M&S sees an increase in sales with fair trade coffee

Would every retailer experience an increase in coffee sales by switching to fair trade coffee only? Who knows. But from this recent article in the UK’s Guardian Newspaper, it appears that Marks & Spencer experienced a big jump in sales when they replaced their old coffees with fair trade coffee.

In March, M&S announced it would replace all 38 lines in its tea and coffee ranges with Fairtrade alternatives. Since then, the retailer says, coffee sales in its food halls have increased by 27%.

From a marketing point of view, this is fascinating news and potentially very good news for the fair trade coffee movement.

Look at it this way: if a local supermarket changed all its produce to organic, would they see a 27% increase in sales? Probably not.

What this figure indicates to me is that people are moved more by their support of social justice than they are by healthy eating.

There’s both good news and bad news there. But for fair trade coffee, it’s good news.