This week in food: jacket potatoes go national, Lidl gets the nostalgia playbook right, and summer ranges hit the shelves
Every week I work through the food trade press to pull out the stories that matter most for food businesses. Here are three from this week that are worth your attention.
A loaded spud, a TikTok following, and a national rollout
SpudBros is proof that a simple concept with brilliant execution can scale. What started as a market stall in Preston has exploded into a food-to-go brand with 4.8 million TikTok followers, and EG On The Move is now rolling them out across 30+ forecourt sites after successful trials. The jacket potato category has been dormant since Spudulike disappeared five years ago, but Gen Z and social media have brought it roaring back. The takeaway for food businesses? Consumers still crave comfort and familiarity. Give them theatre and a product done properly, and they will queue up for it.
Lidl turns a loyalty relaunch into a cultural moment
Plenty of retailers have updated their loyalty apps this year. Most of them generated a press release and not much else. Lidl went further. Their new points-based system gives shoppers genuine flexibility in how they save, but the real story is how they launched it. Reworking Liberty X’s “Just a Little” into “Just a Lidl” is the kind of campaign that spreads without a media budget behind it. It works because their core shopper grew up with that track, and the music video filmed in the middle aisle is built for social sharing. The lesson here is clear: understand your audience deeply enough and the marketing almost writes itself.
Summer ranges are landing and I am reviewing them all
The major retailers are putting their summer fixtures out right now and I will be doing a full video review across the week. From BBQ marinades and world food flavours through to some surprisingly retro 80s-inspired lines, the summer shelf is one of the most fiercely competitive spaces in grocery. If you work in food manufacturing, supply, or marketing, these ranges set the benchmark for what retailers think consumers want this season.
Follow Michelle Dalley LinkedIn for the full review.
Email: michelle@umamidesignforfood.co.uk
Tel: 01291 423234
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