Hendersons and Around Noon invest £80,000 to changing lunch market

A recent Food to Go report noted the changes in shopper behaviour around lunchtime purchases due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown.

The report by Lumina Intelligence found that while 34% of people are planning to continue to work from home in the future, 38% will seek out ‘at-home to go’ alternatives from local stores for their lunch.

Henderson’s fresh team has collaborated with Around Noon in Newry to develop the newly revamped range of sandwiches, wraps, salads and snack pots to capture this opportunity for growth within the market.

Neal Kelly, Fresh Foods Director at Henderson Group which owns the SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO brands in Northern Ireland said; “We have closely monitored the shift in consumer behaviour and identified opportunities to grow our lunch on the go options.

“It is this need for forward thinking and quick turnarounds that makes our working with local suppliers such as Around Noon even more important. Adjusting our products to fit the market is crucial to the success of our retailers, and whether working from home or back in the office, we know consumers will continue to seek out ‘to go’ lunch options. It’s more important than ever that we provide a broad range of quality food to go options to fulfil their daily needs.”

Gareth Chambers, CEO of Around Noon continued: “We are carefully considering what shoppers want to eat. The rise in consumers turning to veggie and vegan diets, or taking a flexitarian approach, has seen us develop products that makes it easy to maintain various lifestyle choices.

“Also, with weather improving and restrictions easing we wanted to further enhance the dailyDeli range and give consumers even more choice when planning their perfect picnic.”

Sustainable packaging is a key focus for businesses and consumers alike, and therefore the company has invested in fully recyclable labels, sandwich and wrap boxes with all salad and snack pots made from 50% recyclable material, which are also fully recyclable.

Neal Kelly added: “As the biggest wholesaler in Northern Ireland, we make every effort to factor in such sustainability practices in all our products.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you