Sainsbury's delivers on green milk plans

Supermarket giant Sainsbury's is banking on a multimillion-pound investment in eco-friendly milk bags and jugs across its entire product range as it looks to slash the carbon footprint of milk products.

From today, the supermarket chain will stock whole-milk bags following healthy sales of a trial of semi-skimmed milk bags.

The company said customers have bought twice as many bags of milk as originally predicted with current sales running at 120,000 semi-skimmed milk bags per week or one in every 10 two-pint semi-skimmed units sold. It added that it now expects total sales of milk bags to double following the expansion of the range.

The bags have been introduced as part of the supermarket's pledge to reduce packaging by a third by 2015. The new product contains 75 per cent less plastic than bottles. Milk is one of Sainsbury's biggest selling lines, with customers buying over 785 million pints last year. Customers switching to bags could save up to 1,400,000kg of packaging every year, according to Sainsbury's.

The packaging also requires significantly less energy to produce, takes up less space when disposed of and is cheaper for customers, with a two-pint bag at least 6p cheaper than an equivalent two-pint plastic bottle.

"This is the biggest change to occur to the nation's shopping habits for at least a decade," said Emma Metcalf King, Sainsbury's senior dairy buyer. "We've been blown away by the positive response. Rather than being wary of new packaging, customers have lapped-up the bags. We've expanded the milk bag range to all varieties to enable more customers to save plastic and money."

Sainsbury's claims modifications to an earlier prototype jug and bag launched in 2008 have made the product easier to use. Many consumers had complained that the original design was prone to leaks and spills.

The new format was rolled out across stores in February this year. Bags of skimmed and one per cent fat milk bags will now be introduced onto shelves from June next year.

The push comes despite the failure of a similar product by rival supermarket Waitrose, which launched in 2007 and was quietly shelved this April due to "poor sales". Tesco revealed today that it is planning to launch trials of Dairy Crest Country Life milk bags in 10 stores.

To meet customer demand for milk bags, Sainsbury's and its supplier Dairy Crest have invested more than £2.2m in a new processing plant at its site in Gloucestershire, creating 20 new jobs.