Tesco announced that it has ended its reusable packaging trial with Loop.

From September 2021 to June 2022, Tesco conducted its in-store prefill pilot with Loop. Customers in ten pilot stores in the Midlands and East of England were able to buy 53 lines from popular brands such as Persil, Coca Cola, Heinz and Tetley Tea, as well as 35 own-brand essentials, prefilled and available in store as part of our reuse offer. 

Many of these products were offered in fully recyclable metal packaging.

Customers could simply add these products to their shopping basket as part of their shop, eliminating the need to bring their own containers or undertake the refilling themselves.

But now that trial has ended and Tesco has published its findings and will assess its next steps.

Tesco’s Responsible Sourcing Director, Giles Simon, wrote in a blog post: “We’re delighted to report that the pilot was positively received by customers who purchased more than 80,000 products over two years – and are very appreciative of those customers who engaged in it with us. Products in reusable packaging that proved most popular included big brands such as Coca-Cola and own label essentials such as granola, basmati rice and olive oil.

“What’s clear from our trial is that a prefill model of reuse has strong potential and can be set up to offer customers the ease and convenience they expect. While it is very disruptive to usual ways of working, we’ve also seen it’s possible to adapt supply chains working in partnership with suppliers to maintain the quality and availability that customers rightly demand.

“But there’s still much more to do. Specifically, work is needed to encourage a cultural and behavioural shift from customers. 

“Reuse represents a radical change in the shopping experience and while customers support the environmental principle, industry, policymakers and supply chains will need to work hard and work collectively to support and incentivise customers to adopt new shopping behaviours, while ensuring they don’t come at a cost to shoppers.

“The learnings report gives us a clear set of feedback to reflect on. We are ending the trial to reflect on that feedback and plan next phases of work. We will use our insights to work with stakeholders across the value chain to understand how we best help scale it in future.”