Sainsbury's embroiled in dupe row as independent flavoured butter brand accuses supermarket giant of making 'carbon copies' of its products
Sainsbury's has become embroiled in a bitter copycat spat with an independent butter brand.
The British supermarket is facing claims from Sublime Butter that its new Taste the Difference butter range, released last week, comprises 'carbon copies' of its products.
Sublime Butter offers premium butters in flavours such as garlic and herb and garlic, rosemary, and mint at prices of up to £4.95.
While the brand has found success at various retailers and is stocked in Harrods and Selfridges, it has claimed that Sainsbury's has 'gone and accidentally made carbon copies of the ones we sent you last year.' Sainsbury's has denied the claims.
Sublime Butter founder Tony Ho told The Grocer that Sainsbury's contacted his brand in July last year to consider stocking them, which led to conversations about flavours and them sending 'loads of samples', said Ho.
Ho, who has approached the Groceries Code Adjudicator over the matter, said the retailer then went radio silent without offering an explanation as to why.
Taking to Instagram, the brand publicly directed a letter to Sainsbury's after the retailer 'ghosted' their attempts of direct communication.
'Your 'new' range of flavoured butters look great,' the statement said, continuing, 'Particularly the Chimichurri and the Truffle, Parmesan & Black Pepper ones. Did you come up with those yourselves? Be honest now.
'Because it seems like you've gone and accidentally made carbon copies of the ones we sent you last year. You know, the ones you pretended you wanted to stock? We won awards for ours though.
'Not to cry over spilled milk but as a small producer, we're sick of having giant supermarkets swoop in, ask for samples, and then rip us off.
'We're good people working hard to make something we're proud of. We love what we do. We find joy in helping people to eat better. Bad sportsmanship from big players means that it's increasingly difficult to do.'
Sublime Butter concluded the post by urging Sainsbury's to develop 'original' products in the future, writing, 'Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so thank you. But also: stop and think.
'Take the £££s you've spent copying us and make something original. Go out on a limb.
'All these supermarket price wars and you've all forgotten the one true basis of any good brand: stand for something. Then, maybe you won't have to stoop to following in other people's wake.'
A Sainsbury's spokesperson told MailOnline, 'There is no truth in these claims. We value our supplier relationships deeply - every supplier is an essential partner to our business and no matter their size or scale we are committed to fair treatment and trusted partnerships.
'We launched our Taste the Difference flavoured butter range in response to growing customer demand for more flavourful butter and joined several other retailers with launches in this category, based on customer insights and following well-established flavour trends in the market.
'Our own label product development process operates entirely separately and the team has no contact or discussion with suppliers over the brands we stock.'
It comes after Aldi encountered dupe allegations after an independent company accused the supermarket giant of ripping off its product last year.
Joe Moruzzi, managing director of Surrey-based brand Pleese, claimed the supermarket giant had designed a dupe of his brand Freezecakes.
Taking to Instagram the the dessert company shared a clip saying Aldi even 'had the cheek' to call their dupe the same name, just dropping the 's' and used its slogan, 'It's not ice cream', which Pleese claims it has trademarked.
Freezecakes, available in Waitrose, Co-op and Consort Frozen Foods, are frozen cheesecakes in a tub, made from 40 percent cream cheese with flavoured sauces and biscuit pieces.
FEMAIL understands the product is not currently on sale in Aldi and the supermarket giant was in touch with Pleese.
Joe claimed that he was alerted to the Aldi product when customers sent them photos via social media.
Commenting on a picture of a very similar cheesecake product found in Aldi, which was shared by uknewestfoods on Instagram, one person said, 'The nerve! Freezecakes are an amazing little company. Get f**** Aldi.'
Another wrote, 'Oh that is so naughty to rip off a new fledgling company, I supported you with the Colin/Cuthbert cake, but this is low! Very disappointed in you!'
Meanwhile, another said, 'This is not cool at all. Ripping off a small business so blatantly, make sure you pick up the original, and best from @freezecakes'
Speaking to FEMAIL, Pleese boss Joe said, 'Initially I thought great, the frozen dessert category is growing, I then looked closer and saw Freezecakes and 'it's not ice cream', two names and phrases we use and have trademarked. They're also exactly the same flavours.
'We're all about growing the category, but when large companies just copy tiny companies like for like it's disheartening for us and potentially off putting for new entrepreneurs.
'We're here to stand up for small businesses and I hope this is a note to encourage any copycat ideas to be less intrusive and detrimental to small brands that have worked so hard and made many sacrifices to get to where they are.'
A Pleese employee took to Instagram to address the controversy saying, 'For those that don't know us, we are Pleese and we had to concept for a Cheesecake dessert that could be eaten like ice cream back in 2017.
'We started making overload cheesecakes which were loved by all, and we even made one for The Queen.
'Fast forward to 2020, we finally had the concept of creating a frozen cheesecake that could be eaten like ice cream from a tub, layers of cheesecake with biscuit chunks, fancy inclusions and sauces, we sold these via our website.
'Three years later we finally launched in the supermarkets and we were over the moon as we are still a startup brand with less the five employees. '
After receiving snaps of the dupe from their loyal followers on social media the Pleese team said they had a feeling it was going to happen.
They said: 'Products get duped all the time, but we are the little guys, we are not a massive company with thousands of staff. 18 months ago we were still making this product by hand in a little kitchen in Redhill.
'The thing that got us was the name, Freezecake, not Freezecakes with an S, singular, that and 'it's not ice cream' which is trademarked by us, is featured on their tub.
The brand said they refuse to be 'bullied' and want to 'raise awareness' for all the small brands this is happening to.
FEMAIL understands the product is not currently on sale in Aldi stores.
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