Southern Co-op expands its regional food and drink range

Products include local fish, ale, cider, drinking chocolate, protein balls, honeycomb, and biltong. They will be available in 85 different stores in Devon, Bristol and Somerset, Sussex, the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, Surrey, Wiltshire, Berkshire, London and Dorset.

In Sussex, the new products are from Bedlam Brewery, The Fresh Fish Shop, and Tribe in association with Lorama Foods.

These will include Tribe’s Choc Caramel & Almond Nature Bombs, Chocolate & Hazelnut butter Nature Bombs, White Chocolate & Berry Nature Bombs; Bedlam Brewery’s Benchmark Sussex Best Bitter, Phoenix Extra American Pale Ale, Turtle Recall Pale Ale, Wilde East Coast Pale Ale; and The Fresh Fish Shop’s Cod Garlic and Chorizo Bake, Smoked Mackerel Pate, Smoked Salmon Pate, and White Fish Thai Green Curry.

In Devon and Somerset the new products are from Taunton Cider and Dartmoor Brewery including Dartmoor Ipa, Dartmoor Legend Ale, and Dartmoor Jail Ale; and Taunton Dry Cider, Taunton Medium Cider, and Taunton Vintage Cider.

The new products with strong Hampshire connections are Mighty Fine’s honeycomb, Wholesome Wolf’s biltong, and Mortimer Chocolate Company’s drinking chocolate.

Two of the producers were discovered during a special pitching event organised in Hampshire called the Pigs Den.

Matt Elliott, retail buying and services manager who looks after Local Flavours at Southern Co-op, said: “Sustainability is something we strive for and encourage people to consider when doing their shopping. These new products not only demonstrate these principles but are also of a high quality which adds a new diversity to the existing products in our retail stores.”