Coles responds to criticism from customers over homebrand change

One supermarket has responded to criticism after it changed sourcing one of its popular homebrand products from Australia to Vietnam.

One supermarket has responded to criticism after it changed the sourcing of one of its popular homebrand products.

Customers took to Reddit to complain that the name of Coles’ unsalted peanuts had been changed from “Australian Unsalted Peanuts” to “Roasted Unsalted Peanuts” after the product went from being sourced and produced in Australia to Vietnam.

However, Coles explained the “change in sourcing was due to improved quality”.

Coles customers have expressed their outrage that a popular home brand product has been ditched for an imported one. Picture: Reddit

“We are proud to offer the largest Own Brand range in Australia across a range of price points, and we are seeing value-conscious customers switching into Own Brand alternatives in a range of categories,” the spokesperson told news.com.au.

“We assess a variety of factors when sourcing Coles Own Brand Unsalted Peanuts including shape, level of roast, taste and crunch. The change in sourcing was due to improved quality and is part of our commitment to deliver great quality products to our customers.”

In 2021, it was reported that 70 per cent of the peanuts Australians eat were imported as Aussie farmers faced drought and couldn’t produce the water needed to grow the product, ABC reported.

Coles has responded to the criticism Picture: Reddit

Coles customers have taken aim at the change of sourcing from Australian to Vietnam.

“See now THIS is a genuine Colesworth complaint. The packaging has been made to deliberately look as close as possible to the Australian product and it’s not clear either – it just says ‘packed in’ Vietnam,” one social media user said.

Another said: “They deliberately push people into buying their Aust grown product, and then stop buying from Aussie farmers, import it for less and pocket the savings.

“Charging the customer the same price for a now imported product.”

Originally published as Coles responds to criticism from customers over homebrand change