M&S is expanding its range of family favourites and household essentials as it moves to become a true shopping list retailer. The Bigger Pack, Better Value range, which is a collection of M&S quality products in larger pack sizes to suit family shoppers, has been increased by a third, with over 100 lines now available in bigger formats. New lines added to the range with lower prices include 12 Free Range British Eggs £3.20, Four pack of Eat Now Eat Later Hass Avocados £3.50 and larger size Double Cream (600ml) £2.65.
Fresh Market Specials are also proving popular with customers, such as the Family Blueberry and Cherry pots. These seasonal snacking pots are popular with families on the go. The Blueberries pots were available in March at £4.50 and delivered over 30% increase in the volume of blueberries sold year on year. The Cherry pots were available in June, at £3.50 and quickly became the best selling Fresh Market Special ever.
Today, M&S is also launching 40 new and upgraded lines including the brand’s first own label medicines. Shoppers can now pick up family medicine cabinet essentials including paracetamol, ibuprofen, allergy tablets and children’s liquid paracetamol. M&S is also introducing eight new Baby Food lines, including Baby Milk, after the popular launches of family sized pasta sauces and toiletries, such as shampoo and conditioner, earlier this year.
Key homecare lines have also been upgraded, with new 5-in-1 washing pods (30 washes) launching today. Available in bio and non-bio, both offer improved cleaning and stain removal, even on cool and quick washes, and are available in fully recyclable packaging. M&S has also recently upgraded its washing up liquids recently to improve cleaning power, doubling the number of plates per wash - M&S Washing Up Liquid (500ml) £1.50.
This focus on deepening the breadth of the range has been supporting the retailer broadening its appeal, with growth across all lifestages in the last 12 weeks and particularly strong volume growth with families. M&S outperformed a declining market by +20%pts, growing market share with families by nearly 0.3%pts YOY. M&S continues to have the strongest value and volume growth for Families, outperforming all other major retailers.
Alex Freudmann, MD at M&S Food commented: “When we talk about being a shopping list retailer, it means that customers can trust us to have what they need when they come shopping, in the right size and at the right price. We’ve been working hard to close our range gaps and make sure the price and quality of our key family lines delivers against customers expectations. All this has been increasing our credibility with families and we’re seeing strong growth with these shoppers. As we always say at M&S, there’s still lots of opportunity to go further and really cement M&S as the destination for families to get everything they need, at the quality you can only get from M&S.”
