M&S builds on football partnership with Wembley Stadium stores and healthy eating campaign

M&S opened the two food shops on Wembley’s level two, on the east and west sides of the stadium, earlier this month. Around half of the stores’ range comprises lines from the retailer’s Eat Well brand, designed to support healthy eating. 

An M&S Eat Well truck will also tour football grounds, stores and schools in a food education push.

The initiatives come as the English football season gets into full swing and on the back of interest in the women’s World Cup where the England team reached the final.

M&S has Eat Well, Play Well partnerships with the four national football associations “to use the power of football and the influence of some of the UK’s biggest footballing heroes to help families make healthier choices”.

The retailer ran dedicated ads for the brand during the World Cup. The latest phase of the campaign came as M&S-commissioned research exposed the gulf between the health and fitness of professional footballers and the public.

M&S Food marketing director Sharry Cramond told Retail Week: “It was a great opportunity for us to focus on eating well and we had lots of content. We can see a big increase in Eat Well awareness.”

M&S’ research found that only one in five people in the UK felt they have a consistently healthy relationship with food. The retailer hopes to address that and is aiming for 70% of food sales to come from healthier products by 2025 and is expanding the Eat Well range.