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 Market News - January/February 2008  |
Market News Topco Offers Food Rating Guide The store-brand buying cooperative, Topco Associates, Skokie, IL, will begin offering its supermarket members the ability to rate the nutritional quality of the groceries they sell in their stores. The new food scoring system was developed by a group of nutrition scientists led by Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, located in Derby, CT. The system allows for at-a-glance comparison of foods on the basis of overall nutritional quality. The new system–Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI)–uses a simple numeric score to rate any food item or recipe, enabling consumers to make choices based on an unbiased assessment of a food’s nutritional value. The ONQI system will be available to Topco members beginning in the second half of 2008. ONQI uses an algorithm that incorporates 30 nutrient factors with favorable and unfavorable health effects including antioxidants, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, protein, sugar, and vitamins. ONQI scores are expressed on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the healthiest. ONQI scores will initially appear on selected Topco private brands. Along with the index score, Topco is also providing key nutritional facts such as fat free, whole grains, and a good source of fiber as shown on packaging for Full Circle Multigrain Flakes appearing in the accompanying photo. In addition to–or in lieu of–being incorporated into food labels, grocers can put the ONQI scores on store shelves next to the price information. Hannaford Licenses Guiding Star System Scarborough, ME, based Hannaford Supermarkets plans to license its Guiding Stars nutritional system to other retailers. The system rates the nutritional value of the approximately 26,000 food products that Hannaford carries in its stores. The Hannaford program awards one, two or three stars to foods rated to be good, better, or best in terms of nutritional quality. Only about 30% percent of food products in Hannaford stores qualify for at least one star–meaning that about 70% of the rated foods did not receive any stars. Hannaford introduced its Guiding Star program in November 2006, which subsequently has been adopted by its Delhaize America sister banners, Food Lion, Salisbury, NC, Sweetbay stores, Tampa, FL. Hannaford recruited a seven-member advisory panel of nutrition scientists to develop its formula for evaluating the healthiness of food. The formula is based on an algorithm that evaluates a 100-calorie serving of each product using the information provided on the Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient list provided on product labels. A product receives credit for healthy ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and whole grains but loses points for unhealthy ingredients such as trans fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar. E.W. Williams Supports Military Families E.W. Williams Publications Co., parent company of Private Label magazine, has received recognition from the Army National Guard for its “outstanding service toward the families of the deployed soldiers of the 50th Main Support Battalion, based in Teaneck, NJ. The 50th Battalion is currently serving in Iraq. Private Label supports these military families by donating the shelf-stable groceries, health and beauty care, and household products that it purchases to photograph for use in each issue’s Category Close-Ups and feature articles The employees of E.W. Williams Publications are pleased to support the families of American troops serving overseas. Wal-Mart Takes on Tesco According to reports in the Financial Times, Wal-Mart will take on Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Neighborhood markets by opening small format grocery stores under the Marketside banner in Arizona. The new logo, filed in planning documents in Arizona and consisting of green lettering with a stylized tomato, egg and grape topped by a Wal-Mart blue star, suggests the format will–like Tesco’s Fresh & Easy–have a far stronger stress on fresh foods. The retailer has also registered a number of new trade names in recent months, such as City Thyme and Field & Vine, which some industry analysts believe could be used for new private label fresh-food offerings. Safeway Promotes Healthy Eating In order to encourage healthy eating, Safeway, Pleasanton, CA, is promoting its Eating Right PL range through a website (www.eatingright.safeway.com) dedicated to informing consumers how its Eating Right line can help them eat right. The website offers consumers a variety of tips on which foods are the healthiest and why. The site also helps shoppers determine their specific dietary needs and which items from the Eating Right line may meet them. The Eating Right range includes over 150 foods and can only be found at Safeway. Safeway Globally Expands O Organics Safeway has begun selling its private label organic food products to stores in Asia operated by Carrefour, the French supermarket group, as part of an unprecedented push by a retailer to create a global private brand. Safeway launched its O Organics range of organic food products a little over 18 months ago at its 1,700 US stores, as part of an effort to respond to the successes of Whole Foods Market, the largest US natural and organics supermarket. Safeway told analysts last month it had reached an agreement with Sysco, the US food distributor, to market the line to restaurants in northern California. It said it would also start selling O Organics through distribution partnerships in both Latin America and Asia, including both dry groceries and fresh foods and dairy. The product line has extended to more than 300 items, ranging from fresh eggs to canned tomatoes, with sales in 2007 estimated at $305m, up from $164m in the first year, making it the second biggest organic brand in the U.S. behind Whole