UK retailer Sainsbury’s has said that it expects an increase in sales of strawberries and Prosecco during the British strawberry season (April to October), with sales peaking during the current Wimbledon tennis tournament, when the retailer expects strawberry sales to go up by 700%.
In the past few years, sales of sparkling wine have increased by 24% during the second week of Wimbledon at local stores, with sales of 20cl single-serve bottles jumping by 1600%.
Best-Selling Product
Over the past year, more than 126,000 tonnes of strawberries were sold in the UK. Sainsbury’s says that strawberries are usually its best-selling product during the summer months, outselling all other products, including milk and bread.
The retailer offers 18 different varieties of British strawberries throughout the season, including the Murano, Sonata and Majestic.
“There’s much more to strawberries than what meets the eye and it can take years to develop each variety,” said Sainsbury’s strawberry technician Peter Czarnobaj. “We sell more strawberries than any other product for up to 16 weeks so it’s important that our customers can enjoy British-grown strawberries for as long as possible”.
While Champagne and strawberries may be known as a famous combination, over seven times as many customers buying strawberries during Wimbledon are now purchasing an alternative sparkling wine such as Prosecco, according to Sainsbury’s.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Larissa Zimmer. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
