Sainsbury’s is to become the first retailer in the UK to launch a full range of milk bags, following bumper sales of the industry-leading semi-skimmed milk bag.
Milk is one of Sainsbury’s biggest selling lines and could finally bring an end to the 130 year reign of the milk bottle.
Customers have lapped-up the milk bags, buying twice as many as the supermarket originally predicted. Shoppers now buy 120,000 semi-skimmed milk bags per week – which is one in every ten two-pint semi-skimmed units sold. Sainsbury’s expects this figure to double following the expansion.
Whole milk bags launch today, while skimmed and 1% fat milk bags will launch in June 2011.
Emma Metcalf King, Sainsbury’s senior dairy buyer, said: “This is the biggest change to occur to the nation’s shopping habits for at least a decade.
“The familiar clink of the glass milk bottle could finally become a thing of the past.”
Twice as many customers will now be able to save plastic and money because milk bags use 75% less packaging than standard plastic bottles and costs less.
Compared to an equivalent two-pint plastic bottle, milk in a bag costs at least 6p less because it uses 75% less packaging and is cheaper to produce. The cost of a two-pint milk bag is 80p while a two-pint milk carton costs 86p.
To meet customer demand for milk bags, Sainsbury’s and its supplier, Dairy Crest, have invested over £2.2m in a new processing plant at its site in Gloucestershire. The expansion has also created 20 new jobs.
Milk sold in bags is already a regular choice for 60% of consumers in Canada, Poland, South Africa and China.
Source: Sainsbury’s
