{"id":72622,"date":"2016-03-17T08:47:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=72622"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:47:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:47:13","slug":"frenchs-ketchup-cannibalizing-sales-pc-brand-loblaw-memo-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/03\/17\/frenchs-ketchup-cannibalizing-sales-pc-brand-loblaw-memo-says\/","title":{"rendered":"French\u2019s ketchup was \u2018cannibalizing\u2019 sales of PC brand, Loblaw memo says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo<\/a>
(Photo from Loblaw Companies Limited’s Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013 A leaked internal memo sent to some Loblaw employees said the grocery chain decided to stop stocking French\u2019s ketchup because it was \u201ccannibalizing\u201d sales of its in-house President\u2019s Choice variety.<\/p>\n

Loblaw confirmed the memo\u2019s existence but said it wasn\u2019t an official one.<\/p>\n

The memo addressed to grocery managers and retailers said it intended to explain why French\u2019s ketchup was being pulled from store shelves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the process of delisting French\u2019s ketchup because it is cannibalizing the sales of PC ketchup and has had little impact to Heinz ketchup,\u201d reads the memo.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press obtained a photo of the memo from someone who says they are a Loblaw employee. The employee, who wished to remain anonymous due to fears of workplace reprisal, identified the sender of the memo as a senior director at the company.<\/p>\n

Loblaw, however, described the sender as a mid-level employee who is a member of the company’s operations team for a group of stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memo was unofficial, misinformed and sent by a staff member prior to (Tuesday\u2019s) decision to restock French\u2019s ketchup,\u201d Kevin Groh, vice-president of corporate affairs and communication, said Wednesday in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomer preference was the single reason the product was removed from our shelves, and the single reason it is back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loblaw announced Tuesday it was reversing its decision to discontinue selling French\u2019s ketchup following social media outcry.<\/p>\n

French\u2019s ketchup became an Internet darling after a man\u2019s Facebook post lauded the U.S.-based company for using 100 per cent Canadian-grown tomatoes.<\/p>\n

Other Canadians answered the call to support local farmers and demand for French\u2019s increased. People shared stories of their local grocers being unable to keep French\u2019s ketchup in stock due to high demand.<\/p>\n

The memo indicates Loblaw was concerned about French\u2019s ketchup eating into its President\u2019s Choice profits, but Groh reiterated his company\u2019s position that French\u2019s ketchup simply wasn\u2019t selling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn past, French\u2019s ketchup has not come close to matching the sales of the other brands \u2013 even when discounted,\u201d Groh said.<\/p>\n

The leaked memo also says that social media buzz didn\u2019t necessarily translate to actual sales.<\/p>\n

But the memo does take issue with the notion that French\u2019s ketchup is a Canadian-made product. It says French\u2019s ketchup contains Canadian-grown tomatoes, but it is made in the U.S.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for French\u2019s said the ketchup it sells in Canada is produced in both Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Loblaw\u2019s President\u2019s Choice ketchup, on the other hand, sources its tomatoes from California, but is produced in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we truly want to support Canadian, we must rally behind PC ketchup since it is made in Canada,\u201d the memo says.<\/p>\n

Groh said one brand is not more Canadian than the other, but President\u2019s Choice is continuing conversations to purchase tomatoes from Canadian farmers if high-quality produce can be available in the amount needed for the right price.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not yet found that balance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 A leaked internal memo sent to some Loblaw employees said the grocery chain decided to stop stocking French\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":72623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[9636],"class_list":["post-72622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-food","tag-cp","mauthors-aleksandra-sagan","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}