Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's

Marks & Spencer brings grouse to the high street

Marks & Spencer has become the first retailer to bring grouse to the high street. It will stock whole wild red grouse at £10 a dish, according to the Daily Mail.

The birds are shot on the moors in Yorkshire and Northumberland and transported to stores in time for the following morning.

M&S hopes to tap into a growing desire for naturally reared, traditional food, and is offering the dish as part of a new range of British game.

Rabbit, wood pigeon, venison, pheasant and partridge will also be available from October.

Grouse will initially be available only from the chain’s flagship London stores at Kensington High Street and Marble Arch. If it proves popular, however, it could be sold at other branches in future.

Sainsbury’s shifts to three-year marketing planning

Sainsbury’s has restructured its marketing activity to better co-ordinate with all customer-facing business units, reports Marketing Week.

The retailer has moved from annual to a three-year marketing plan, which covers everything from marketing to general merchandising buying briefs and in-store demonstrations. Previously, plans would not extend beyond 12 months.