Products

During the summer season IPL sources 100% of its leafy range from UK growers, spread across the country to ensure the freshest possible product reaches our stores in the shortest possible time. Our growers stretch from the South Coast up to Fife in Scotland.

During winter we source directly from a number of specially selected growers in Spain. Our country office ensures that all product leaving their country is of the highest possible standard. Our range consists of all lettuce and celery types

IPL's Direct Sourcing team manages the sourcing, procurement and supply chain for Asda's chilled Pate range. The range consists of up to 26 lines (including Christmas) with a wide selection of recipes from the basic Smart Price Brussels and core Asda Brand Ardennes through to the Extra Special Chicken Liver Parfait.

Belgium is the home of Pate and the majority of the range is produced in Belgium with a small volume produced in the Czech Republic. Our Direct Sourcing team works closely with Asda's trading and technical functions and the product manufacturers to deliver an industry leading, safe and cost effective supply chain which in turn delivers a compelling and value for money Pate range to Asda customers

Currently IPL has 3 pineapple lines in the business. The conventional offer is made up of 2 lines - Giant, count 6 and standard count 9. We use the popular MD2 pineapple variety for all of our pineapples.

Our main country of origin for pineapples all year round is Costa Rica however we are continuously investigating new varieties and sources to ensure we deliver the best eating pineapple to the Asda customer.

IPL also has 1 Fair Trade count 8 pineapple line which is sourced from Ghana. With a dedicated technical team based in Costa Rica we are fully equipped to ensure that that we always deliver the best quality pineapples.

Contrary to popular belief, pulling the leaves out of the tops of pineapples is not a way to tell if they are ripe!!

IPL works closely with growers, seed companies and laboratories to develop the right variety of melon to suit the various countries of production and ultimately our customers’ needs.

We supply Yellow Melons, Watermelons, Cantaloupe, Galias and Piel de Sapo as whole fruit but also provide the option of quarter and half melons.

We have dedicated technical teams in all countries of origin - Spain, Costa Rica, Brazil and Italy to ensure we always deliver the best quality to our customers.

IPL works directly with UK and Dutch growers during the summer season. Our UK grower base ranges from the South Coast up to Humberside. During the winter we source directly from Spain, Israel and Egypt to ensure we have a consistent supply of the best quality peppers at all time.

We offer everything from Smart Price up to our specially selected Extra Special range

IPL's Direct Sourcing team manages the sourcing, procurement and supply chain for Asda's hard and soft Italian Cheese range. The range consists of up to 20 lines with a wide range of varieties from 5 variants of Mozzarella to 10 different types of Parmigiano Reggiano (also known as Parmesan) to a range of softer cheeses such as Gorgonzola, Ricotta and the Extra Special Torta Dolceitalia.

Italy is the home of Mozzarella and Parmesan manufacture with the majority of the range being produced in the Reggio Emilia and Novara regions. The Direct Sourcing team works closely with Asda's trading and technical functions and the product manufacturers to deliver an industry leading, safe and cost effective supply chain which in turn delivers a compelling and value for money Cheese range to Asda customers

IPL is the largest importer of grapes in the UK market. Our aim is to constantly offer the Asda customer a multitude of choice within the grape category. The preferred varieties readily available for the customer are Thompson, Sugraone, Flame, Crimson and Autumn Royal.

There are lots of new varieties on the horizon making it an exciting time within the world of grapes. We source directly from 15 countries worldwide with stringent quality specifications undertaken at each step. Value is also of the utmost importance to the procurement team and of course this value can inevitably be passed back to the customer through our direct supply chain management

Our range of tomatoes covers everything from the Classic Round Salad tomato up to our specially selected Extra Special range, whether you want them just plain loose or left on the vine for extra maturity and sweetness.

We work very closely with dedicated growers to ensure that only the best eating varieties go into our packs and constantly look for new varieties to see where we can improve. We work with a group of specially selected growers from the UK. When we have to import from Spain, Holland, Morocco or Israel, our country offices ensure that only the best quality gets to our shelves

IPL's Direct Sourcing team manages the sourcing, procurement and supply chain for Asda's own label Italian Filled Pasta range. The range consists of 16 lines with a wide range of recipes from the traditional Spinach and Ricotta Tortelloni and Tomato and Mozzarella Tortellini to the more adventurous Porcini Mushroom and Ricotta Ravioli.

Italy is the home of chilled Pasta manufacture with the Asda range being produced in the Verona region. The Direct Sourcing team works closely with Asda's trading and technical functions and the product manufacturers to deliver an industry leading, safe and cost effective supply chain which in turn delivers a compelling and value for money Filled Pasta range to Asda customers

IPL currently source a number of Vegetables for Asda including Sweet Potato, Butternut Squash and Broccoli.

Through working directly with over a dozen strong growers across at least 7 countries worldwide (both hemispheres) we are able to offer a number of varieties of each product almost all year around*.

Sweet Potatoes Countries: USA, Israel, South Africa, Honduras. Varieties: Covington, Georgia Jet, Beauregard.

Butternut Squash Countries: Portugal, Greece, South Africa. Varieties: Waltham, Ultra, Pluto.

Broccoli Country: Spain (*season November to June). Varieties: Parthenon, Monaco, Naxon, Eraclio, Granel.

IPL aims to create a worldwide, year round supply of Kiwi fruit, through working with existing suppliers, as well as developing new opportunities and partnerships.

We source Kiwi from Europe (Italy/Greece/Portugal) as well as Chile and New Zealand to be able to deliver a broad range of product to suit all our customers’ needs. Through optimising our extensive supply chain management we can offer our customers excellent quality and freshness.

The main variety of Kiwi is Hayward, which is available all year round and has a brown, hairy outer skin with a sweet green flesh, and small black seeds. Gold Kiwi has a similar outer texture but is slightly lighter than Hayward and its flesh is golden with a sweeter more tropical taste, this variety is only available at certain times of the year.

IPL primarily source Loose/Garden Gang and Smart Price bananas from Colombia/Costa Rica and a small amount from West Africa. The bananas are then taken to the UK where great care is taken to ripen the fruit to the correct colour, ensuring maximum flavour and best eating texture.

Within the IPL team there are over 100 years of experience in dealing with and ripening bananas.

IPL sources all varieties of berries for Asda (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries etc). We offer one of the widest varietal selections on the high street by working with a large selection of growers and varietal developers around the world.

Working directly with over 70 different growers in 10+ countries, we have a team of UK soft fruit traders with over 50 years experience between them. We also have dedicated teams in our sourcing countries. We are continually exploring new and different areas and regions to source from in order to improve our route to market to deliver fresher and better tasting product for the customer.

Following our success in other product areas, IPL has recently set up a new team to manage the direct sourcing and bottling for Asda’s wine category. This dedicated team aim to establish direct relationships with a large selection of growers and exporters from around the world and manage inbound flow to service the Asda wine requirements. The model allows Asda greater control over the quality of range through In-country resource to oversee export of wine whether packed at origin or in bulk format.

The IPL wine operation also includes a UK packaging facility to avoid shipping glass around the world and has rail links to feed bulk supply direct from port. This not only gives cost benefit to sustain retail price strategy but a significant reduction in Carbon usage. We are continually exploring new and different areas and regions to source from in order to improve our route to market to deliver enhanced value and better tasting product for the customer.