EATING - Everybody's Access to INternational Groceries
Trading Standards has a responsibility to ensure businesses comply with labelling legislation. This includes labelling all products in English. This presents an interesting issue – most migrant worker run shops are catering to a niche market comprised of other migrant workers from the same country. So in enforcing the law, the business will see a large cost for little or no benefit. Therefore it is likely that a traditional enforcement approach would put such businesses and the jobs of those working for them at risk.
The EATING (Everybody’s Access To INternational Groceries) project has been designed to assist migrant worker run businesses to comply with the legislation while helping them to increase business from the local indigenous population. This is achieved by writing a marketing strategy to target local English speakers. This strategy includes the compliant labelling of products. The EATING (Everybody’s Access To INternational Groceries) project was run as a pilot with a shop in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. A marketing strategy was written and implemented which was designed to increase the shop’s appeal to the local indigenous population.
One of the aims of this approach was to improve compliance with labelling legislation, additional aims were to increase community cohesion and improve English as a second language in the migrant community. Surveys were carried out before, and after, implementation to assess the impact of the strategy. A generic marketing toolkit for use with other shops was also produced.
Aims and Objectives
The primary aims of the pilot project were:
i. To achieve a greater level of compliance with EU food labelling legislation in the pilot premises.
ii. To ensure all pricing information was available in English in the pilot premises.
The secondary aims (though arguably these are of more significance to the broader agenda) were:
i. Better regulation through a partnership approach.
ii. Improved social cohesion. Encouraging local people from the Portuguese and indigenous communities to mix in a shop environment was thought likely to provide a positive outcome in this respect.
iii. Contribution to the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) agenda. This was to be achieved by exposing the Portuguese customers to English language on labels and signage as well as English speaking customers.
iv. Business improvement and economic diversity.
Partners
East of England Development Agency.
Fenland District Council
Methodology
A pilot shop was selected in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire – O Cantinho. The north of the county has a large migrant population primarily from Portugal, Poland, Russia and ex-Soviet states. This Portuguese shop sold groceries and included a deli counter and fridges and freezers and in addition had a small café selling drinks, sandwiches and pastries. O Cantinho was owned and run by 2 Portuguese people and primarily frequented by Portuguese migrants. The concept was explained to the shop owners, in part through the use of a translator, and agreement was reached to use the shop for the pilot. It was decided that the local Environmental Health department would be contacted to ensure there were no health issues of concern.
Marketing specialists were employed to input advice, design surveys and materials and to write the marketing plan. An initial survey was carried out to gauge local consumer knowledge of O Cantinho. In addition, those surveyed were asked questions designed to indicate resistance to using the shop and the products within. A marketing plan was written for the shop and café. This plan was specifically designed to target the local indigenous population and thereby increase the market for the premises while ensuring better compliance with labelling legislation. Increasing the number of English speaking customers would require better labelling in English.
A brand was developed for the shop including a house style for all labelling and other signage. The marketing plan was implemented. This included English pricing information on products, additional information on allergens and additives in English, English/Portuguese menus, A second survey was carried out to determine the effect of the marketing strategy. This resurvey asked the same questions of participants as the initial survey.
Promotion
The project was promoted via various means including: coffee samples handed out on local streets, fliers advertising the premises, recipe cards for traditional Portuguese meals and media coverage of the project. The project created a great deal of interest from local media and information appeared in several local papers as well as the radio. One of the owners of the shop (who had reasonable English) was interviewed.
Resources
A grant from East of England Development Agency focussed on migrant worker projects.
Evaluation
Surveys were carried out before and after the implementation of the marketing strategy. The headline results from the survey were:
i. Before the promotion 48.75% of those questioned had heard of O Cantinho, after the promotion 51.7% of those questioned had heard of it.
ii. Before the promotion 17.5% of those questioned ate/drank in the Cafe and after the promotion 19% of those questioned did.
iii. Before the promotion 2.5% of those questioned bought produce/groceries from O Cantinho, after the promotion 15.5% of those questioned did.
The rise in the number of people who had heard of O Cantinho is likely to be statistically insignificant as is the rise in numbers using the café. The rise in numbers reporting that they bought produce from the shops is a significant one. It can be speculated that the marketing campaign would have been responsible, at least in part, for this rise. However, more robust surveying and analysis would be required to better understand the full effect of this marketing approach.
Although full compliance with all legislation was not achieved, there was a big improvement from the original position. Pricing information, much of which had been absent or could not be understood by English speakers, could be easily seen. Fresh produce had allergen and additive information. Menus were available for the café attached to the shop. Frozen produce had basic English information.
There was anecdotal evidence of achievement of secondary aims ii and iii. Portuguese customers spent some time examining the new menus, reading English words out to one another. Some of the Portuguese customers present on the promotion day wanted to chat about the project, the new information in the shop, Portugal etc. with English project staff. The surveys and anecdotal evidence points to significant success of this pilot. Due to the nature of some of the aims, quantifying this success is difficult. Measuring impact on social cohesion and improved language and marketing skills would require a significant investment which was not available during the lifetime of the pilot.
The success of the pilot has led to the production of a generic toolkit based on the original market plan. This toolkit will be trialled in further shops in Cambridgeshire before being rolled out in the wider East of England.
The toolkit is available as a resource on the Cambridgeshire county Council website site.
Lessons Learned
During the pilot project it became clear that contacting suppliers, particularly of pre-packed food would be more productive than labelling products at individual shops. Trading Standards staff will be contacting Home Authorities to discuss approaching the suppliers.
Future Developments
The generic toolkit produced as part of the project is now in use with several other shops both in Cambridgeshire and further afield. The toolkit has been made available to other Trading Standards services via the LACoRS website. It is hoped that the toolkit will be used widely over the next few years.
Contact Details
Contact Name: Tobin Stephenson
Job Title: Trading Standards Officer
Phone: 01954 284 645
Email: Tobin.stephenson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Fax:
Website: http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/business/trading/information/eating/
Organisation: Cambridgeshire Trading Standards
Address: Cambridgeshire County Council PO Box 450 Cambridge City CB23 6ZR