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McCambridge's has won the battle of the bread companies over how products are packaged.
It successfully argued that its competitor Brennan's had try to pass
off its whole grain wheat brown bread as McCambridge's.
McCambridge's has been making Irish stone ground whole wheat brown bread for nearly
fifty years now
but earlier this year its competitor Brennan's repackaged its brown bread using
a similar resealable bag.
McCambridge's argued that the packaging was so similar to theirs that shoppers
were buying it by mistake. Today the High Court agreed that similar packaging is
likely to confuse customers. People are time poor, are also financially poor at the moment,
but they are rushing to the supermarkets, making mistakes picking up
competing products. Not just in bread and McCambridge bread, but there is a lot of similarity across ranges.
Brennan's has denied that it was trying to pass off its bread as McCambridge's
and the packaging was sufficiently different. But the judge said that the
average shoper might easily pick up Brennan's product instead
of McCambridge's, because
of overall similarities on first impression and its position
on the shop shelf
Though she said she didn't believe the packaging was the deliberate move by
Brennan's to gain market share or to confuse the public. Brennan's breads wont be
taken off the supermarket's shelf immediately as both bread makers will have to
return to High Court next thursday to decide what action Brennan's can take
so their bread no longer looks like McCambridge's.
Diane Connor TV3 News