Lidl: Listing of Organic Products Began with Organic Campaign Day

“We started on Thursday 20 April 2006 with a campaign day in preparation for listing 40 organic products to be sold all over the country,” is how Thomas  Oberle, Lidl’s press spokesman, explains the  dawning of a new era. At the beginning of the year, the discounter in Neckarsulm was already talking of 20% of all goods sold being organic. “That’s a long-term aim and, depending on customer demand, we might achieve it in three to five years,” adds Mr Oberle.

Picture:  Lidl attracts customers with organic campaign.

Whether this target can really be reached is doubted by specialists. On the one hand, there is the question whether the market can supply sufficient quantities and, on the other, whether such a high proportion of organics would be demanded by Lidl’s customers. Even firms like Tegut, that have been committed to organic products for two decades,  only manage about 12 % organic in their total stock of goods. The Lidl enterprise employs 40,000 people in Germany and  operates about 2700 food stores.

Organic food items under the own brand name Bioness were on sale this year, as they were in last year’s campaign week. The products were presented together in a special area measuring about four metres. As can be expected, the prices were low: spaghetti (500g) for 0.79 Euros, apricot  jam for 1.29 Euros, wheat flour (I kg) for 0.69 Euros, chocolate for 0.89 euros and 1 kg of rice for 1.39 Euros.

Since the beginning of the year, Lidl has been  selling a narrow range of organic fruit: apples, kiwis (picture), oranges and lemons. Recently, in a number of stores there have also been organic bananas on sale under the well known Fair Trade label of TransFair, which initially caused some controversy in the industry. “Officially, we are not including Fair Trade goods in our list of organics until June,” explains Mr. Oberle. In the meantime, however, trials with Fair Trade bananas are being run in some stores. The organic bananas are being sold at 1.99 Euros compared with 1.19 Euros for conventional bananas.

The food company Lidl in Neckarsulm and TransFair (a registered organisation to promote fair trade with the third world) came to an agreement at the end of March 2006 to work together to sell fairly traded goods. The two partners have entered into a contract to this effect. “By selling Fair Trade goods, we are responding to the increasing requirement on the part of our customers for more responsibility and awareness in the approach to food products, and we are actively supporting the market for fairly traded quality products,” explains company spokesman Mr. Oberle. In a press report from Lidl, Dieter Overath, the managing director of TransFair, stressed that Lidl was the first chain to have a complete Fair Trade range of own brand products.

From June 2006, for the first time Lidl will be selling goods with the TransFair stamp under its own brand name “Fairglobe”. These will include organic ground coffee and instant coffee, organic bananas, organic honey, orange juice, both dark and milk chocolate, and brown cane sugar. “We intend to develop the range further, depending on  availability and  sales,” states Mr. Oberle.

Lidl and TransFair are working together closely to advertise the “Fairglobe” product line. For example, joint campaign weeks and advertising for the fairly traded products are planned.  The launch of a Fair Trade range is linked to other products to encourage nutrition awareness. Lidl recently started a nationwide campaign  for light products with reduced fat and sugar.

It is noteworthy that degradable plastic refuse bags have also been listed (picture on the right).

With  its campaigns in recent weeks, Lidl has certainly brought about a change of direction in its own business and possibly among discounters nationwide. Whether the last bastions like Aldi will follow suit will become apparent in the coming months. For quite a long time now, this mega discounter has had some attractive organic goods in its basic range.

It will be at least a few months before we can see to what extent Lidl’s customers really do buy organic and Fair Trade products. Then it should also be clear whether the discounter’s organic sales are having an effect on  other organic sales channels. We can assume that it will not be possible to reach a decision before the end of the year whether organics at Lidl will really be expanding towards 20 % of turnover, thus becoming a substantial part of the business, or whether they will exist just as niche products.