A VEGETABLE company based in Scotland has won a contract to supply potatoes to one of the biggest supermarket chains in the United States. Airdrie-based Albert Bartlett will see its red-skinned Rooster potatoes go on sale in Walmart stores in the autumn. Farmers in Colorado and in Houston, Texas, have been commissioned to grow the crops.

Television advertising campaigns in the UK starring flame-haired Desperate Housewives actress Marcia Cross helped boost profits for family-owned Albert Bartlett by 67.6 per cent in 2010 to £9.9 million. Tim Hammond, international development director for Albert Bartlett, said: “It’s very exciting. We saw a market opportunity for this type of potato and had the courage of our convictions to persuade the retailer.”