Aug 12 2010 --- Sainsbury's is to become the first retailer in the UK to launch a full range of milk bags, following bumper sales of the industry-leading semi-skimmed milk bag. Milk is one of Sainsbury's biggest selling lines and could finally bring to an end to the 130 year reign of the milk bottle.

Customers have lapped-up the milk bags, buying twice as many as the supermarket originally predicted. Shoppers now buy 120,000 semi-skimmed milk bags per week - which is one in every ten 2 pint semi-skimmed units sold. Sainsbury's expects this figure to double following the expansion.

'Whole' milk bags have launched, while skimmed and 1% fat milk bags will launch in June 2011.

Emma Metcalf King, Sainsbury's senior dairy buyer said: "This is the biggest change to occur to the nation's shopping habits for at least a decade.

"The familiar clink of the glass milk bottle could finally become a thing of the past."

Twice as many customers will now be able to save plastic and money because milk bags use 75% less packaging than standard plastic bottles and costs less.

Compared to an equivalent two pint plastic bottle, milk in a bag costs at least six pence less because it uses 75% less packaging and is cheaper to produce. The cost of a 2 pint milk bag is 80p while a 2 pint milk carton costs 86p.

Customers switching to bags could save up to 1,400,000 kg of packaging every year. Sainsbury's began selling milk bags in all of its supermarkets in February 2010 to help meet its target to reduce packaging by a third by 2015.

To meet customer demand for milk bags, Sainsbury's and its supplier, Dairy Crest have invested over £2.2million in a new processing plant at its site in Gloucestershire. The expansion has also created 20 new jobs.

Milk sold in bags is already a regular choice for 60% of consumers in Canada, Poland, South Africa and China.

Emma continued: "We've been blown away by the positive response. Sales are so good we are now investing in new processing plant to keep up with demand.

"Rather than being wary of new packaging, customers have lapped-up the bags.

"We've expanded the milk bag range to all varieties to enable more customers to save plastic and money.

"Customers will be able to buy whole milk bags from today and skimmed and 1% fat milk bags in June next year.

"Milk bags in all fat varieties are already a regular choice for 60% of consumers in Canada, Poland, South Africa and China and we believe they will be just as popular in the UK."

Sainsbury's milk bags are designed to fit easily into a re-useable jug - the retailer gave away over half a million of the jugs to its customers in April and now sells over 4,000 jugs per week which shows the products popularity continues to grow.

Today's familiar plastic screw top milk bottles were introduced in the early 1990s. Glass bottles were dominant until the early 1970, before losing favour to milk in cartons. Milk is one of Sainsbury's biggest selling lines - customers bought over 785 million pints last year.

Bottles have been the preferred milk container in Britain since 1880 when they were introduced by the Express Dairy Company. For the next 70 years, the clink of glass milk bottles being delivered became a familiar morning sound for households across the UK.