of British lamb, in order to reduce the need to source lamb from elsewhere;
- By making facilities available to test and trial new British products in their stores;
- By maintaining a regular dialogue with representatives of British farmers and with food and drink manufacturers to maximise opportunities.
A Safeway website page dated May 2002 states ‘more than 85% of the products we sell are produced in the UK’.
Despite the lack of figures given in response to the questionnaire, the company does stock local and locality food products in stores in different parts of the UK. Examples given include:
- Scottish meat supplied to all Scottish stores, and Scottish beef to all UK serve over counters;
- Northern Ireland sourced products supplied to Northern Ireland stores;
- West Country beef, pork and fish to West Country stores;
- Northumberland Lamb to Northumberland stores;
- Local fish, meat, eggs and bakery products in Channel Island stores;
- In store bakeries use wheat sourced from five main wheat-growing areas in England, while stores in non-wheat growing areas (eg Wales, Scotland, West Country) sell a range called Country Bread made from 100% UK wheat.
- Branded Rodda’s cream stocked in stores in Cornwall;
- Local suppliers supply island stores (eg Channel Islands, Isle of Man).
In order to help its customers to identify and choose British products, Safeway has introduced clear labelling on its products and shelf edges. Potatoes are labelled according to county of origin. In island stores, Safeway explains that it is commonly known that local food suppliers supply their stores, therefore local products are not necessarily labelled as such in those stores.
Safeway has recently improved its premium range ‘The Best’, which includes items such as Spey Valley Smoked Salmon from Scotland, bunched carrots from East Anglia, and West Country Farmhouse Reserve mature cheddar. Products in this range may give consumers greater detail on their origins but they are not exclusively sourced in the UK.
Issues thrown up by verification processes: Safeway is likely to have scored more highly in the shelf survey had more remote locations been surveyed such as the Channel Islands, as well as stores in Scotland. It is evident from the survey results that in mainland stores in cities and market towns in England and Wales, stocking of local products is low, and in-store promotional activities (such as leaflets, special product displays etc) are very limited.
Examples of good practice
- The company is committed to a ‘UK First’ buying policy where product and specification are available
- In order to help their customers to identify and choose British products, Safeway have introduced clear labelling on their products and shelf edges. Potatoes are labelled according to county of origin.
- Locally landed fish in Cornwall
Areas for improvement:
- From the limited store survey, it appeared that actual stocking of local products in Safeway stores was very low, and this could be greatly improved. Stocking of locality products was better, but could also be much improved to provide a wider range of locality products in stores.
- Some provision of in-store leaflets on local foods, as well as in-store local food displays in more stores would also gain extra points.
Supermarket comments
“Safeway is engaged in a number of local sourcing practices and consider it to be part of our offering to customers. We have clear procedural documents which guide buying teams in developing both products and relationships with suppliers in this area. We are committed to a ‘UK First’ buying policy and Safeway is actively working with suppliers to increase the amount of British products on sale. The RTTT survey has identified some of the great work we do such as our locally landed fish and regional potato sourcing. However, it is a disappointment that differences over criteria for what constitutes ‘local’ combined with a small survey of stores have impacted our performance in this report. Milk is a national commodity, so ‘local’ milk does not make sense. Local beef is also misleading – we have regional (West Country) plus Welsh and Scottish ranges of beef and lamb. Local apples will be available dependent on season. Safeway is fully committed to increasing the amount of UK products we sell and as the only retailer prepared to take part in this survey has the confidence to stand by its claims.
“It should also be noted that Safeway has corporate technical standards that all own brand suppliers must meet. A rigorous due diligence procedure is applied as a matter of policy to all new suppliers, regardless of their size. For example a small farmer supplying pork pies may not have the required infrastructure in place to satisfy our animal welfare standards that we would expect any supplier to meet. Similarly we would expect a supplier to be able to track back through their suppliers that the source of their raw materials does not contain gm.
“We would not like to assume either that local consumers only want to buy locality products. They want a selection. “
