Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Expanding its fresh&easy 'goodness' Co-Branded Line; Launching Numerous New Items

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has redesigned the labels of its fresh&easy 'goodness' line. Products with the new design are set to hit the 159 Fresh & Easy stores this week. Pictured above is the original package.

Private Brand Showcase

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is expanding its co-branded fresh&easy 'goodness' snack line, adding a number of new items to the line, which is positioned primarily as a healthy meal and snack solution for kids.

The line's product packages are designed to fit into lunch bags or boxes for school. Of course, the snack items aren't exclusively for kids. The packaging sizes are convenient for adults as well, whether for at home consumption or for taking in sack lunches to the workplace.

The line, which was introduced about this time last year, with the (refrigerated) turkey and cheddar snack tray item pictured at the top, is co-branded, featuring the fresh&easy brand name in the upper left hand corner and the 'goodness' brand name more prominently on the package. The grocery chain uses fresh&easy as its primary private brand or label. It uses other private or retailer brands like eatwell (fresh-prepared foods and dry grocery), Mother's Joy (a line of breakfast cereals) and Buxted (value-priced fresh poultry and meat).

Among the new fresh&easy 'goodness' SKUs being introduced include: breakfast cereals, applesauce, snack chips, raisins and beverages, among others, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The official new item launch is September 15. However, many of the new items are set to start arriving in the stores this week.

End-cap merchandising

Starting this week, Fresh & Easy plans to feature the new fresh&easy 'goodness' kids' snack items on dedicated end-caps in its 159 stores, as a way to introduce the new items, along with taking advantage of the back-to-school season from an in-store merchandising perspective.

The items in the product line contain no artificial preservatives, flavors or coloring.

New packaging graphics

Fresh & Easy has also redesigned the packaging graphics for its co-branded fresh&easy 'goodness' line. Those changes include the new and existing items. The new look will be debuting as the products start showing up in the stores this week.

According to our information, the line will continue to be co-branded, featuring both the fresh&easy and 'goodness' brand names.

Lunchbox-sized kids' snacks is a fast-growing segment, led by items like Kraft Foods' (refrigerated) Lunchables line, which the original fresh&easy "goodness" snack tray is similar to, along with numerous refrigerated and dry grocery products packaged in kid-friendly and lunchbox sizes - ranging from raisins, applesauce, peanut butter and yogurt, to chips, juices and much more.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's expansion of the fresh&easy 'goodness' brand and line is clearly designed to take advantage of the growing segment, using its own brand.

Since September 15 is the official kick-off for the new items, we suspect Tesco's Fresh & Easy to announce the expansion of the line and new item introduction either this week, or at least a week before the official launch date. Of course, if you read Fresh & Easy Buzz, you just learned about it.

We think introducing the new fresh&easy 'goodness' items on dedicated end-caps is a good idea, particularly since school has just started in California, Nevada and Arizona, where Tesco has its 159 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores. The new items will be cross-merchandised on the end-caps with other types of back-to-school items.

Recent Private Brand Showcase stories in Fresh & Easy Buzz:

August 18, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Extending 'eatwell' Healthy Foods' Private Brand Into Dry Grocery Category

July 21, 2010: 'Sipsational' & 'Quenchtastic': Safeway Introduces New 21-Flavor Line of Soft Drinks Under 'refreshe' Private Brand

July 17, 2010: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Clock-Shaped Private Brand Candy Line Hits the Shelves at Fresh & Easy

July 12, 2010: Tesco Launches Private Brand 'Lasagne Sandwich' in the UK Today...With No Apologies to The Earl of Sandwich

June 24, 2010: New Fresh & Easy Clock Logo-Shaped Candies Are A Pretty Sweet Idea

May 11, 2010: Tesco Might Want to Get 'fresh & naked' at 'fresh & easy'

April 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy's New 'EatWell' Healthier Fresh, Prepared Foods Brand to Hit Stores on April 7

April 11, 2010: When it Comes to Fresh, Prepared Foods, New York City's Duane Reade is Simply 'deLish' for Walgreens

February 22, 2010: Food, Drug Retailers With Stores in California, Nevada & Arizona Honored for Private Label-Store Brands' Excellence

May 18, 2009 piece - Strategy Session: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Needs to Move From its One Store Brand Fits All Strategy to A 'Three Brand' Store Brand Strategy

March 9, 2009: An English Village, A British Fresh Chicken Brand and Tesco Fresh & Easy's New 'Buxted' Discount Fresh Meat Brand: What Do All Three Have in Common?