I spent Easter seeing many old friends including Keith Abel, whose Abel and Cole organic box delivery service goes from strength to strength. The supermarkets have apparently tried to compete with their own-label versions of the organic box idea, but they have not flourished. It is very hard for the supermarkets to compete on this terrain. Abel and Cole stands for everything that the supermarkets don’t.

The supermarkets are all about volume – getting the maximum sold at the cheapest price – about standardisation – ensuring that all the fruit looks the same – and about getting the customers to visit their supermarkets-cum-warehouses to stock up on all kinds of goods (T-shirts and videos included). Abel and Cole are about local sourcing, about authentic food, about paying the farmer a good whack for it. Even if you were tasked with setting up a business unit within a major high street supermarket to compete with Abel and Cole your buying colleagues would hate you. BTW Adliterate has a post about microbrands here which name checks Abel and Cole in discussing the characteristics which create modern brands. Abel and Cole has what it takes to be a huge brand. …