Welsh Food Fortnight campaign to go live in Spar stores

Spar stores across Wales will be taking part in a Welsh Food Fortnight campaign next month.

Celebrating from 5th to 18th August, the campaign will see 230 Blakemore Retail and independent Spar stores joining producers to promote Welsh food and drink in-store and on social media.

The campaign has been arranged by the Food & Drink Wales Fine Food Cluster in conjunction with A.F. Blakemore. In order to prepare producers for the campaign, the Fine Food Cluster has supported the businesses in several ways, including with a social media webinar to show them how to maximise their presence during Welsh Food Fortnight using the #CaruCymruCaruBlas and #LoveWalesLoveTaste hashtags.

Initially launched last summer by the Welsh Government, working in partnership with Menter a Busnes, to support producers and retailers during the Covid-19 pandemic, the #CaruCymruCaruBlas campaign has soon become an integral part of promoting Welsh food and drink all year round.

The campaign is also in tune with the ‘Value of Welshness’ research carried out for the Welsh Government, highlighting the growing importance of Welsh produce to consumers.

A total of 139 independently owned Spar stores across Wales and 91 Blakemore Retail stores are taking part in the Welsh Food Fortnight campaign. The stores will adorn point-of-sale materials featuring the #CaruCymruCaruBlas #LoveWalesLoveTaste campaign, to help shoppers easily identify a host of Welsh food and drink products.

“As a business, A.F. Blakemore is pleased to be working in collaboration with many Welsh brands across various categories. Our partnership offers them a route to market for their products,” Patrice Garrigues, AFB category controller, said.

“Having quality Welsh products in our Spar stores is something that our customers enjoy as part of our range; it gives them choice and the opportunity to support, in many cases, a local business.

“We are delighted to continue to work closely with the Food & Drink Wales Fine Food Cluster. For this campaign we have worked with them to create bespoke point of sale material, which will be displayed in our stores to help showcase Welsh products to our customers.”