The Unpacked refillable concept helped Waitrose to eliminate hundreds of tonnes of unnecessary plastic and packaging
Waitrose has added new products to Unpacked refillable concept. (Credit: Waitrose & Partners)
UK-based supermarket chain Waitrose has added new products to its Unpacked refillable concept to meet the customer demand for refillables.
Waitrose has added 13 new products to the refillable concept, as well as plans to add more products by the end of this year.
The newly added products consist of five different varieties of loose tea, including Assam, Darjeeling, Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea and Waitrose Gold tea.
Waitrose has also added products such as dried apricots, dried fruit mix, raisins, sultanas and currants, as well as popcorn.
The supermarket chain also offers frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn along with the already available frozen fruit and vegetables under the refillable concept.
Waitrose stated that it has achieved around 9% growth in the sales of refillables in the last six months.
Also, the sales of refillable frozen fruit and vegetables for the same period have increased by over 50%, as well as detergent and washing-up liquid sales have grown by 24% and pulses, pasta and grains have surged by almost 8%.
The Unpacked refillable concept helped the retailer to eliminate hundreds of tonnes of unnecessary plastic and packaging since its launch in summer 2019.
In January this year, Waitrose had integrated unpacked items into its regular aisles within its shop in Wallingford. It helped to avoid the use of a single unpacked area.
Waitrose ethics and sustainability director and partner Marija Rompani said: “We are really beginning to find some momentum with customers demonstrating that this is how they might be prepared to shop with us in the future and we are especially encouraged by the response to moving the concept in-asile to make it more of the norm when visiting us.
“We know there is much more work to do, but the reaction of customers right now is giving us the confidence to continue moving forward with Unpacked.”