Sobeys targets young chefs as food fight escalates
As the Canadian food retail war rages on, Sobeys Inc. has a plan to woo the next generation of consumers into its stores: Teach them how to cook.
Canada’s second-biggest grocer launched a new program Wednesday leveraging off its marketing partnership with U.K. celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, a vocal advocate for healthy school meals and nutrition education for children.
Marc Poulin, Sobeys’ chief executive, said the retailer’s collaboration with Oliver last year has brought increased sales after one of the toughest years yet in the grocery sector, which saw Sobeys fight to raise flat sales volumes amid an explosion of food square footage from Walmart, Target and regional grocers. That program included a line of certified humane meats and a remerchandising of stores to facilitate cooking ideas for customers. Oliver has also appeared in Sobeys’ TV commercials and in cooking videos on the company’s website.
“Clearly there are things we have done with Jamie that are showing up in our sales figures,” Poulin said at a cooking demonstration with Oliver and a group of schoolchildren at a Sobeys store in Toronto.
“We are improving sales of those products on a continuous basis — it shows up in the (merchandise) mix, and it shows up in our overall performance at stores,” he said, noting consumer preferences have shown a sales shift toward the new healthier fare promoted by Oliver. “That is very encouraging.”
The new program was developed with the charity Free the Children, Home Cook Heroes, to complement Oliver’s year-old home cooking initiative with Sobeys.
It teaches basic cooking skills and nutrition literacy to kids age 12 to 17, and will be made available to schoolteachers across Canada and marketed through Sobeys and Safeway stores.
A second phase will offer cooking classes for children and adults at some Sobeys stores, a practice started years ago at rival Loblaw Cos.
Marketing studies have shown that brand attachments developed in childhood typically carry into adulthood and foster a strong loyalty; Kraft, Microsoft and Disney are key examples.
“We thought, ‘Let’s get kids cooking — they will probably teach their parents,’ ” Poulin said. “At the end of the day, (retailers) compete against one another, but we also compete against fast-food outlets, takeout windows, delivery. Our opportunity is to communicate to customers that we can help them make meals that are tasty and healthier.”
Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children, said children have an influence over their parents when it comes to shopping preferences. Independent research conducted for the charity found that 80 per cent of the children involved with the charity talk to their parents about the brands Free the Children aligns with.
“This generation is incredibly sticky when it comes to brand loyalty around social responsibility,” he said. “That young person will be able to engage his or her parents to be a better consumer.”