Asda is expanding its refill proposition as it works to reduce the amount of supermarket packaging within its supply chain and help customers reduce, reuse or recycle.
The refill bays will be rolled out to four more stores with an increased range of core products. The retailer is partnering with a range of brands including Yorkshire Tea, an increased range of Kellogg’s cereals, new own-label and Nestle cereals, Napolina pasta, and Tilda rice. There will also be new ‘prefilled’ trials of Radox and Persil from Unilever where customers can refill into stainless steel reusable bottles. Customers will either be able to refill themselves or pick up pre-filled bottles they would then return.
The largest refill store to date will open at York in October with 18 standalone bays featuring over 70 branded and own-label products in refillable format.
A nine-bay standalone refill fixture in the Milton Keynes store will launch in December, while Asda’s first refill offer in Scotland will be at the Glasgow Toryglen store in August and a refill offer in selected aisles will open in Rugby, also in August.
The expansion follows the introduction of a refill zone with its Middleton store last October, with several products outstripping packaged sales, according to Asda, as well as many customers travelling from outside the local area to shop sustainably.
Susan Thomas, director of commercial sustainability at Asda said: “We know that reducing packaging waste matters to our customers and they have embraced the refill options available at the Middleton store, with many of the products available already exceeding expectations.
“Our ultimate goal is to make refill and reuse a part of every Asda shopping trip and to achieve this we have to make it easy, accessible and affordable for all our customers to shop this way. Middleton was a great introduction to how customers engage with refill products, and we are now looking to accelerate these learnings by trialling different refill options in more stores to understand which aspects can potentially be developed further.
Asda published its first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report last month, which sets out its commitments to implementing a sustainable business strategy and outlines how the supermarket will make it easier and more affordable for customers to shop sustainably. It also reaffirmed its ‘Greener at Asda’ price promise.
