Tesco Says It's About Bloody Time for Diverse Skin Tone Plasters

Today, Tesco has announced that it has introduced a new range of fabric plasters that are available in three skin tones - light, medium and dark - to better represent the nation. This important step sees the new plasters go on sale in Tesco stores nationwide and online from today, February 24th, at a price of £1.

Tesco developed the plasters after a colleague spotted a now-viral Tweet, which described the emotional response one man had the first time he used a plaster that matched his skin tone. The Tweet prompted a flurry of comments from other Twitter users, highlighting how significant the issue of representative plaster tones is for those in Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. The product idea was quickly brought to the attention of senior members of the Tesco team and accelerated to launch.

The development of the new plasters was also supported by the ‘BAME at Tesco’ internal colleague network, who believe this is a real opportunity to make a difference in the lives of customers. The BAME at Tesco network aims to make a positive impact on colleagues and customers by raising awareness of diversity, culture and inclusion within Tesco. They contributed to the project by coordinating testing the product with colleagues and gathering feedback, as well as having a say in the final design of the product.

Tesco hopes this launch will encourage other supermarkets, and retailers, to follow suit and offer a more diverse range of plasters for their customers. 

Paulette Balson, chair of the BAME at Tesco network commented: “One of the main objectives of our network is to help Tesco better serve our customers from all backgrounds and communities. No UK supermarket had ever stocked plasters in a range of skin tones before and we saw this as an opportunity for Tesco to lead the charge and make a genuine difference. Through our research within the network, we know how emotive a product like this can be. For example, one colleague reported that their child had felt self-conscious wearing a plaster on their face to school recently, because it didn’t match their skin tone and stood out.”

Nicola Robinson, health, beauty and wellness director at Tesco commented: “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and we continually review our products and services to best meet their needs. As one of the largest retailers in the UK, we also understand that we have a responsibility to ensure our products reflect the diversity of our customers and colleagues. We believe the launch of our new skin tone plaster range is an important step and a move that we hope will be replicated by other retailers and supermarkets across the country.”