Oct
21
A quick one from Morrisons – in my local store in Staffordshire they have introduced an end of aisle promotion called “Heart of England” a selection of locally produced goods – bacon, sausages etc.
What a fantastic idea! Supporting local producers, cutting down on food miles, Heart of England – brilliant!
Just one small problem from our perspective – can you guess?
Great idea - poorly executed (poorly photographed too)
The signage has a flag on it – but it’s not the English flag. Yep it’s the Union flag.
“Heart of England” + Union Flag
Heart of England - Union Flag!
Oct
15
They could well be right.
Oct
15
Dairy Crest reply
Filed Under Products | 4 Comments
The following message just arrived from Dairy Crest regarding the re-branding of Country Life butter from “English Butter” to “British butter”.
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting us about Country Life. I’m sorry that the change in the description from English to British has caused you some concern.
Country Life is proud of its heritage and we have always communicated ‘English butter’ on our packs as Country Life butter is indeed churned in Shropshire, England.
All of the milk we use to make Country Life butter comes from within the United Kingdom, and whilst the majority comes from England, some may come from outside of England, such as from Wales or Scotland.
We thought that saying “made in England with British milk” would be confusing, and therefore decided to change the description to ‘British butter’. We feel it more simply, accurately & honestly portrays Country Life butter’s origins.
I can assure you there are no changes in our manufacturing process or supply, and Country Life is still churned with pride by our Shropshire buttermakers.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us. I hope that I have addressed your concerns and that you will continue to enjoy Country Life.
Let’s just run through that.
Well it looks to me like they’ve opened with a whopper! Dairy Crest claims to be “proud of its heritage” I see no evidence for that statement. As the Secret Person pointed out; “the brand Country Life used to be owned, till 2004, by the English Butter Marketing Company” which as far as I’m concerned makes its heritage none other than English.
The justification for the move from “English” to “British” butter is that some small but unspecified portion of of the milk used in production comes from outside England and therefore it makes more sense to label the product as British. To describe it as “made in England with British milk” would be too confusing for the tiny minds of the public at large.
Personally I’d be happy with just “made in England”.
So what now? I think we need to follow this up and see if we can get a definitive answer to what proportion of the milk used comes from outside England. If it’s 2% I’d urge Dairy Crest to stop using that 2% and keep Country Life English!
As ever – please let us know what you think and we’ll post updates when we have them.
Oct
14
Bad news about Tesco’s packaging plans…
Filed Under Tesco | 7 Comments
Tesco display their characteristic contempt for the English.
http://wakinghereward.blogspot.com/2008/10/fear-and-loathing-of-england-at-tesco.html
Oct
8
Boycott Dairy Crest
Filed Under Products | 4 Comments
We followed up our initial email with this one.
Dear Mr xxxx
Could you tell me whether the sourcing of Milk for Country Life Butter specifically comes from inside or outside England? If from outside is this a recent change of sourcing? Until recently the Butter was “English Butter”. As far as I can tell the farmers on the Country Life website are all based in England.
You said “A British claim enables us to credibly use the British flag within communications without causing confusion. The British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag.”
This is interesting. Can you please tell me how the British flag has a “more positive association with consumers than the English flag”? I know of no negative implications to the Cross of St George – would you mind explaining your thinking behind that statement – for our readers? Are you perhaps referring to consumers outside England?
kind regards
No reply unfortunately. So no explanation to the bizarre view that:
The British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag.
It seems pretty obvious to me they must be referring to consumers outside England. This particular issue isn’t even really about the flag it’s more fundamental than that it’s about the word “English” it’s about the concept of “English”. Dairy Crest are essentially saying that – Britain has a more positive association with consumers than England!
Dairy Crest is an English company. Country life is English butter produced in England. Their decision to replace “English Butter” with “British Butter” is their choice and their right. But I find it really sad that an English company would even consider distancing itself from England.
Personally I think it’s a very bad marketing decision by Dairy Crest. A campaign celebrating the Englishness of their butter would have had a very positive effect on sales.
Anyway from now on I will never knowingly buy any Dairy Crest product until they start producing English Country Life butter again. I practical terms this means cancelling my daily milk delivery and stopping buying Cathedral City cheese. I know that many of our supporters feel the same.
Boycott Dairy Crest
Boycott Dairy Crest
Here are some Dairy Crest products you might consider boycotting:
Cathedral City Cheese range, Vitalite margarine, St Ivel spread range, Willow, Golden Churn, Clover, Utterly Butterly, Frijj milkshakes.
Oct
8
Sainsbury’s Flags Press Coverage
Filed Under Press Coverage, Sainsbury's | 1 Comment
Tally’s mentioned this in the comments but I thought it was worthy of its own article.
It seems one of the many people who have been complaining to Sainsbury’s (independent of Fair Flags) has got himself into the local press. The article appears in the Gloucestershire Echo. Peter Granville-Edmunds, Fair Flags salutes you!
SAINSBURY’S isn’t flying the English flag when it comes to produce, says an angry Cheltenham shopper.
Peter Granville-Edmunds has complained to the store’s head office saying the company is unfair because it labels some Welsh and Scottish produce with the national flags, but not its English goods.
Mr Granville-Edmunds, who lives in Hewlett Road said: “I was in the branch on Tewkesbury Road, and also the one in Prior’s Road.
