With the initiative “The best from home!”, SPAR in Austria has supported producers near INTERSPAR Hypermarkets for the past ten years by offering an additional sales channel. This sales opportunity supports the local economy, securing jobs and boosting regional purchasing power, and is currently more important than ever for local small-scale and micro-businesses.

During the current COVID-19 outbreak, many local producers are experiencing challenges selling their goods, as certain sales channels have been cut off. This is where INTERSPAR has stepped in to offer quick and easy support. Under “The best from home!” initiative, SPAR Hypermarkets currently stock over 6,100 products from local suppliers, with the assortment varying per location.

The Gut Grub farm in St. Johann in the State of Salzburg, for example, will soon be supplying INTERSPAR Hypermarkets with organic sour cheese.

“So far, we have delivered the majority of our cheese specialities to the catering trade. Unfortunately, we no longer have this option due to the pandemic. That is why we are pleased to work with INTERSPAR. Our organic sour cheese will soon be available in INTERSPAR Hypermarkets in the cities of Salzburg and Hallein in the state of Salzburg”, said Elisabeth Gruber from the Gut Grub farm.

The local range available in INTERSPAR Hypermarkets includes local wines, primarily from small-scale winemakers. Through their partnership with INTERSPAR, these companies have a secure sales opportunity in this current situation. 

In addition, SPAR and INTERSPAR currently take several thousand eggs a week from local egg farmers, which they would normally supply to catering businesses.

Dairy farmers in Austria also receive support: Customers can now find in INTERSPAR stores yoghurt, cream, and other dairy items from Salzburg, which under normal circumstances would be sold to catering businesses. 

“It is important to us that the products are manufactured within a 30 kilometre radius of an INTERSPAR store and that only domestic ingredients are used in the production process”, explained Markus Kaser, Managing Director of INTERSPAR Austria. 

 “Currently, we are expanding our partnerships with many of our existing local producers and are also listing many new suppliers, offering these businesses shelf space in our hypermarkets. The characteristic logo of this product line, a black and red heart-shaped apple, is easy to recognise for our customers. In these difficult times, we want to support local businesses and keep the added value in the region”, continued Markus Kaser.

Interested local businesses can contact INTERSPAR Austria directly at dahoam@interspar.at.

Source: SPAR Austria

About SPAR Austria

The origins of SPAR in Austria date back to 1954, but the current SPAR AG was created in 1970 when the original founding families joined with other regional wholesalers to form SPAR Austria AG – a 100% privately owned Austrian company.

With licences granted by SPAR International, ASPIAG (Austria SPAR International AG) has developed SPAR in Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, and Northern Italy.