Customers will still be able to buy French's ketchup made with Ontario-grown tomatoes at Loblaws, after the grocery chain reversed its decision to drop the brand from its product offerings.

Kevin Groh, Loblaw vice president of corporate affairs and communication, confirmed on Tuesday that the chain will re-stock French's.

"We've heard our Loblaws customers. We will re-stock French's ketchup and hope that the enthusiasm we are seeing in the media and on social media translates into sales of the product," he said in the statement. "We will work with French's to make sure we are in-stock as soon as possible."

Customers had criticized the company on social media for dropping the ketchup, which is made from tomatoes grown in Leamington, Ont. The company said on Twitter, that it had dropped the brand due to “low sales and demand."

The push to support French's came to a head after an Ontario man wrote a Facebook post in support of the company last month.

Brian Fernandez posted a photo of a French's ketchup bottle on his Facebook page on Feb. 23, noting that he and his family bought a bottle and "absolutely love it." The ketchup is made with tomatoes grown in Leamington, and part of the tomato production is based in a local plant that once belonged to Heinz.

Heinz closed the plant in 2014, and about 705 jobs were lost as a result.

Then French's – a company better known to many for its mustard -- started making ketchup, and decided to use tomatoes grown in the surrounding southwestern Ontario region.

Fernandez took note of this in his post, and also praised the taste of the French's brand.

"The result: A ketchup … free of preservatives. Free of artificial flavours. Also, free of high fructose corn syrup!! We bought a bottle. Absolutely love it!! Bye. Bye. Heinz," he wrote. His photo quickly went viral, being shared more than 130,000 times.

He's not the only one who is showing support for the brand. Last week, Ontario MPP Taras Natyshak presented a petition calling for French's to be served at the Ontario legislature.

'Not unusual'

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at the University of Guelph's department of marketing and consumer studies, says that the decision to drop French's ketchup from Loblaws' shelves is typical of the types of decisions grocery stores have to make all the time.

"Real estate is very expensive within a store, so they have to replace a product that doesn't really sell very well with a product that will sell very well," he told CTV News Channel, noting that most groceries stock an average of 47,000 products on their shelves.

"It's not unusual to see those kinds of decision actually happen in the grocery business."

However, this case shows just how "powerful" consumers can be, especially with the help of social media, he said.

Consumers are starting to realize that supporting locally-grown foods can extend beyond local markets, and impact food processing systems, Charlebois said.

"People are more aware and more willing to make a difference as consumers, when they walk into a grocery store, they're asking more questions and looking at more labels," he said, adding that he expects to see more of these kinds of campaigns in the future.

Tony Chapman, a retail analyst from Tony Chapmans Reactions, said the case of the ketchup shows that consumers are willing to buy "beyond immediate gratification" and support Canadian-grown products.

"They’re willing to say, 'This matters. This matters to me; this matter to local communities in Canada,'" he said.

"I think that's a big telling sign that every food manufacturer and every food retailer in Canada should pay attention to."