WINDSOR ? Canada’s largest grocer has yielded to public opinion and announced plans to return French’s ketchup to the shelves.
“We’ve heard our Loblaws customers,” company spokesman Kevin Groh said in an email.
“We will restock French’s ketchup and hope that the enthusiasm there has been in media and on social media means sales of the product.”
‘Bye. Bye. Heinz’: French’s ketchup sells out after online post praising it and its Ontario-grown tomatoes
An Orillia man’s viral Facebook post has renewed curiosity about Leamington tomatoes and also the devastating lack of the town’s Heinz plant – along with a new ketchup that is helping to turn things around.
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The interest in French’s ketchup soared following a man’s Facebook post lauded the U.S.-based company for its resolve for buy tomatoes from Canadian farmers.
French’s uses tomatoes processed at the former H.J. Heinz Co. plant in Leamington, Ont., the self-proclaimed Tomato Capital of Canada.
Heinz, that is located in Pittsburgh, closed the plant in 2014, throwing 740 employees out of work. The economic blow was softened when Highbury Canco, a consortium of three investors, bought the plant and restarted production on the smaller scale having a third from the workforce.
“Everybody’s switching over to French’s ketchup because of what Heinz did to Leamington, Ont.,” says labour activist John Romanelli. When Loblaws announced on Monday that it was dropping French’s ketchup due to low demand, Romanelli posted a video, which subsequently went viral, calling for a boycott from the chain.
As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, his video had garnered a lot more than 219,000 views – less than 24 hours after it was uploaded to Facebook.
“Unbelievable,” said the 45-year-old Toronto resident on Tuesday afternoon. “You know, I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s online craziness.”
The video shows Romanelli ranting in front of a Loblaws store as he gestures with a bottle of French’s ketchup.
“I shopped at this Loblaws here two times a week during the last Ten years. I called them today and said, ‘We’re done – before you put French’s back on the shelf.’ Let’s do that, people. Proud to be Canadian.”
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Romanelli said he’d not expected the recording to spread so widely or Loblaws to reply so quickly, but he’s happy to have done his part for the Ontario farmers.
“The funny thing is, I don’t even like ketchup much,” he said with a laugh. “But what I deeply love is Canadian workers.”
He isn’t alone. Plus a storm of complaints on social media, Toronto-area MPP Mike Colle wrote towards the president of Loblaws saying he was prepared to lead the boycott within the French’s ketchup.
“I think your company makes a huge miscalculation and underestimated the worth that we put on supporting local foods and local jobs,” Colle wrote.
Leamington Mayor John Paterson had also planned on sending a letter to Loblaws until he discovered Tuesday’s reversal.
“This is a big win for that consumer,” Paterson said. “It was their voices that made the modification happen. And it is a really big win for that tomato growers here in Leamington and the surrounding area, and also the Highbury Canco plant.”
French’s regular and flavoured ketchup use 100-per-cent Canadian-grown tomatoes, according to its website.
In February, an article by Brian Fernandez was shared more than 132,000 times and prompted part of the Ontario legislature to ask for top Park dining area and cafeteria to switch to French’s ketchup.
Demand for French’s increased following the publicity. Fernandez later posted that the Zehrs in Orillia, Ont., sold out of 10 cases of the condiment on the day that it received them.
Windsor Star, with files from The Canadian Press
