Tesco Launches Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Developed 'The Big Kahuna' Brand Wine in United Kingdom, South Korea Stores

"The Big Kahuna" on the shelf at a Fresh & Easy store in California.

Private Brand Showcase

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's "The Big Kahuna" proprietary or private brand wine has been launched in Tesco-owned stores in the United Kingdom and South Korea, along with being offered for sale by the case on the UK-based retailer's Tesco.com website.

Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy introduced "The Big Kahuna" as its in-house value-priced wine brand over three years ago, following a path blazed most successfully in the U.S. by Trader Joe's with its super-popular $1.99 per bottle Charles Shaw brand wine, more commonly referred to as "Two-Buck Chuck," the huge success of which has spawned similar priced value brand copy-cat versions from nearly every major food and grocery retailer in the country.

The Australian-produced "The Big Kahuna" comes in two varieties: Cabernet Shiraz (at top) and Chardonnay.

Fresh & Easy sells the wine in its stores in California (127 units) for $1.99 (750-ml bottle), and for 2.99 per bottle in its Nevada (21 units) and Arizona (28 units) grocery markets.

The wine is being offered at a higher price-point in the UK than at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in the U.S.

For example, Tesco is offering Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-developed "The Big Kahuna" wine brand for a considerably higher price on its Tesco.com website in the UK. The current price per case is £22.80 (£3.80 per bottle), which is about $37.18 per case, or $6.19 per bottle, based on today's British pound to U.S. dollar conversion rate. The per-bottle retail in the stores it's currently in is a bit higher.

Tesco has a long history of offering Australian wines in its stores in the UK and in Asia, particularly South Korea. In fact, the British retailer is the largest customer of wine produced in Australia, largely based on the numerous Tesco proprietary or private brand wines produced for the retailer in the country.

It's a logical and smart move for Tesco to offer Fresh & Easy's "The Big Kahuna" brand wine in its UK and South Korea stores as well as online via Tesco.com. Doing so expands the number of points-of-distribution - and thus increases total sales - for the brand, which in turn should allow Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to obtain a lower cost of goods for "The Big Kahuna" from its Australian producer.

A lower cost of goods means a better gross margin on the wine for Fresh & Easy, which is important because at $1.99 and $2.99 per bottle retails, along with the shipping costs from Australia, there isn't much gross margin in "The Big Kuhuna," or any other wine with similar overseas origin and the same points.

But even a few pennies cost savings per bottle can add up to nice little profit boost on the wine for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market because the value-priced "The Big Kahuna" is a high volume brand for the grocer.

Additionally, since the Australian producer of "The Big Kahuna" also produces additional proprietary wine brands for Tesco, it makes good top and bottom line sense to us to maximize the brand opportunities across all its chains globally for UK-based Tesco whenever it makes sense.

"The Big Kahuna" is the second private brand developed at El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy that Tesco is distributing in its stores in the UK, where it's the leading retailer of food and groceries.

The first brand, which we broke the news about in these two stories - June 26, 2011: Tesco Bringing Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'goodness for kids' Brand to the UK - With a 'Tesco' Twist; and June 27, 2011: Tesco Introduces First Items in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Developed 'Tesco goodness for kids' Brand in United Kingdom Stores - is "Tesco Goodness for kids", which is based on the "fresh&easy goodness for kids" brand developed in Southern California.

The Australian-produced wine brand with the Hawaiian name, "The Big Kahuna," is the first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-developed private brand product to be sold in Tesco's stores in Asia we're aware of, in this case the country being South Korea.

Interestingly, we suggested in this March 8, 2011 piece - March 8, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy ♥'s California With 27 New Varieties of Proprietary Brand Wines From the Golden State - that Tesco should take a few or all of Fresh & Easy's then new proprietary brands of California wines to the United Kingdom and South Korea.

Perhaps a few of those brands of wine produced in California will be the next ? Stay tuned.

Related Stores

Read more about wine at these links: California wine competitions, Fresh and Easy proprietary wines, Fresh and Easy wine, fresh and easy wine category, liquor wine beer categories, wine awards, Wine Category Report, wine merchandising,  Side by Side wine, category wine

Additionally, you can read past stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature here.

The Wisdom of the Crowd: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Wines Won 39 Medals in the L.A. International Wine Competition; Will it Motivate Your Purchase?

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's marketing and public relations people announced via a press release today that the 175-store fresh food and grocery chain has won 39 medals at the 72nd annual Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition for a variety of its proprietary brand wines.

The annual wine and spirits competition is part of the Los Angeles County Fair, which takes place September 3-October 2 this year. An olive oil tasting and judging is also conducted in conjunction with the annual wine competition.

