Supermarkets are ‘lazy’ for copying M&S brands, says Percy Pig mastermind

When Fabio’s Gelato owner Fabio Vincineti received a letter last month telling him to stop calling his latest ice cream flavour ‘Perky Pig’, he was surprised.

Prior to his homage to Mark & Spencer’s pink sweets, Vincineti had turned Marmite, Guinness and Brothers Cider into ice cream flavours without incident. Marmite in fact retweeted a picture of Vincineti’s love-it-or-hate-it ice cream.

But for M&S, the creation of “Perky Pig” hit a sore spot. The launch came just as M&S was stepping up a campaign against copycat versions of its best-selling products – most often Percy Pig and Colin the Caterpillar cake.

In a recent legal spat, the company took British sweets maker Swizzels to the High Court, claiming its “Pigs Mugs” sweets – first launched in 1996 – were “intended to be perceived by a significant proportion of the relevant public as mere imitations of Percy Pigs”, which were launched in 1992.

The pair reached a settlement earlier this month in which Swizzels agreed to change the design.

A spate of copycat versions of M&S’s products have been launched by rival supermarkets and brands over the years – moves that Julia Catton, the mastermind of the Percy Pigs line, calls “lazy”.

“My argument has always been, why can’t you do something different? There’s always a place for newness and consumers want it,” she told the Telegraph.  

M&S is not taking the assault lying down. The retailer is stepping up its defence of its brands as chief Stuart Machin seeks to revitalise the high street stalwart by getting both clothing and food sales growing at the same time. Early results suggest the plan is working.

Food has always been a strong performer for M&S and management’s attention has largely been focused on clothing. Yet it cannot afford to take its eye off the ball. Action such as the case against Swizzles is a sign that it is alert to threats.

M&S finds itself in trademark disputes more than other supermarkets because it has developed in-house brands that “rival supermarkets would die for,” says a grocery source.

The well-regarded own-brands are a legacy of the fact M&S only started selling branded products in its food stores in 2009.

For decades, it relied on designing its own unique products that could draw customers away from stores selling household names such as Heinz and Kellogg’s. It lent heavily on innovation, developing its own brands to draw in customers.

“Percy Pig is one of our ‘hero’ brands and we own trademarks to protect it,” the retailer said in a letter to Vincineti, sent the same day the ice cream went on sale. 

“We risk losing those trademarks (and more importantly to us, consumers will no longer be confident Percy Pig-branded products originate from M&S) if we do not take steps to stop others from using them without our permission.”

Ms Catton, who started her career as an M&S food developer and was the creator of its Percy Pigs line, says coming up with something new and different is key.

“At many of the supermarkets, it all becomes a lot of the same thing,” says Catton, now a consultant. “They’re all selling Cadbury’s, so the question is how you differentiate from Waitrose or Tesco.”

She says it is frustrating when other supermarkets launch their own, similar versions to M&S’s well-known characters.

Protecting its brands has only become harder with the expansion of Aldi, which is well known for developing its own products that look eerily similar to higher priced rivals.

M&S has accused the German discounter of launching knock-off versions of its “Colin the Caterpillar” cake and its Christmas glowing gin bottles. M&S reached a settlement deal with Aldi in the first case and won the second case. Aldi is appealing the light-up gin decision.

Rivals argue that cheaper versions of brands are in demand.

“When customers buy a different version, they’re consciously buying the cheap ones,” says one grocery source. If the demand is there, “then we’ll make a similar one to try to capture some of that market – and I think that’s perfectly reasonable and competitive.”

M&S has also been accused of copying ideas itself. Last year the retailer was accused of copying chocolate matches created by a small confectionery firm for Valentine’s Day. It ultimately partnered with the company and started selling the company’s chocolate matches in store.  

In 2021, the retailer faced criticism over a bacon naan recipe that was likened to a Dishoom recipe. It later urged Instagram followers to book tables at the restaurant group.

 “There’s no such thing as a new idea in retail,” says Ged Futter, a former buyer for Asda who is now a consultant. “Everybody is copying each other. Trends have got to come from somewhere.”

At Fabio’s Gelato, Vincineti rebranded his “Perky Pig” ice cream as “Henry Hippo” in homage to a similar sweet developed by Lidl.

“The funny thing is, the sweets taste just as good,” says Vincineti. “And they’re a lot cheaper.

“We normally make a couple of tubs for new ice cream flavours and once they’re sold out, they’re sold out. But the Henry Hippo ice cream is so popular that we’ve got it in there as a constant at the moment.

“We’re basically promoting Lidl’s products when we sell the ice cream – it’s all pretty clever from Lidl actually.”

A spokesman for M&S said the company has a “proud history as a leading innovator and for almost 140 years customers have turned to M&S for unique, original, quality products – conceived, created and developed by us working with our trusted suppliers and produced to the highest standards.

“Enormous time, passion, creativity, energy and attention to detail… goes into designing, developing and bringing a product to market and building its brand over many years.

“Our customers have confidence in our products because they trust our quality and sourcing standards so we will always seek to protect our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value.”