THE Island is to feature in a £3 million nationwide campaign next year to promote the Jersey Royal, potato suppliers and growers Albert Bartlett have confirmed.
From April to June, a campaign of television, social-media and banner advertising will seek “to rejuvenate love of the Jersey Royal for the British consumer”.
Company chief executive Alex Bartlett told the JEP: “We’re trying to capture the excitement again because in the UK we’ve lost touch with the Jersey Royal as a consumer. We need to reignite the love.”
Mr Bartlett, visiting Jersey this week from the company’s head office in Airdrie, said that the company – which earlier this year took over the Jersey Royal Company – hoped “to get to the right place in the market” following a decline which has seen production fall from around 50,000 tons in the late 1990s to around 20,000 tons today.
He said: “I think that for ourselves, having this level of responsibility for the whole of the Island and the people that are here in the Island growing, means we know how important it is to get it right.
“It’s creating a sustainable supply chain for the future because the long-term trend has been in decline; so it’s now, how do we turn that around and get us to a better place so that we’re here for the next multiple generations? Because I’m the next, fourth, generation of our company business, it’s really important for me that we’ve got the right people around us so that we’re going to go forward into the future.”
Mr Bartlett was one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Jersey Farming Conference, where he discussed the company’s commitment to the Island in the take-over of the Jersey Royal Company which has seen Albert Bartlett become a major grower as well as purchasing potatoes from independent growers.
He explained that they were focusing their advertising on attracting younger consumers in the UK, stressing aspects of the history of the Jersey Royal and its authenticity as a premium product in the market.
“It’s important for us we create that real seasonal moment again in Jersey because retailers crave that element of theatre and sense of timing. Big brands do really well around key moments in the year. I think if we get it right, we’ll really excite retailers and consumers at the same time, and we’ll give Jersey a platform that it’s not had for a long time,” he said.
