Waitrose expands refillable products offering

Waitrose has announced that it will launch more refillable products as part of its “Unpacked” concept, including loose tea for the first time.

The news follows the increase of refillable sales by 9% at the retailer’s existing four shops in the past six months.

Sales of refillable frozen fruit and vegetables for the same period have increased by more than 50%, whilst detergent and washing-up liquid sales grew by 24% and pulses, pasta and grains rose by almost 8%.

Since the concept launched in summer 2019 it has helped save hundreds of tonnes of unnecessary plastic and packaging.

In January the grocer became the first national supermarket to integrate unpacked items into its shop in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, rather than having a single unpacked area.

The 13 new products launching today (1 June 2021) build on the new lines that were added at the end of last year which have been selected following customer requests and will be available from this week.

In addition, the new products will all be cheaper than their packaged equivalent to encourage more people to make the switch to refillables.

Marija Rompani, partner and director of ethics and sustainability, Waitrose, 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.”