Supermarket chain Lidl is looking for suppliers and startups that create innovative products for Lidl to sell in 2019. During the new theme week, Lidl will present a number of products that are new, healthy and/or very sustainable.
Suppliers and startups can register until 16 September, after which they will be invited for a selection day. “Those who are invited to the selection day are asked to pitch their product and, for example, tell the jury how they came up with the idea,” says Christine Braun from Lidl Netherlands.
For years now, Lidl has been organising theme weeks to promote Italian, French, or Spanish products, to name just a few. In the spring of 2019, the chain will introduce a new theme. “We want to keep surprising our clients, this time with products that are very sustainable or highly innovative. To help us, we’re looking for producers and startups that we can help and guide towards production,” says Braun. “The idea is to sell the products during the theme week, which is unique. Should a theme week product be very popular, we will of course consider adding it to our core product range,” Braun continues.
For this project, Lidl is collaborating with StartLife, which helps the supermarket chain to select the startups. StartLife is the leading European Food & Agtech incubator. Marloes Groenewegen, Director of Operations at StartLife: “With this project Lidl can really help startups, precisely because a regular purchasing order is issued long before goods have to be delivered. This pushes startups to speed up and can help them launch their products
Depending on the number of applications, Lidl will decide how many startups are to be invited to the selection day. The number of products to be sold during the theme week is also as yet unknown. “A good theme week ordinarily has between 30 and 50 products, but it’s still early days to put an exact number on it,” Braun emphasises.