Marks & Spencer has unveiled a limited-edition Chocolate, Strawberry & Pistachio Creme Sandwich, looking to recapture last summer’s viral success of its strawberry & creme sweet sandwich.
The retailer’s latest food-to-go innovation was made possible by a £900k investment from long-term supplier partner Greencore in a dedicated production facility which handles nuts and nut-based products at its ‘fortress factory’ in Northampton.
Launched at M&S Foodhalls yesterday (24 June), just in time for the 2026 Wimbledon tennis tournament, the sandwich (rsp: £3.50) features British strawberries with a layer of Fairtrade dark chocolate sauce on one side and roasted pistachio crème on the other, all served on cocoa-enriched bread.
It follows on from last year’s Red Diamond Strawberry & Creme Sandwich, which sold more than one million packs in just five weeks. Also produced by Greencore in Northampton, it has been brought back to chiller shelves for another summer season (rsp: £2.80).
Greencore opened its new dedicated nut site in January, designed to enable M&S food-to-go products containing nuts to be made safely, consistently, and at scale. In addition to the pistachio sandwich, the facility has also supported the recent launch of the M&S Bang Bang Chicken Wrap which includes peanuts in the filling.
M&S and Greencore are said to be also exploring further development opportunities in food-to-go ranges where nuts and nut-based ingredients could be used to improve flavour, texture, and innovation.
There are currently seven ‘fortress factories’ operating across the UK that supply exclusively to M&S. These include the Park Cakes site in Oldham, which houses a dedicated gluten-free bakery to make the Gluten-free Colin the Caterpillars rolled out earlier this year.
Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food, said the long-term supplier partnerships give the retailer the confidence and capability to keep innovating at pace. “Greencore’s dedicated nut production facility at Northampton is a great example of that partnership in action – creating new capability in one of our fortress factories and helping us bring distinctive, market-leading products like our Chocolate, Strawberry & Pistachio Creme Sandwich to customers,” he added.
Greencore Group CEO Dalton Philips said: “We invested in the capability, M&S brought the product vision, and the result is something customers are really going to love. I am so proud of what we have delivered together.”
On 16 January, Greencore completed an acquisition of Bakkavor, creating a food-to-go manufacturing behemoth with combined revenues of around £4bn. It subsequently reported double-digit volume growth of premium sandwiches during the first quarter of its latest financial year.
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