Foods’ 365 brand Supervalu Consolidates its PL StarTribune.com recently reported that Supervalu has implemented a new test kitchen at its Eden Praire, MN headquarters. The test kitchen’s main purpose is to insure that its products are of the highest quality. The eliminations mean tests on a variety of store brand versions of national products ranging from canned vegetables to foam cups, vitamins to whiskey. Ryan Briggs, Supervalu’s director of product development, said that the result should be a slimmed-down catalog of 20-25 private labels. Food Network’s Successful Debut Kohl’s reports that its new licensed store brand, the Food Network home goods line, is exceeding the retailer’s sales projections. Kevin Mansell, president, told Wall Street analysts that he was “extremely pleased” with the initial sales results. The Food Network range, which debuted in September, encompasses a broad range of categories including cookware, dinnerware, gadgets and cutlery. Tengelmann A&P Revamps Pathmark Alongside the release of third quarter results earlier this week, A&P, Montvale, NJ, executives said that they are taking advantage of their purchase of Pathmark to “refresh” the latter’s “Plain Jane” stores and create a new combined private label program, reports Planetretail.com). Although chief executive Eric Claus noted that the Pathmark stores were not in as bad condition as the pre-renovation A&P locations a few years ago, he characterized them “a little Plain Jane,” explaining that they were in need of a facelift. The exact number of stores to be remodeled has not been determined yet, but Claus said he hoped all of them would be revamped in the next three years. Archer Farms Cuts Trans Fats Target Corp., Minneapolis, MN, recently announced that it would eliminate trans fats from its Archer Farms private label grocery line. The company said Archer Farms, which includes more than 2,000 items, will be the first national brand to eliminate trans fats from its entire portfolio. Target Launches DwellStudio Line Target recently announced the debut of DwellStudio for Target. DwellStudio is touted as one of the country’s leading modern home furnishing companies. DwellStudio for Target a new home and baby collection, and is comprised of bed linens for adults and nurseries, nursery furniture, baby layette and a variety of accessories for the kitchen and table. Christiane Lemieux founded DwellStudio in 1999 in order to bring modern textile design to the home. The DwellStudio for Target baby collection is now available, and the home collection will be available in February. Prices for the home collection range from $2.99 for a napkin to $99.99 for a king-sized comforter mini set. The baby line prices range from $2.99 for a pair of booties to $79.99 for a three-piece crib set. The furniture ranges in price from $99.99 for an ottoman to $299.99 for a crib. Simultaneously, Target will be discontinuing the Isaac Mizrahi for Target line. Isacc Mizrahi is the designer who helped create the image of Target as a style destination by designing ‘cheap-chic’ clothing. Mizrahi will be taking on the role of making over the struggling Liz Claiborne label. The Isaac Mizrahi for Target collection made its debut in 2003 with a line of women's apparel, accessories and shoes. It will continue to be available exclusively in select Target stores and at Target.com through the end of 2008. HBA Spring Conference While savvy consumers with increasingly sophisticated needs continue to raise the bar on the ingredients going into the bottle, brand marketers are trying to keep pace with the latest innovations in packaging design that will make these very same consumers identify with the bottle itself, and thus, the brand. Both of these powerful industry trends will be addressed in tandem during the HBA Spring Conference, March 4-5, 2008, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, in a dual program: Achieving Well-Being: The New Paradigm and International Prestige Package & Design. Sessions of interest to private label retailers and manufacturers include “The Psychology of Shopping: Getting your Retail Product Off the Shelf,” by Gregory L. Feinberg, president of Aisle 9 and “The Power of Packaging in An Open-Sell Environment,” by Allison Slater, VP of retail marketing, Sephora. For more information on the HBA Spring Conference, visit www.hbaexpo.com/spring-conference.htm APPOINTMENTS Sinclair Named EVP Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. recently announced that Jack Sinclair has been named executive vice president of grocery merchandise for Wal-Mart in the U.S. Sinclair will oversee the grocery business for Wal-Mart’s U.S. division and will integrate planning, category management and store experience into the overall grocery business unit. Wal-Mart’s store brand grocery business includes the premium Sam’s Choice, and first-quality Great Value lines. Sinclair joins Wal-Mart with extensive experience in grocery retailing in the United Kingdom. He spent 14 years at Safeway plc serving as marketing and trading director and prior to that he worked at Tesco Stores Ltd. Wal-Mart currently operates in 13 countries outside of the U.S. Letter to Editor Dear Private Label Editors: In fiscal 2006, Unified Western Grocers annual sales volume was $2.95 billion, as evidenced by our annual report and 10-K www.uwgrocers.com/CS2000/News/default.htm. This would put our company 61st on your November/December 2007 list. On Sept. 30, 2007, we acquired Associate Grocers, Seattle. That would move us up to 50th on your list. We were surprised that you did not include our 86-year-old company in your recent Top 100 article and rankings in PL Nov/Dec 2007 issue. Please Advise. Thomas P. Schaffner, Editor’s Response: Thank you for your feedback on our Nov-Dec 2007 issue. We apologize for our oversight in not including your fine company in our recent Top 100 Ranking. We will be sure to include United Western Grocers in our next Retailer/Wholesaler Ranking. |