THIS IS NOT JUST FOOD – IT’S NEVER JUST FOOD
By Alex Freudmann, Managing Director of M&S Food
When I joined M&S Food nearly a year ago I knew I was inheriting a special business from Stuart Machin. Back when I worked in Australia I’d always head straight to M&S whenever I flew to the UK as soon as I landed. Why? Because for me M&S products have that little bit of magic that no other retailer can match, and I could never wait to get my hands on my favourites. But from the outside I could never quite put my finger on what that real M&S difference was. Now that I’ve had my first year in the business, I can see it exactly for what it is. It’s M&S’ in built obsession with quality. Because this is not just food.
Quality is as much part of M&S Food’s DNA as Percy Pig or Plan A. It’s what we’re famous for and what customers always expect when they shop with us. And this obsession with quality has a long history. 75 years ago before many of the modern food standards were in place, M&S was already revolutionising the way we made and sold our food products. M&S was the first retailer to appoint a food quality specialist, a man named Nathan Goldenberg who in his 40+ years at M&S was relentless in his pursuit of food quality. Watch our timeline of Quality at Marks and Spencer over the years here.
Goldenberg not only held M&S and our suppliers to account to only use the best ingredients but was also pioneering in making sure M&S products on our shelves were always fresh and at their very best. Like in 1960 when we became the first major retailer to stock fresh poultry in our stores using the cold chain process. This wasn’t easy but we knew this was the best way to offer fresh, delicious chicken to our customers. Goldenberg set a high bar and was never satisfied. Since joining the business last year I can hand on heart say that the culture he created continues to run through the business today.
We remain totally committed to only using and selling the very best ingredients and products. From being the first retailer to only sell 100% free range eggs, to only using natural flavours and colours. But just as important is our obsession with what doesn’t go in to our products as what does. Like removing MSG in our products over twenty years ago, becoming the first major retailer to remove hydrogenated fats from all food, and saying no to nasties like aspartame, gene-edited foods, or artificial flavours and colours. The list goes on. We take the high quality standards we set ourselves seriously because for us when we say ‘it’s not just food’ we mean it.
But for me quality is about more than just what a product is made from, it’s about how it was made and where it comes from. That’s what truly sets M&S apart. All our milk, beef, pork, salmon, fresh lamb and fresh chicken is 100% British and we only work with select farmers and growers who have the highest animal welfare and environmental standards than any others and continually raise the bar for our customers. We are number one for animal welfare and sell more RSPCA assured products than any other retailer like our industry leading slower reared fresh chicken. We also support farmers to look after the natural environment, with products like our M&S Collection Sourdough using regenerative wildfarmed flour, helping to protect the planet for the long term. And we’re proud to contribute more Fairtrade Premiums for tea and coffee than any other UK retailer supporting our growers and coopertives around the world.
This summer Tom Kerridge has been bringing this to life brilliantly as part of his Farm to Foodhall campaign which champions farmers across the UK. Today sees the conclusion of that with the final ad landing on screens, and also the launch of our biggest quality campaign yet, which is expected to reach over 40m people across the UK. This campaign is at the heart of what M&S Food is about, and what our customers should always or never expect from M&S when they buy our products. Because we know more customers are becoming as obsessed with quality – in every sense of the word - as we are. Like us they care more and more about what they are feeding their families. Tom himself is someone who’s already been on this journey and says he has learnt so much about what M&S does behind the scenes to deliver the best possible quality food for the best possible price. Now we’re excited to shout about this to even more customers.
M&S has a long track record of continuously stepping up our standards to deliver delicious quality products time after time, year after year for our customers. It’s something I do not take for granted and as steward of this great business my promise to you is we’ll never stop doing that. Because this is not just food, it’s never just food.