The store portfolio at Planet Organic has further expanded with the opening of a new London offering.
The new 2,300 sq ft retail space can be found in Queens Studios on Salusbury Road, Queen’s Park, and represents part of the ambitious plans from the retail chain, which started life in 1995, to increase its store footprint across London over the next five years.
The Queen’s Park store, which becomes Planet Organic’s eighth location, is the first new opening since Tottenham Court Road in 2014. In impressive expansion plans, the retailer plans to have a minimum of 14 stores operating by 2023, with the idea being to open 10 new stores in the next five years.
Al Overton, Planet Organic’s Buying Director, commented: “Planet Organic is firmly community-based in each of its locations. And Queen’s Park, with its strong community ties, is an ideal fit for us.
“We’ve been in business since 1995, which makes us the original and oldest organic supermarket chain in the country. The trend towards healthier eating is only increasing and we are expanding to meet that demand. Our original mission, eat well, live better, is more pertinent now than ever, and we remain committed to it. Increased awareness in ethical retail is growing too, so more and more shoppers are coming to us. For example, we’ve been plastic bag free for 12 years and have always sold most fruit and vegetables with zero produce packaging. Those things, always important to Planet Organic, are now more widely important to shoppers.”
The new store stocks a huge range of organic essentials, including unpackaged, as well as gluten free and vegan groceries, countless kombucha varieties and cauliflower crust pizza. Natural bodycare, health, fitness and beauty products are also available. The in-store café serves organic coffees with many dairy alternatives, fresh juices, as well as wholesome soups and superfood salads.
A football club described as the world’s only vegan team has teamed up with Faith in Nature.
The vegan beauty brand has signed with the world’s greenest, vegan football club, Forest Green Rovers, which will see Faith in Nature selling a Forest Green Rovers line of products, which includes a body wash and a hand wash that will be used in all bathrooms at The New Lawn, FGR’s stadium, during the 2019/20 season. With the natural scent of freshly cut grass, they contain Epsom salts to aid sports recovery, as well as extracts of grass actually taken from the certified vegan Forest Green Rovers pitch.
The team plays on a vegan pitch, fertilised with Scottish seaweed, cut by a solar powered robot lawnmower and is the world’s only 100 per cent vegan football club.
Joy Parkinson, CEO of Faith in Nature, commented: “We are proud to be supporting Forest Green Rovers Football Club. No football team in the world is doing more for sustainability and environmental awareness than Forest Green Rovers. We’ve been baking those values into our business for 45 years now and are so pleased to be doing our bit to spread the green word in the sporting world. We wish Forest Green Rovers a fantastic upcoming season and will be supporting them every step of the way, in their endeavours both on and off the pitch.”
Waitrose has announced it is extending its ‘Unpacked’ test beyond the original end date.
The retailer transformed its Botley Road, Oxford shop in June, taking more than 200 products out of their packaging to test how customers might be prepared to shop differently, with the aim of saving thousands of tonnes of unnecessary plastic.
The test, set out to get as much feedback as possible and more than 7,000 customers have provided comments through its in-store feedback walls, customer interviews, its dedicated website page, and social media, using #WaitroseUnpacked.
Waitrose has announced it will introduce the Unpacked test into three more shops which have been selected so it can be included as part of already-planned refurbishments this year. Unpacked will now form part of the new look stores to be unveiled in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in September, and Abingdon and Wallingford, both in Oxfordshire, in November. All three shops will have a dedicated refillable zone. This will include dispensers for dried products, frozen ‘pick and mix’, coffee, wine and beer refills, as well as Ecover detergent and washing-up liquid refillables.
Tor Harris, Head of CSR for Waitrose & Partners, commented: “We are keen to take the Unpacked concept forward and these additional tests will help us achieve this, as well as understand its commercial viability. Through working with our customers and suppliers, we will continue to learn and develop ideas which have the potential to be rolled out more widely.”
Commenting on the news, Friends of the Earth plastic campaigner, Julian Kirby, said: “Customer enthusiasm for less packaging is fabulous news – supermarkets across the UK must take note and do far more to cut down on pointless plastic and packaging in their stores. New legislation is needed to ensure that every business plays it part in cutting waste and phasing out the unnecessary single-use plastic packaging and products that blight our environment.”
Organic & Natural Business magazine