Engaging with food wholesalers and convenience stores to drive uptake of healthier options

Key partnership information

Partner: Rice Marketing

Funding amount: £79,700

Duration: December 2020 – February 2022

Programme: Children’s health and food

What we’re doing together

With Rice Marketing, an independent retail marketing consultancy, we’re working to support wholesalers to drive up their sales of healthier products into local convenience stores, and, with convenience stores to drive up their sales of healthier products to the public.

Together, we ran an initial pilot in Bestway wholesale depot, Croydon, to demonstrate how simple and practical changes to positioning, pricing, and marketing can help influence retailers to purchase healthier options. Building off this tested approach, there’s now room for scale across other wholesalers to stem the flow of unhealthy products across the boroughs.

We also ran an initial pilot with convenience stores, resulting in an increased range of healthier items available in store and an uplift in sales of those products. It emphasised that small and simple changes can have a significant impact on purchasing behaviour.

Our aim is to expand this approach and tap into a network of local convenience stores. We want to make a case for the commercial benefit in changing what’s stocked in store. We’ll test a range of levers, from promotion to merchandising, to impact the uplift of healthier products locally. Similar to wholesalers, we want to show that promoting health is not just good for people but also good for profit.