“They had the Scottish saltire on some beef and there was also some Welsh goat’s cheese with the red dragon flag on.”
Mr Granville-Edmunds, 77, said he wasn’t upset that produce from the two countries was labelled, but it was unfair that English produce didn’t carry a St George cross – having a Union Jack label instead.
He added: “All these countries are British, and we’re in Great Britain.
“I’d rather that all the products were just labelled as British and had the Union Jack, because I feel this is divisive between the countries, but if that’s not going to happen, then I think it’s only fair food from England should have our flag of St George.”
Mr Granville-Edmunds, who works as an abstract painter, wrote to Sainsbury’s customer service department with his complaint, asking why the English were being treated with contempt by the company.
He demanded Sainsbury’s change its policy.
Customer service manager John Brookes replied with an apology.
He said: “We do label some Scottish products with the Saltire, but only where we feel that sourcing from Scotland is of particular importance to the product.”
He added that it was the chain’s policy to buy British produce, but it would be labelled with the union flag because the supply may be from several regions or may change throughout the year.
“I’m pleased to say that in response to recent feedback from our customers, we’re now investigating the feasibility of applying the St George Cross to some products,” he said.
“Although this isn’t a change we can make immediately, we hope to finalise the details within the next few weeks.”
Mr Granville-Edmunds said he would be keeping a close eye on the shelves of Sainsbury’s to see if this happened.
He said: “I think they should have thought about this before now. I’ll be watching like a hawk.”
This is of course good news, and that it is getting into the press is even better. But as I said before we need to keep pushing Sainsbury’s.
Oct
6
Keep Pushing Sainsbury’s
Filed Under Sainsbury's | 1 Comment
Thanks to a lot of letters and emails to Sainsbury’s from their customers, including some from Fair Flags and our supporters, their labelling team is discussing using the Cross of St George on English produce. We have been told that something may be announced within weeks!
This has the potential to be a big breakthrough, but nothing is decided yet, so keep pushing. We’re getting lots of visitors and comments on the site, so if you can all click through and tell Sainsbury’s how you’d love to be properly labelled English produce, that’d be brilliant.
Contact Page with contact form.
Or
Telephone:
0800 636262
By post:
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd
33 Holborn
London
EC1N 2HT
Oct
4
Morrisons shop watch update
Filed Under Morrisons, Shop watch | 4 Comments
A quick recce at Morrisons gives us enough labelling inconsistency to compile a letter and get in touch.
Morrisons are another supermarket chain who are really pushing the Britishness angle on their labelling. The Union Flag is everywhere but there are some areas where particularly Scottish goods are identified and promoted above Welsh, English or Northern Irish items.
Please excuse the dreadful photo quality.
Meat
Dairy
Morrisons seem very keen to support Scottish farmers… but no-one else.
The only sign of the Cross of St George was on the milk (see below) but no sign of the Welsh or Northern Irish flags.
Oct
1
Country Life – but which country?
Filed Under Products | 22 Comments
You’ll never put a better bit of British butter on your knife. Trouble is that until very recently it was English not British butter.
Dairy Crest have rebranded their top selling Country Life butter. They’ve removed “English Butter” and replaced it with “British Butter”.
What’s behind the move?
Have Dairy Crest started sourcing their butter outside England? Which would obviously be bad news for English farmers.
Or are Dairy Crest worried that labelling Country Life English reduces sales outside England?
Or do they have to label as British to get the Red Tractor assurance mark? The implication being that a tentacle of the British Government is behind the change – are English taxes being used hurt English farmers?
We will email and ask them as time allows. If anyone else is interested contacting Dairy Crest their email address is consumercare@dairycrest.co.uk.
The under construction Country Life website doesn’t supply any answers but looks to have gone very British indeed, with the inclusion of a Buy British campaign. Be careful – it’s very easy to accidentally make the pledge!
Via The Cross of St George Forum H/t Fenn
Update 03-10-08
Fair Flags sent the following email to Dairy Crest about the re-branding of Country Life. Their response is below that.
Our email:
To whom it may concern
In my capacity as Secretary of the Fair Flags Campaign http://fairflags.org.uk/blog/ I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your re-branding of the Country Life line – which came to our attention via a supporter.
- Would you mind explaining for our readers the thinking for the decision to replace “English Butter” with “British Butter” on your packaging?
- Have you started sourcing Country Life butter outside England? Looking at the Country Life website http://www.enjoycountrylife.co.uk/farmers.php it seems not.
- Was the move enforced in any way through the Red Tractor accreditation scheme?
- Are there any other factors behind the switch of description?
The Fair Flags campaign is committed to encouraging Supermarkets and Producers to label their products accurately in terms of country of origin.
Kind regards
Dairy Crests response:
Good Morning
Our milk comes from all over Britain, not only England and therefore we cannot make claims that the milk is English. Having British and English on pack together or within advertising messages is confusing for the consumer.
A British claim enables us to credibly use the British flag within communications without causing confusion. The British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag.
Thank you for your E-Mail about Dairy Crest Country Life.
I hope this has answered your query.
We’ve followed up to find out more about this “the British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag” for the life of me I can’t see why the flag of the BNP is more positive than the Cross of St George!
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