Market News

France Private Label Update ITM Launches New Alcohol PL

In France, ITM has launched a new private label called “On Off.” The range encompasses white alcohols and liquor such as vodka, gin, tequila and white rum. Liquors include So Mint, So Manzana, So Coco, So Litchi and So Mango Passion. Each bottle indicates whether the drink is strong, medium or light.

Auchan to Launch PLs for Simply Market

Auchan is about to launch a range of private labels for the Simply Market supermarkets. 20 products are expected to be launched in all product categories (food, health and beauty and non-food). The brand will progressively replace the Auchan brand, which is currently being retailed in Atac and Simply Market. There is no name as yet announced for the range.

Norma Launches Organic PL in France

In France, hard discounter Norma has launched an organic private label line named ‘être bio’ (be organic). The design is similar to Norma’s organic line ‘Bio Sonne’ offered in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. To promote the new line comprising milk, oils, eggs etc, Norma is offering several other organic products in a special weekly offer.

Carrefour Rolls-out Designer Clothes

According to local French press reports, Carrefour is due to launch its first collection of ready-to-wear ladies’ clothing designed by Max Azria. The Franco-US designer has been commissioned to produce 12 new ranges every year up until 2012 aimed at women, which constitute 77% of the group’s customers, in order to update the retailer’s Tex brand of clothing.

Carrefour to Sell 20% of Property

French supermarket chain, Carrefour, the world’s second biggest retailer behind Wal-Mart, recently announced that it plans to sell part of its real estate portfolio in an initial public offering, due to rising pressure from investors including French billionaire Bernard Arnault.

The French supermarket chain will sell a stake in Carrefour Property, a unit that owns 60% of Carrefour’s real estate, or 280 superstores and 540 smaller supermarkets in Europe.

The announcement comes more than five months after Arnault, the chairman of the fashion house Christian Dior, teamed up with Colony Capital, a U.S. real estate investment firm, to acquire almost 10 percent of Carrefour and work with the management to turn their investment into a large capital gain. The investors especially had their eyes on Carrefour’s real estate, valued at $24 billion, or $33 billion.

Carrefour said that the sale of a 20 percent stake in Carrefour Property was expected to raise about $3 billion. Combined with proceeds from divestments of stores in Portugal, Switzerland and other countries, it will help Carrefour to buy back as much as ?4.5 billion of its own stock.

UK Private Label Update Sainsbury’s Launches Low Alcohol Wine

In the UK, Sainsbury’s is launching a range of four lower alcohol wines in response to consumer demand. The retailer is branding the four wines “Ten%” because of their alcohol by volume content. Sainsbury’s wine buyer Julian Dyer said: “Our research shows that customers are put off by low alcohol wines due to their perceived poor quality and lack of taste. However, with new winemaking and growing techniques, we are now able to produce fantastic wines from several countries with a lower alcohol level with no compromise.”

In addition, Sainsbury’s has announced a plan to sell wine in recyclable plastic bottles as part of a trial. The retailer said the move will reduce carbon emissions by cutting the weight of wine packaging as a plastic bottle is one-eighth the weight of a regular 400g glass bottle. Sainbury’s will initially sell an own-label New Zealand sauvignon blanc and an Australian rose in the plastic bottles. The wine will be bottled in the UK, allowing nearly twice the amount of wine to be transported in each container. Barry Dick, product technologist for beers, wines and spirits at the supermarket said: “The new wine bottle looks exactly the same as a glass bottle, holds the same amount of liquid and doesn’t compromise the quality of the wine in any way.”

UK Supermarkets Succeed

Drinks Media Wire recently reported the 2007 International Wine Challenge (IWC) winners. The IWC is the world’s largest blind wine tasting competition. According the the report, of all the UK supermarkets, Tesco stocks the most medal winning wines (126) while Sainsbury’s claimed the most gold medals (13). Own brand gold medals from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and M&S include Tesco Finest Marlborough Pinot Noir 2005, Marks & Spencer Leitz Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck Riesling 2005 and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Pouilly Fume.

Boots Launches Kidswear E-commerce

Boots has launched a new website for its Mini Mode babywear range (minimode.co.uk) and is now selling the range online for the first time, as well as in over 300 Boots stores nationwide. The range of clothes and accessories is available from newborn to four years and includes low-birthweight outfits for premature babies. Molly ‘n’ Jack and JCB Junior clothes are also available on the site.

