ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is calling on the Welsh Government to consider and clarify the impact on small shops of their ‘Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales’ Strategy, published today.
Today (17th October) the Welsh Government published its ‘Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales’ Strategy which sets out their national ambitions to prevent and reduce obesity in Wales by delivering healthy settings and environments to allow people of all ages to make healthy choices by 2030.
The Healthy Weight strategy focuses on four key themes: healthy environments, healthy settings, healthy people and leadership and enabling change.
Measures in the strategy which would impact convenience retailers include:
- A change in the use of price promotion and discounting practices
- Limits placed on upselling food and drinks high in saturated fat, salt and sugar, including free refills
- A ban on advertising, sponsorship and promotion of foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt in public spaces including: bus/ train stations, sporting events, family attractions, schools (including close to), hospitals, leisure centres and other public spaces
- Welsh taxation powers on discretionary foods high in fat, salt and sugar to be considering providing the pace of reformulation does not meet expectations
- Calorie labelling at the point of purchase for food eaten out of the home
- Support to increase the availability of healthier food options on our high streets
- Access to free drinking water to become commonplace in cities, towns and communities
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Convenience stores have a unique reach in to the communities that they serve, offering a growing range of healthy food. We will continue to encourage retailers to expand this offer where their customers and communities are demanding it, but it is important that any regulation doesn’t make life harder for shops that are maintaining access to food where otherwise there would be none. We will be working to seek clarity from the Welsh Government on how the measures will be implemented.”
ACS has worked closely with the Food Foundation’s Peas Please initiative, promoting best practice in the sale of fruit and veg through the sponsorship of fresh produce awards at three major events in the convenience sector. ACS also worked with Peas Please on the production of a Veg Toolkit to help retailers sell more healthy products in stores. The retailer toolkit is available at https://foodfoundation.org.uk/retailer-toolkit/
The full document is available here.
Notes to Editors:
- Findings from the ACS Voice of Local Shops survey revealed that 74% of Welsh retailers stocked fruit and vegetables (August 2018)
- 26% of those retailers who stocked fruit and vegetables have increased their sales over the last year and 24% have increased their range and 26% have increased promotions (August 2018).
- 39% of local shops in Wales are isolated, trading with no other retail services/business close by (Local Shop Report 2019)
