Sainsbury's Own Label Tea To Become Fairtrade

Wed, 10 Oct 2007

Sainsbury's has announced its entire range of own-brand tea will be converted to 100 per cent Fairtrade over the next three years.

The UK supermarket chain yesterday said the move would enable it to become Britain's largest retailer of Fairtrade tea and that Fairtrade tea sales in the UK would triple as a result.

"This is of a similar and significant scale as the conversion of all our bananas to Fairtrade, which was completed during this quarter," said chief executive Justin King.

"It will create an increased return of around £2m each year for developing countries," he added.

Sainsbury's own brand Red Label tea will be the first product to become Fairtrade .

The news came as the retailer unveiled a slowdown in sales growth following poor summer weather-affected trade, matching recent results from rival chains Tesco and Morrisons.

Like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, were up 3.1 per cent in the second quarter of its financial year - a decline from the rate of 5.1 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.