Sugar free UK-wide listings worth £500,000 for Belfast company
New sugar free products devised by a Belfast company are now available in Tesco stores across the UK.
The Free’ist range of 13 sugar free or no added sugar products has been listed in 25 Tesco stores in Northern Ireland and a further 77 Tesco stores in Britain.
Created by Belfast-based GM Marketing, the range includes four types of cookies (choc chip, choc striped peanut, hazelnut and coconut) as well as four great tasting chocolate bars (smooth milk, hazelnut and rich dark plus white with strawberries). The four chocolate bars are all gluten free, too.
In addition the company is supplying Tesco with two wafers (chocolate wafer bars and chocolate wafer sticks) and strawberry, raspberry and marmalade preserves which are all 100% fruit and have no added sugar.
Steven Murphy from Tescosaid: “The Free’ist range has only just launched in our stores, but it is already proving extremely popular. We are very conscious that people are adopting a healthy lifestyle and are increasingly looking for sugar free or no added sugar products and the new Free’ist range fits the bill perfectly.”
GM Marketing believes the deal with the leading retailer will be worth more than £500,000 per annum. Gary Martin, national account controller from GM, said: “We have already made a significant investment in developing the Free’ist brand and bringing it to market in response to ever increasing consumer demand for great tasting sugar free products.
“We will continue to invest in the brand going forward via further new product development supported by an integrated communications plan to let consumers know what new products we have available.”
GM Marketing, which employs 37 from its Belfast city centre base, first brought Free’ist to market last September but the latest deal with Tesco extends its listings to Britain as well as Northern Ireland on the back of a previous agreement to list the Free’ist products in more than 100 Tesco stores in the Republic of Ireland.
