WORLD FOODS

SUPPLIER

Viewpoint

Giuseppe Vullo

Brand manager, Grace Foods UK

It’s absolutely better to source from UK importers. The time difference alone, particularly dealing with Caribbean or Asian products, can be challenging. Also, UK importers, such as ourselves, understand the home market better and are able to meet the needs of the buyer more accurately.

The UK has one of the world’s largest Jamaican diasporas, but a Mintel poll found that almost half of UK consumers who are looking to try a new world-food category would opt for Caribbean food, so we know there is a demand for Caribbean food among UK consumers with or without Caribbean heritage.

went from a one-metre display to four metres.

“We now monitor it monthly and it’s increasing every month. We spoke with the rep and it’s about getting the right products and getting word of mouth out.

“You could start off with a few shelves of ambient and chilled, and choose a supplier who’s willing to work with you and offer you products on a sale-or-return basis.”

Jeet Bansi, owner of Meon Vale Londis in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, says retailers looking to develop a world-food offering should start small, see what their customers are buying and look at the demographic around the store.

“Build the range from there. That’s exactly what we’ve done,” Bansi says.

“We’ve taken recommendations, and we’ve asked customers what they want; we have a dedicated member of staff that looks after this area and they’ve taken ownership of that.”

Profitable Products

Singh says social media is a good tool to make sure customers are aware of new products and to hammer home your store’s point of difference. “People come from further afield to buy ingredients and you can make healthy margins on them,” he adds. Bansi says that world food accounts for 15%-20% of sales per week.

“It’s a very good way of driving footfall and increasing basket spend,” he says.

“We’ve got Asian and Oriental food items, and we’ve also got some Mexican as well – it’s categorised in the same aisle, which makes it easy for customers to shop.” l