The wine competition judging took place in May. The competition's officials announced the winners June 7.

Among the wines Fresh & Easy won medals for (18 out of the 39 medals) were its new line of proprietary or private brand California wines, which we wrote about in this March 8, 2011 story: Tesco's Fresh & Easy ♥'s California With 27 New Varieties of Proprietary Brand Wines From the Golden State. The new California wines were introduced in the stores in March.

You can see which Fresh & Easy wine brands and varieties won medals here, along with viewing all of the award-winning wine brands and varieties from others. The competition also has a Facebook page here.

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is one of just a few food and grocery retailers that enter its private or proprietary brand wines in this and other competitions.

The pioneering grocer in doing so is another Southern California-based chain - Trader Joe's - which has been entering its various private brand wines in the Los Angeles and other competitions, often winning first place in on or more varietal categories, for many years.

It's important to note, however, that not many U.S. grocery and mass merchandise chains offer a moderate-to-extensive assortment of private brand wines (many have a value brand though), although that's beginning to change. As such, there's not much in the way of proprietary brand wine for the majority of grocers to enter in these competitions at present, even if they wanted to.

Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy followed Trader Joe's lead in entering various wine competitions, starting in 2007, and has to date won 275 medals overall.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also promotes wine regularly in its 175 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona and attempts to use the category, particularly its private brand wines, as a leader in terms of hoping it is a lure to bring shoppers into its stores.

We've written extensively about the wine category at Tesco's Fresh & Easy (and other grocers), including its participation in various wine competitions, along with merchandising, marketing and promotional aspects.

[You can read our stories by clicking on the following links: Fresh and Easy proprietary wines, Fresh and Easy wine, wine awards, wine merchandising, California wine competitions, wine awards, Fresh Easy wine category review, The Big Kahuna brand wine, wine marketing, wine promotions, liquor wine beer categories, alcoholic beverage sales-merchandising, wine retailing, Charles Shaw Wines, Mike Samii, Trader Joe's, Robert Parker, Beverages and More.]

As we noted earlier, the majority of U.S. food retailers don't offer much in the way of private brand wines.

Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy have the most extensive proprietary wine programs we're aware of among U.S. grocers and mass merchandise chains, although as noted numerous big chains like Costco, Walmart and even regional grocers like Save Mart Supermarkets in California offer a value-based (think Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck) proprietary brand wine. Fresh & Easy's value brand is called the The Big Kahuna.

Fresh  Easy's parent, United Kingdom-based Tesco, has long had a proprietary brand wine program in operation and offers numerous own brand varieties in its stores in the UK particularly, but also at its stores elsewhere in Europe and in Asia.

What interests us about these wine competitions as they pertain to grocers like Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Trader Joe's and others, is if winning medals at the events has any influence on shopper purchases of the winning wines in the stores.

This question is important because the primary reason wine-makers and marketers enter their wines in competitions is to sell more of it. Secondarily is the prestige of winning - or what some folks (not us of course)  might even call the "snob appeal factor."

The Wisdom of the Crowd: Reader Questions

Since Fresh & Easy Buzz has some of the smartest and most-inquisitive readers on the planet, we thought we would put the question to you.

So here's the question: Does a wine brand/variety winning a medal (Gold, Silver, Bronze and the like) at a well-known wine competition influence your decision to purchase it?

Further, will you be motivated to try and buy any of the 39 Fresh & Easy proprietary brand wines - there will be signs on the wines at the shelf in the stores designating them as "medal winners" and you can see the various wines from Fresh & Easy that won here - because a given wine won a medal at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition?

Share your response and opinion with your fellow readers using  the "comments" link below. Just click it and tell us what you think.

Fresh & Easy Kicks Off Three Week 'From Grapes to Gold Medals' Wine Promotion Tomorrow

Tesco's Fresh & Easy is launching a big wine promotion in its 147 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona starting tomorrow, March 24. The promotion runs through April 13, 2010.

The theme of the promotion is: "From Grapes to Gold Medals," (see the shelf-talker above)which is in reference to the fact a number of the wines featured in the promotion, including Fresh & Easy's proprietary wines, have won gold, silver or bronze medals at a number of wine judging competitions.

The wines in the Fresh & Easy promotion are sale priced, like the $1.99 bottle Saludas Tempranillo from Spain, pictured at left and described above. Additionally, shoppers get a 10% discount if they buy three or more bottles in a single purchase.

A couple of the other wines to be offered in the promotion tomorrow are: Ogio Prosecco, an effervescent wine from Italy ($6.99 on sale, regularly $8.99) and Small Wonders Chardonnay, from California's Russian River region ($9.99 on sale, regularly $13.99).

