Coles has just the labels for national pride

Ian McIlwraith
January 23, 2012
The Age

AUSTRALIA Day means … another chance for supermarket giant Coles to turn our jingoism into the jingling of coins in the till.

Exploiting public holiday events is nothing new for retailers (Easter buns have been in stores since the new year). But Coles has taken it to a whole new level by commissioning ”exclusive” products ranging from canned beetroot to disposable nappies.

Tomato sauce maker Masterfoods, part of the Mars food group, is offering a ”limited edition” blue plastic squeeze bottle of sauce, rather than the usual red.

Arnotts, owned by another US group, has produced a special Australia-shaped version of its Shapes savoury biscuit brand labelled as ”Aussie BBQ meat lovers” (Tasmania misses out, again).
Coles has even ”hijacked” a promotion begun by tea-maker Twinings that features a new ”Australian Afternoon Tea” blend, devised by former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd won a competition against other celebrities, including Hugh Jackman and surfer Layne Beachley, to produce the tea that was launched at a Coles store in suburban Brisbane last week.
Coles is understood to have negotiated exclusivity for the tea for a period of time. Twinings also describes the tea as a ”limited edition”, which means that its survival on the shelf will depend on its popularity.

Even the front cover of Coles’ home-delivered catalogues this week reminds customers that it is ”proudly Australian since 1914”.

Perhaps the only blowfly in Coles’ barbecue is that the Golden Circle brand of canned corn that it has chosen for the promotion actually comes from New Zealand.

Although Coles says the promotion has been under way for some time, industry sources suggest that the concept was only put together in the past couple of months.

Coles is understood to have approached many more of its suppliers than the eight manufacturers who agreed to relabel limited production runs of their goods with Australian flags and ”only at Coles” stamps.

Interestingly, no alcohol brands are featured in the marketing exercise.

While Coles worked with its suppliers on the redesigns, as is usual with products promoted in supermarket catalogues and in stores, the cost of the changes has been borne by the manufacturers.
Suppliers say, though, that Coles agreed to specific volumes of products in the new livery – and promised to keep the products until they were sold, rather than return unsold merchandise and seek a refund from suppliers.

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