Lidl Switzerland

Discounter Lidl has praised the success of its 10-week healthy-till trial and revealed that 70 per cent of shoppers now prefer to see healthy snacks at the supermarket's tills.

The strategy, which was introduced as a trial back in January with one till installed in each of the retailer's 600 UK stores, replaces all fatty and sugary treats at check-out tills with bags of fresh fruit and juices.

The retailer says it has now doubled the amount of healthy tills to two per store, following positive customer feedback, and will continue to add more if demand continues to grow.

'The Healthy Checkout concept and fresh produce rebranding is all part of our increased focus on corporate social responsibility,' a group spokesperson commented. 'The culmination of this is the introduction of a hybrid food-labelling system on our product packaging which we have not done before.

'The hybrid food-labelling system will comprise both our existing guideline daily amounts (GDAs) as well as a ‘traffic light’ colour-coding system, and will be placed on all own-label product packaging. This comes in response to a growing consensus that customers wish to see consistent nutritional information on all food packaging in order to help them lead healthier lifestyles.'

The healthy-checkout strategy is part of Lidl's pledge to the government's Responsibility Deal which encourages UK supermarkets to sell and more prominently advertise fresh fruit and vegetables.