Whole Foods Lands in London

In June, Whole Foods Market, based in Austin Texas, USA, opened its first store in the UK. The new store is located in High Street Kensington, and covers 80,000 square feet making it the biggest of its kind in Europe and the largest food retailer in London. It already operates six Fresh & Wild stores across Britain and will use the Fresh & Easy name for its PL products.

“The opening of Whole Foods Market in London is a milestone for the company,” said Rick Bonin, Reginal Vice President, UK for Whole Foods Market. “We’re bringing together the collective creativity of our entire company, inspiration from around the globe, and the natural and exotic flavors from the UK.”

For more on Whole Foods Market in London, see story on page 28.

More Private Label Updates D&S Switches to Safeway for PLs

Safeway is to arrive in Chile via an agreement with D&S. The US-based group has been signed up to replace Canadian Loblaw’s private range President’s Choice. Late last year, Loblaw informed D&S that it would no longer be sending its products to serve as premium products in Chile due to a business reorganization.

Colruyt Rebrands Basic Line

Belgium-based Colruyt has rebranded its ‘Basic’ economy line with a new logo indicating that the product is the least expensive on the aisle. The new logo is more visible than the basic logo. Within each product category, Colruyt compares prices of these products with other similar products in the same category. Colruyt converts the price of each product into price per kilo, liter or piece. The least expensive product will then be stamped with the new logo.

Pantaloon Expands Private Labels

Local reports in India suggest that Pantaloon is expanding its Star and Sitara private label to include color cosmetics, hair colors, perfumes, deodorants for both men and women. Big Bazaar currently sells only nail paints under the Star and Sitara brand. In addition, there are also reports the company wants to set up 100 standalone Star and Sitara beauty saloons across the country.

Al Sadhan Expands Premium PL

Saudi Arabia, Riyadh-based Al Sadhan intends to bolster its private label range, which currently includes cooking oil under the Baraka label and cleaning products under the Lily banner, to compete with mainstream mid-to higher-end products, rather than with low cost items. It also hopes to make the products available outside its own stores and across the Middle East, according to Maher Assaf, Al Sadhan's private label manager. "More than 25 items are now available, and other items will be added," Assaf said. "This project was set up only six months ago to meet a growing need in the Saudi market for good quality grocery products at correspondingly good prices. It started with the idea to create a complete line of products for customers that are not only price conscious but also looking to satisfy their needs for high quality products. It was never about competing with the leading brand names already sold at Al Sadhan; instead our goal in creating these brands was to provide Al Sadhan customers with a wide variety of guaranteed quality items at very affordable costs,” explained Maher. Al-Sadhan also has a range of private labels for clothing, footwear, electronics and appliances, home goods and personal care products. The brands comprise: Bonito clothing and footwear for men, women, and children, Force tech for electronic appliances, Avenue for home goods, Baraka food grocery items and Lily home and personal care products.

Lidl Rolls-out Fairtrade PL in Netherlands

Lidl in the Netherlands has launched its international private label Fairtrade line Fairglobe. The new range consists of the six products the discounter already offers in other markets including the Scandinavian countries, the UK and Germany: bananas, coffee, tea, chocolate and cane sugar. Later this year, Lidl plans to introduce coffee pads under the national Max Havelaar Fairtrade brand. More recently, Lidl also launched different kinds of fresh precut salads under its Saladinettes private label. According to market research, Lidl could increase the number of customers thanks to the new ranges, including the Linessa healthy eating and Bioness organic offers, but also due to its ongoing store expansion.

Lidl’s Nutritional Information

Lidl has started featuring a nutritional information scheme on its privately labeled products. The label provides information on the absolute content of fat, saturated fats, sugar, salt and kilocalories as well as a relative share of the recommended serving size per day. In addition, further details of the product are displayed on a ‘nutrition navigation’ label as well as in the ‘nutrition encyclopedia’ on Lidl’s websites. “Many” private label products will gradually carry the new scheme, according to Lidl.

Aeon Expand PLs

Aeon has announced this week that it will expand the range of food products under its TopValu private label by the end of this year in response to increasing consumer interest in food safety. TopValu sales amounted to JPY132.4 billion (USD1.13 billion) in 2006, which accounts about 8% per total direct retail sales of AEON Co Ltd, and it intends to increase TopValu sales share to over 12% by end of fiscal 2008.