Anchor pans Hoover for ‘ruining’ offer

Anchor Foods is blaming the effects of the Hoover free flights fiasco for a failed promotion which the supermarket chains refused to support.

The company wanted to launch the promotion, through which consumers could send off for a 100 holiday voucher, on its Aerosol Dairy Cream next month.

National press and point-of-sale advertising was planned through the BLP Consultancy, but the project had to be abandoned because of a lack of trade support.

The retailers raised doubts over a travel promotion in the wake of the disastrous Hoover “free flights” offer and said they had insufficient time to implement the scheme. Anchor Foods was also unable to negotiate the amount of in-store chiller cabinet space it required.

Peter Melville, assistant product manager on the aerosol cream business, says: “Part of the problem was the Hoover flights fiasco, which has wrecked things for the rest of the industry.”

The company approached all the major supermarket chains, but says it needed the support of Tesco or Sainsbury’s to make the offer viable.

A further promotion for Anchor Aerosol Dairy Cream – which has a 70 per cent value share of the 20m market – is being planned for the summer.

Anchor Foods’ above-the-line advertising is handled by Saatchi & Saatchi.

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