Albertsons Launches 1st Store Brand in Nearly a Decade
A new own brand is on the shelves at Albertsons Cos. stores and officials with the grocer are confident their shoppers will be overjoyed with the new assortment of food and non-food products.
The Overyjoyed brand is the first major private label debut from Albertsons in nearly a decade. The initial assortment of 150 items will include a curated selection of treats including cupcakes, cookies, chocolatey trail mixes, cheesecakes, and sprinkles along with candles and liners.
Additionally, the grocer’s Overjoyed Boutique line offers a selection of decorative vases, candles, and seasonal gifts.
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Overjoyed and Overjoyed Boutique are available now in Albertsons Cos. stores including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, and Shaw’s.
“We are dedicated to bringing people together around the joys of food, and our newest own brand, Overjoyed, underscores this commitment by helping shoppers to celebrate the joys of every day and connecting with loved ones,” said Brandon Brown, SVP of Own Brands for Albertsons Cos. “We are constantly evaluating our own brands portfolio and talking to customers, and we realized that we had an opportunity to create a brand to celebrate life’s every day, special moments.”
As Overjoyed officially launches, Brown spoke with Store Brands about the new assortment and the opportunities the grocer recognized to meet the needs of shoppers, and the effort to bring the line to market.
STORE BRANDS: What factors inspired the development of Overjoyed?
BRANDON BROWN: We’re always looking to make our customers’ lives easier. When we dug into the data, we found that our shoppers at times were going to other retailers for certain types of items. We wanted to know why our customers were making these trips and what they were buying. What we found was people were looking for products that were for celebrations. By adding these products, this is an opportunity for us to make our store more fun and to also inspire our customers. Overjoyed is about celebrating the special moments in life that happen every day.
SB: With the initial product assortment in Overjoyed are there items that differentiate from products currently available, or are there products that fill a void on store shelves?
BB: It’s a bit of both. One of the big categories in the line is baking supplies, which include sprinkles, cupcake liners, candles, chocolate chips, and marshmallows. Some of those items are already out there. But some of them are more unique to us. For example, we have a line of sprinkles that includes 4-in-1 dinosaur sprinkles and 4-in-1 princess sprinkles. We’re also making a major launch in bakery with products such as cookies, brownies, cupcakes, macaroons, cheesecakes, and ice cream cakes. So there are some items that are existing, more familiar ones and there are some that are more unique and innovative.
A big focus for the portfolio is seasonal. We thought we had an opportunity to play a bigger role in seasonal with limited-time offers. You'll see that we have quite a bit of seasonal items coming in the Overjoyed brand and most of these are new and unique.
SB: The seasonality of many of the products in Overjoyed would appear to allow Albertsons to continue refreshing its assortment and frequently give shoppers new items to browse.
BB: 100%. The national brands are doing a good job of offering products with limited-time offers. We want to have that with our brands. When developing Overjoyed, one of our goals was to have customers drive past our competitors to come to our stores and see what’s next. That was part of the inspiration behind Overjoyed. Shoppers will see a lot of products in the fall and new products in the upcoming seasons as well. We want to keep it fun and exciting for our customers.
SB: When developing Overjoyed, was the an overall design philosophy for products in the assortment?
BB: We did a lot of research to understand the type of customer that would be excited by Overjoyed. We wanted the brand to have a personality and that personality is overjoyed. We wanted the packaging and products to be uplifting and bright.
SB: You mentioned earlier the special occasions for which shoppers are looking for products. Was there any feedback from shoppers who were seeking products to give as gifts for special occasions?
BB: We do focus groups with our stores to get direct feedback from our customers. What we found is they were already buying some of these items at other retailers. If they're already in our store stocking up on their everyday essentials we want to make it easy for them to find those items in our stores and not have to make an extra trip.
SB: How long was the development process for Overjoyed?
BB: About two years. And now it’s really fun because I’m getting pictures daily from our stores showing some incredible displays. It takes a full army to develop a new line such as Overjoyed and it’s been exciting to see it come to fruition.
(This article was originally posted in sister publication Store Brands.)
