Loblaws to re-stock French’s ketchup after social media backlash

WINDSOR ? Canada’s largest grocer has yielded to public opinion and announced plans to return French’s ketchup to its shelves.

“We’ve heard our Loblaws customers,” company spokesman Kevin Groh said within an email.

“We’ll restock French’s ketchup and hope that the enthusiasm there has been in media and on social media means sales from 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 interest in Leamington tomatoes and also the devastating loss of the town’s Heinz plant – along with a new ketchup that’s helping to turn things around.

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The popularity of French’s ketchup soared following a man’s Facebook post lauded the U.S.-based company because of its commitment to 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 guarana plant in 2014, throwing 740 employees unemployed. The economical blow was softened when Highbury Canco, a consortium of three investors, bought the plant and restarted production on a smaller scale with a third from the workforce.

“Everybody’s transitioning to French’s ketchup due to 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 relevant video, which subsequently went viral, with 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 had been uploaded to Facebook.

“Unbelievable,” said the 45-year-old Toronto resident on Tuesday afternoon. “You know, I’ve never done anything such as this before. It’s online craziness.”

The video shows Romanelli ranting before a Loblaws store as he gestures with a bottle of French’s ketchup.

“I shopped at this Loblaws here twice a week during the last Ten years. I called them today and said, ‘We’re done – before you put French’s back in stock.’ Let’s do that, people. Proud to become Canadian.”

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Romanelli said he had not expected the video to spread so widely or Loblaws to respond so quickly, but he’s glad to have done his part for the Ontario farmers.

“The funny thing is, I don’t even like ketchup that much,” he said having a laugh. “But what I deeply love is Canadian workers.”

He isn’t alone. Plus a storm of complaints on social networking, Toronto-area MPP Mike Colle wrote to the president of Loblaws saying he was prepared to lead the boycott over the French’s ketchup.

“I think your organization makes an enormous miscalculation and underestimated the value that people put on supporting local foods and local jobs,” Colle wrote.



Leamington Mayor John Paterson had also planned on sending instructions to Loblaws until he learned of Tuesday’s reversal.

“This is a huge win for that consumer,” Paterson said. “It was their voices that made the change happen. And it is a really big win for the tomato growers here in Leamington and the surrounding area, and the Highbury Canco plant.”

French’s regular and flavoured ketchup use 100-per-cent Canadian-grown tomatoes, based on its website.

In February, an article by Brian Fernandez was shared more than 132,000 times and prompted part of the Ontario legislature to inquire about the Queen’s Park dining room and cafeteria to change to French’s ketchup.

Demand for French’s increased after the publicity. Fernandez later posted that a Zehrs in Orillia, Ont., sold out of 10 installments of the condiment on the same day it received them.

Windsor Star, with files in the Canadian Press