Why is Sainsbury's selling Spar products?

Why is Sainsbury's selling Spar products?

If you have been into a Sainsbury's in Northern Ireland in recent days you may have seen something unusual.

Spar branded products on the shelves.

Sainsbury's has not taken over the convenience retailer or vice versa.

Instead what you are seeing is a contingency plan for the new Irish Sea border.

On 31 December, England, Scotland and Wales left the EU's single market for goods but NI did not.

• Five steps that led to an Irish Sea border

• Fresh test for Irish Sea trade border processes

• Call for urgent action over deliveries to NI

This created a new trade and regulatory border between NI and the rest of the UK.

It means that food products entering NI from GB must undergo a range of time consuming new processes such as the creation of export health certificates and checks at new border posts.

Some of these changes are being phased in, but other are already required.

In response, supermarkets have been looking at ways to source more products in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

For Sainsbury's that has meant signing a contract with Henderson Group, one of Northern Ireland's biggest food wholesalers which sells to retailers and caterers.

But the retailers they supply are almost exclusively a network of 450 Spar and Vivo stores across NI.

That is why some of the products they are providing to Sainsbury's have Spar branding.

It's understood about 70 Spar-branded products are on the shelves or available on Sainsbury's website.

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: "A small number of our products are temporarily unavailable for our customers in Northern Ireland while border arrangements are confirmed.

'We were prepared for this and so our customers will find a wide range of alternative products in our stores in the meantime and we are working hard to get back to our full, usual range soon."

A UK government spokesperson said: "The grace periods for supermarkets and their suppliers are working well, lorries are travelling through Northern Irish ports and we continue to work closely with traders as they adapt to these changes."