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First full range of milk bags to hit UK supermarkets

Sainsbury

11 August 2010

Sainsbury's is to become the first retailer in the UK to launch a full range of milk bags, following bumper sales of the industry-leading semi-skimmed milk bag. Milk is one of Sainsbury's biggest selling lines and could finally bring to an end to the 130 year reign of the milk bottle.
Customers have lapped-up the milk bags, buying twice as many as
the supermarket originally predicted. Shoppers now buy 120,000
semi-skimmed milk bags per week - which is one in every ten 2 pint
semi-skimmed units sold. Sainsbury's expects this figure to
double following the expansion.
'Whole' milk bags launch today, while skimmed and 1% fat milk
bags will launch in June 2011.
Emma Metcalf King, Sainsbury's senior dairy buyer
said:  "This is the biggest change to occur to the
nation's shopping habits for at least a decade.
"The familiar clink of the glass milk bottle could finally
become a thing of the past."
Twice as many customers will now be able to save plastic and
money because milk bags use 75% less packaging than standard
plastic bottles and costs less.
Compared to an equivalent two pint plastic bottle, milk in a bag
costs at least six pence less because it uses 75% less packaging
and is cheaper to produce. The cost of a 2 pint milk bag is 80p
while a 2 pint milk carton costs 86p.
Customers switching to bags could save up to 1,400,000 kg of
packaging every year. Sainsbury's began selling milk bags in
all of its supermarkets in February 2010 to help meet its
target to reduce packaging by a third by 2015.
To meet customer demand for milk bags, Sainsbury's and its
supplier, Dairy Crest have invested over £2.2million in a new
processing plant at its site in Gloucestershire. The expansion
has also created 20 new jobs.
Milk sold in bags is already a regular choice for 60% of
consumers in Canada, Poland, South Africa and China.
Emma continued: "We've been blown away by
the positive response. Sales are so good we are now investing in
new processing plant to keep up with demand.
"Rather than being wary of new packaging, customers have
lapped-up the bags.
"We've expanded the milk bag range to all varieties to enable
more customers to save plastic and money.
"Customers will be able to buy whole milk bags from today and
skimmed and 1% fat milk bags in June next year.
"Milk bags in all fat varieties are already a regular choice for
60% of consumers in Canada, Poland, South Africa and China and we
believe they will be just as popular in the UK."
Sainsbury's milk bags are designed to fit easily into a
re-useable jug - the retailer gave away over half a million of
the jugs to its customers in April and now sells over 4,000
jugs per week which shows the products popularity continues to
grow.
Today's familiar plastic screw top milk bottles were introduced
in the early 1990s. Glass bottles were dominant until the early
1970, before losing favour to milk in cartons. Milk is one of
Sainsbury's biggest selling lines - customers bought over 785
million pints last year.
Bottles have been the preferred milk container in Britain since
1880 when they were introduced by the Express Dairy
Company. For the next 70 years, the clink of glass milk
bottles being delivered became a familiar morning sound for
households across the UK.
Notes to editors