Fresh & Easy will be touting the March 24 -to- April 13 wine promotion in all of its stores, as well as in its new advertising circular, which comes out tomorrow.

Today, Fresh & Easy sent out an e-mail to the members of its "Friends of Fresh & Easy" frequent-shopper group offering the members a sneak peak a day in advance of the promotion.

We first wrote over two years ago that the wine category would be and is a major focus for Tesco with Fresh & Easy. This multi-week promotion is another example of the emphasis and focus the grocer it trying to put on its wine selection, particularly its proprietary wines.

[Readers: Click here for a selection of past stories from Fresh & Easy Buzz on Fresh & Easy's wine program, wine category merchandsing, and related topics and issues.]

'I Taste Therefore I Tweet': Fresh & Easy Set to Hold 'Twitter (Wine) Tasting' Tomorrow Night

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has teamed up with the online wine tasting community Taste Live, and is holding a virtual wine tasting event tomorrow evening (February 9, 2010) from 7:00 pm -to- 8: 00 pm (Pacific Standard Time).

Fresh & Easy is calling the virtual wine tasting a "Twitter Tasting" because the event will focus on tasters' tweeting their evaluations of the three wines being tasted on the social media site Twitter.com.

Tasters will be sampling three of Fresh & Easy's proprietary wines during the one hour virtual and social media wine tasting tomorrow night.

The three wines are: Montcadi Cava Rose from Spain, which sells for under $6; Boro Hills Sauvignon Blanc (from New Zealand), which sells at Fresh & Easy for about $11; and Matuco Malbec 2007 (Argentina), which retails for under $10.

Tasters can buy one, two or all three of the wines at a local Fresh & Easy market for the tasting. Here's a brief description of each of the wine varieties.

Taste Live often holds these virtual wine tastings in partnership with various wineries like Kunde Family Wines and others.

Here's how the virtual "Twitter Tasting" works:

>Those interested in participating first need to register at Taste Live using their Twitter or Facebook account, or by creating an account at the tastelive.com Web site here.

>Once registered, event participants then need to RSVP their intended participation to Tesco's Fresh & Easy here.

>Tasters then buy one or more of the three wines being tasted during the one hour "Twitter Tasting" at a Fresh & Easy store.

Karen Fletcher, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's category manager for wine, is hosting the "Twitter Tasting" tomorrow night, according to Fresh & Easy.

During the one hour event Fresh & Easy will be tweeting at its @fresh_and_easy account on Twitter.com.

The grocer's social media team has created a Twitter hashtag - #FandEWine - which it wants tweeter-wine tasters to use after each of their tweets in order to be able to track the one hour "Twitter Tasting."

Such hashtags used on Twitter allow for users to search particular topics on the site by entering the hashtag into its search function.

Fresh & Easy wine merchandising & marketing

First, Fresh & Easy Buzz likes the concept of the "Twitter Tasting." We give Tesco Fresh & Easy's marketing team, particularly its social media folks, a thumbs up for giving it a try.

The reason we like it is because it's different, is a bit out of the box, and fits in well with the much improved job (since about mid-2009) the grocer's social media team has been doing using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

We also like it because although it's virtual, it's also participatory - it brings tweeters and others together in a form of community around a common event - wine tasting.

Such uses of social media can over time build up a strong core of Fresh & Easy wine shoppers-consumers if done well.

It's using social media for marketing purposes but the event emphasises the "social" over the "marketing" aspect because of the focus on the wine tasting. Participants can be as critical as they want about the wines in their tweets, which means Fresh & Easy can't control the marketing message, like a retailer can do with paid advertising and the like.

One of Tesco's goals with Fresh & Easy is to build the Fresh & Easy retail brand in part through making its proprietary wines and wine merchandising program "famous." In fact, this is one of the charges the grocer gave to the marketing-oriented public relations firms it interviewed in March-April 2008.

Additionally, the fantastic success of wine sales at Trader Joe's hasn't been something lost on Tesco. It's no accident Fresh & Easy's wine and beer program looks very similar to Trader Joe's in terms of product selection, merchandising and marketing.

Fresh & Easy's wine program or wines aren't famous yet. But creative marketing programs like the "Twitter Tasting," combined with good product selection and merchandising, can go a long way in brand building, in our analysis.

Of course, key to tomorrow night's "Twitter (wine) Tasting" being a success is the fact that it has participants. The more tweets the better. Also, the more critical - not just pro the wines tasted - tweets during the tasting the more interesting it will be.

After all, when it comes to criticism (and even a bit of whining), some of the best involves wines.

[Readers: Click here for a selection of past stories from Fresh & Easy Buzz on Tesco Fresh & Easy's wine program, wine category merchandsing, and related topics and issues.]