The discount retailer launched a 10-week ‘Healthy Till’ trial at each of its 600 UK stores this week.
Other retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco are signees to a 2012 fruit and vegetables Responsibility Deal which Lidly cited as driving its move, but they have made no moves to remove confectionery from checkouts to date.
Lidl: Nestlé, Mondelez and Ferrero unaffected
Georgina O'Donnell, PR Manager for Lidl UK, confirmed to ConfectioneryNews.com that branded goods would not be affected.
She said that Lidl stocks Ferrero’s Kinder Bueno, Cadbury products from Mondelez International and Nestlé confectionery, but these were only present on store shelves and only Lidl’s own-branded confectionery was at checkouts.
Under the trial, she said that one checkout in every UK store would replace items such as confectionery with higher nutritional value goods like multivitamin juice and fresh fruit.
Gum is understood to be among the items removed by proxy since Lidl wanted to install fresh products only.
Measuring trial success
If the trial proves successful, Lidl plans to keep the Healthy Tills as a permanent fixture.
Asked how Lidl would measure success, O'Donnell said: “We’re looking at the turnover of those particular tills and are looking to gauge customer feedback.”
The retailer said that initial figures showed 20% more customer traffic through its Healthy Tills compared to traditional checkouts.
Lidl’s own-brand confectionery includes Mr Choc and Fin Carré.
Responsibility Deal
Mars, Nestlé and Mondelez are also signatories to the Responsibility Deal, which aims to cut five billion calories from the UK population’s daily diet.
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine last October said that putting candy near cash registers created an obesity risk and called for a ban.