Asda closes refill zone at Monks Cross due to lack of use

ASDA launched the 18-bay refill zone at its Monks Cross store offering more than 100 branded and unbranded products.

The aim was to reduce plastic use ands encourage customers to shop more sustainably.

The loose and unpackaged range included branded favourites like Yorkshire Tea, Kellogg’s cereals, Napolina Pasta as well as an extensive range of Asda-brand cereals rise and pasta, all sold at the same price or cheaper than packaged equivalents.

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Customers were able to use their own containers to buy unpackaged products or buy a reusable container in the store and use that instead.

However, the Press has been told the refill bay closed earlier this month, something confirmed by the Leeds-based supermarket giant.

The Monks Cross refill closure follows other trail sites being removed by ASDA. The first such trial site opened in Middleton, Leeds, in 2020, with two others trial sites opening later elsewhere in the UK.

The refill zone (Image: Supplied)

The retailer had hoped to scale up the trail nationally but earlier this summer an update to Asda’s environmental strategy said it could not find a way to do this.

The report said: “Over the past four years, our refill trial stores have taught us a lot about the complexities of scaling refillable packaging.”

“We’ve achieved some success in landing customer-facing propositions in-store, supported by collaboration with key suppliers and organisations such as Wrap and IGD.

“However, we have experienced operational issues and commercial challenges with our existing approach. Our research showed that the key barriers which included cost, convenience, cleanliness, and perceived product quality have prevented customers from engaging with the refill proposition.”

Asda also says that despite its price-match initiative, which guaranteed that each refill product was cheaper than packaged alternatives, there has been some weeks where sales for refill in the Monks Cross store have been as low as £1000, levels which were not sustainable.

However, suppliers and NGOs have recognised the efforts Asda has made in this space, and have appreciated the commercial and operational challenges the retailer also faced.

An Asda spokesperson told the Press: “We have trialled the refill zones in our York store for almost four years. In that time, we have continually evolved the proposition in store to persuade customers to embrace this alternative way of shopping.  

“Unfortunately, the lack of uptake and operational challenges this format presents means we can no longer continue to operate the trial in these stores.

“We are extremely grateful to shoppers who have partaken in the trial and remain undeterred in looking for a long-term feasible solution to reducing packaging.”