Keywords

There is a paucity of evidence on what implementation strategies can enhance the uptake of empirical evidence into food retail practice for public health gain.We found through evaluation of a multi-store food retail intervention randomised controlled trial that implementation was influenced by multiple contextual factors internal and external to the food retail organisation, the individual characteristics of food retailers, the processes in place to engage and support the food retailers, and the co-designed fit-for-context intervention.These findings contribute to recognised gaps in the literature, including what implementation strategies may support effective adoption of food retail public health interventions and how these may differ for different contexts.Readiness to adopt health-enabling food retail interventions by retail businesses, in a context of limited or no public policy to restrict the promotion of unhealthy food, may more readily occur where there is a strong sense of social purpose.