Tesco to be official supermarket of England World Cup team

The deal with the Football Association means the supermarket can use the ‘Three Lions’ crest in its marketing material in the build up to and during the tournament, which kicks off in 67 days.

Tesco plans to capitalise on the deal with a raft of initiatives, including a tie-up with popular football sticker collection Match Attax, and by growing its soccer school programme. Frank Lampard and Peter Shilton are likely to be used as the faces of the campaign and Tesco expects to sell 8 million packs of Match Attax cards during the World Cup campaign.

Director of retail and logistics David Potts said that each English store will have an appointed World Cup Champion, whose role will be to generate excitement in the store around the World Cup, and co-ordinate staff leave. A dedicated World Cup portal will be opened on the Tesco websitem and the seasonal aisle in each store will be given over to non-food products in the run up to the World Cup, switching to food when the event starts.

Potts said non-food would play a much bigger part in the run up to the World Cup for Tesco, with the plan being to sell 300,000 televisions as well as 800,000 England flags and 500,000 footballs in the run up to the tournament. A more general World Cup theme will be applied in Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish stores.

The BRC estimated retailers received a £1bn sales boost from the 2006 World Cup, and Tesco estimates this could grow 20% this year with the convenient timing of the matches and the greater hopes for the England team.

Sainsbury’s was official England supermarket for the 2006 World Cup. Asda parent Walmart is the Fifa’s official supermarket for the World Cup, while Morrisons is partner of England’s 2018 World Cup bid.