Waitrose to buy Prince Charles food range

The Waitrose supermarket chain is to buy up Prince Charles's organic food range, Duchy Originals, in a bid to keep the underperforming maker of jams, biscuits and hams afloat during the recession.

The brand has seen its profits drop 70 per cent as consumers tighten their belts and last year it was unable to make any contribution to the Prince's Charities Foundation which owns it. In 2007, before the banks got into trouble, it was able to pay £740,000.

Waitrose is already the biggest outlet for the organic range and would become the brand's sole retailer as part of the deal. It would also take over production duties and move Duchy's head office from Richmond to its HQ in Bracknell, Berkshire. Because of its charitable status, the outright acquisition of Duchy Originals is unlikely.

Having made the decision, Waitrose bosses will not have been thrilled to read today's report that organically produced food is no better for you than any other type. According to the Food Standards Agency, organic produce has no more nutritional value than factory-farmed meat or fruit and vegetables grown using chemical fertilisers.

However, the brand, launched by Prince Charles in 1990, helped popularise organic food and now has more than 200 products, despite falling on hard times because of the recession. As well as sweet and savoury biscuits, free-range meats and a range of wine, it has branched out into shampoo and gardening equipment. Earlier this month the pop-star-turned-cheesemaker Alex James of Blur was recruited to create a cheese from half-a-million litres of organic milk from the Highgrove Estate.

Earlier this year Prince Charles was accused of exploiting the public by launching a "dodgy" detox mix. Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary medicine, said the Duchy Originals detox tincture was based on "outright quackery".