FDBusiness.com

The award-winning fresh soup company, Yorkshire Provender, has this week launched its range of six soups in a revolutionary new 550ml ‘pouch in carton’ serving.

These will be available at 48 select Waitrose stores in the chilled food section from early February 2013, at the recommended retail price of £2.29 each, with further stock roll outs being planned.

The original pots will continue to be available in other Waitrose stores, Ocado, Booths and selected Tesco, Co-op and independents.

The soup ‘pouch in a carton’ is completely innovative in design and leads the way in the category, giving a range of added benefits for both trade and consumer. These include easier portability, reduced waste for retailers, microwave-friendly cartons with the cardboard keeping the pack relatively cool and easier to handle than pots, simple ‘snip, heat and serve‘ on-pack instructions and eco-friendly packaging which is kinder to the environment, with over 80% less plastic used than the traditional pots.

Advantages to the retailer include shelves stay fuller for longer with SRP’s in units of five, the cartons are easier to stack and there are considerably reduced transport and storage costs, with five cartons taking up the same space as three pots.

The packaging is British designed and was developed by Terry Williams of Yorkshire Provender over a nine month period. He worked closely with Design Futures at Sheffield Hallam University on the pouch construction and with retained agency Big Fish Design in London on the branding.

Yorkshire Provender founder Belinda Williams said: “I’m delighted that Yorkshire Provender is leading the way in innovative packaging and feel sure that this is the way fresh soup packs will have to evolve in the future. We have had incredible support from Waitrose in developing and trialling the new cartons and have also been talking to Sainsbury’s about future listings. Terry and I are proud of our ground-breaking new Yorkshire Provender packaging and look forward to introducing it to retailers and customers over the coming months.”