Brandon Brown, SVP of Own Brands for Albertsons Cos
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.