Coles has given a sneak peek of its “indulgent and sustainable” festive range of Christmas products.
Featuring 151 and 106 new own brand/exclusive products in supermarkets and liquor, an increase of 27% and 6% on last year’s new range respectively, the new range includes gourmet starters, show-stopping centrepieces, decadent desserts, sweets and treats, beautifully designed decorations, fabulous floral arrangements, delicious drinks and gorgeous gifts.
Coles Chief Executive Officer Steven Cain says the focus this year was to produce a delicious Christmas range that would cater to all budgets and festive celebrations.
“After a tough year for many Australians, the new range will help Australians celebrate in style with their family and friends,” he said.
A recent survey of more than 2,100 customers found that two out of three will spend Christmas either at their home or the home of friends or family, indicating that entertaining at home will continue to be an important theme this year.
Options for all budgets
With cost-of-living top of mind for an increasing number of customers this Christmas, Coles has worked hard to ensure it has great value on Aussie Christmas favourites like Coles Beechwood Half Leg and Full Leg Ham, which will be the same price as last year.
This continues to build on Coles’ commitment to value and helping family’s budgets go further. Earlier this week, Coles dropped and locked the price of over 150 household favourites.
Sustainability a focus
Coles has worked to reduce waste this Christmas by making its packaging more sustainable and added the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) to more own brand packaging than ever before so that customers know what they can recycle.
Additional packaging components of festive favourites have been transitioned to recyclable, such as the net bags for Coles Christmas Milk Chocolate Coins. And for the first time, Coles has introduced a Christmas gift wrap made in Australia from 100% FSC Recycled material.
Other sustainability initiatives include:
• The release of the Eco bottle (exclusive to Liquorland and available across the Banrock Station and Taylors wine brands): made in Australia from 100% recycled Australian PET plastic (excluding the cap), the bottle weighs 83% less than a traditional glass wine bottle and a box of 12 bottles takes up half the space of glass bottles, meaning lower emissions transporting them from the winery to Liquorland shelves.
• The return of Coles Festive Crackers, filled with a classic joke, paper hat and puzzles – and no plastic ‘toy’.
• Coles Pine Wood Decorations designed, manufactured and packed in Australia. Made from Australian PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) pine, these decorations are laser cut in the NSW country town of Moruya and packaged with the help of local charity Yumaro which provides employment, community access and advocacy for people with a disability and their families.
Food and drink highlights
Coles Ambassador and Michelin award winning chef Curtis Stone said this year’s range is focussed on providing the very best value on locally sourced fresh produce.
“We know that this Christmas more than ever customers will want to have the very best quality products for their family and friends, while also making their household budgets go further,” he said.
“Our festive smoked juniper ham embodies the flavours of Christmas; it’s made from 100% Australian pork and delicious served warm or thinly sliced cold. All of our fresh meat is 100% Australian and we are proud that our range of fresh turkeys have never been frozen. Our prawns are responsibly sourced, we can assure customers they will be in abundance and at our very best price when customers are wanting to enjoy them most.”
The food highlights include a Coles Christmas Juniper Berry Seasoned Ham, the Coles Finest Luxury Black Forest Bombe Pudding, Coles Entertaining Prawns in Blankets and for the first time, a Nature’s Kitchen Plant-based Christmas Ham style Roast with a with Vegan Maple Glaze, among more than 25 festive vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free products aimed at the increasing number of Australians with diverse dietary needs.
When it comes to delicious bakery treats, there are 30 new products in the own brand range this year. With cheesecake ranking as one of the top searched items at Christmas on Taste.com.au, Coles has created a first ever novelty Santa cheesecake with a biscuit base, vanilla cheesecake, and raspberry topping, decorated with a chocolate Santa belt and produced in Australia.
On the liquor front, Liquorland has introduced a range of healthier options for customers to cater for increased demand in the category. This includes a range of low and no alcohol drinks across all categories and a no sugar ready-to-drink Just Vodka Soda Black for those wanting to cut back on unnecessary sugar.