It is the fastest growing traditional supermarket in the UK, but its impressive growth has come from challenging the norm.
Hoping to beat previous years’ holiday sales, the chain has introduced a number of new and innovative products to attract customers.
However, there’s one that might catch your eye: a Baked Burrata with Ciabatta and Nduja Crumbs from the £7 M&S Collection.
Speaking on ITV’s Inside M&S at Christmas, which airs at 9pm on Wednesday, product developer Kathryn said: “We have to constantly innovate because our customers expect us, but also because, unfortunately, they copy us a lot.” .
So, Kathryn tasked her team with designing an item that customers had never seen before, sparking the idea for hot baked burrata, which is an Italian cow’s milk cheese made with mozzarella and cream.
‘When I first heard about spicy burrata I pricked up my ears because we started with the hot cheese in M&S many, many years ago, and we sell a huge amount.
‘The two key ingredients in our hot burrata are our burrata, a delicious Italian cheese, and the other is nduja, which is a spicy Calabrian sausage paste. You put it in the oven and dip it, it’s absolutely delicious.”
While his team was sure the product was tasty, they faced the challenge of winning over Italian suppliers with their new idea.
Marks and Spencer’s has gone against Italian tradition and introduced a hot baked burrata (pictured)
In August, food technologist Amy and product developer Penny flew to Puglia, Italy, to source ingredients, with December just three months away.
“As far as I know, no Italian cooks their burrata, hopefully they won’t object and kick us out of Italy as a result,” Penny said.
The couple met with food supplier Roberta, whose factory produces 400,000 cheese balls every day.
Although Roberta was baffled by the team’s idea of baking the cheese, she agreed to supply the amount of burrata needed for the new product over the Christmas period.
The team then packed up the nduja and traveled to an organic farm that houses a special black pig, which grows at a slower rate than white pigs to ensure leaner meat.
After securing each ingredient for the new dish, the moment of truth arrived: for the Italian farmer to try the unconventional version of a cheese that has been around in Italy since the 1920s.
The new £7 product is in the M&S collection and includes nduja, ciabatta crumbles and burrata.
But the M&S team could breathe a sigh of relief when the farmer exclaimed “woah”, indicating the cheese had his seal of approval.
In addition to hot cheese, the supermarket also introduced a Christmas fried chicken sandwich, a Christmas tradition in Japan, as well as animated packaging and mulled white wine.
The team at M&S hope a white wine version of the drink will be a big hit with shoppers.
The supermarket chain hopes to capitalize on the changing taste for wine in Britain and the influence of German Christmas markets that have sprung up in dozens of UK towns and cities in recent years.
Maddie Love, product developer at M&S Food, said she hoped “its lighter, fruitier notes will appeal to those who prefer a more delicate flavor profile”.
Many within the industry believe that Love and his employees could have struck gold with this idea.
Amber Gardner, one of London’s leading sommeliers and wine buyers, said the guardian: ‘They don’t want to be overwhelmed by heavy, oaky and often alcoholic reds, so they are increasingly turning to white wine.
‘As we all know, mulled wine can be sickly and cloying, so I think mulled wine should already be a nouvelle vague. “I can see a white version doing very well in the coming years.”
While it was the Romans who began drinking mulled wine in winter, the concept that became a Christmas tradition in Britain dates back to the Victorian era.
Mulled white wine is by no means a new creation, but it will certainly be a very modern phenomenon in the UK.
M&S product developer Rhys Cook (pictured) has developed a new moving Christmas chocolate box
Roisin Clegg (pictured) developed the supermarket’s new Christmas sandwich, which includes fried chicken.
The M&S product is inspired by the glühwein found at Christmas markets in Germany and Austria.
The Berlin Weihnachtsmärkte are especially famous for white glühwein and its flavored varieties.
Britons have been introduced to the drink in recent years thanks to the growth in popularity of European-style Christmas markets.
Sommelier Honey Spencer believes this country’s desire for more white wine is due to our dietary shift towards plant-based dishes and ferments that pair better with the drink.
The restaurant owner also believes that mulled white wine will be used to preserve alcohol on the table during the Christmas holidays.
Skin contact wine, also known as orange wine, has also become incredibly popular in the last year – sales of the product have increased by 99 per cent in the UK over the last year.
Skin contact refers to the amount of time the grape skin is in contact with the fruit juice during winemaking.
Mrs Spencer said: “The only constant change is that people drink less alcohol, especially young people.” Although I would add that a mulled wine in contact with the skin could be a more intuitive and reactive product to introduce, as this is really the category of wine that is experiencing growth.’
The supermarket has introduced several new features to attract customers during the Christmas period
It comes after Marks & Spencer unveiled its brilliant Christmas advert for 2024, featuring a Britain’s Got Talent star and a sensational dance number.
The British supermarket has already released a food advert featuring the return of Dawn French’s fairy from last year and has now shown clothing and home deals.
The 90-second advert, which features Skylar Blu from Britain’s Got Talent season 15, aims to tell the Christmas story “through the eyes of a child”.
It shows Skylar bringing her family together in unexpected ways and bringing the holiday spirit into her home, all to the catchy backing track of ‘I Believe In Miracles’ by the Jackson Sisters.
At the beginning of the video, 10-year-old Skylar appears subdued as she sits among her family, with no prospect of snow.
After seeing a snowball across the room and picking it up, something magical begins to happen as hundreds of balls cascade down the stairs.
The magic continues as she continues to spin it, and her entire house appears to turn into a snowball that moves upside down.
Her family manages to defy gravity while performing a sensational dance number in the moving house, with snow swirling around the room after all.
In the end, they all embody the same contagious energy as the young woman and, with her family, are having the time of their lives. The story ends with the title: ‘Christmas begins here.’
Skylar appeared on BGT series 15 in 2022 when she was just seven years old with her impressive dancing skills.
Anna Braithwaite, marketing director for home and clothing at M&S, said: ‘For many of our customers, Christmas is one of the biggest events on the calendar, a time for the whole family to look forward to, come together and create lasting memories.
‘The festive season instils a sense of hope, wonder and joy and this year we are taking a playful approach by adding a bit of whimsy to our Christmas campaign.
“We have long been known for bringing the magic and sparkle of Christmas to our customers and this season, through our campaign, we are showcasing the best of M&S, with exceptional quality, stylish clothing and innovative, thoughtful and fun gifts, all at a great value.’
ITV’S Inside M&S at Christmas airs on Wednesday at 9pm