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.

Editorial: How Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason Can Fix the 'Side by Side' Wine Promotion FUBAR

Displays of "Side by Side" wines, like the one pictured in the photograph above which was taken in a Fresh & Easy market in Southern California on June 16, are now being built in the grocer's stores.

Standing 'Side by Side'

On May 24, 2011 Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market advertised a new wine brand - "Side by Side" - in two varieties - Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay - for $5.99 bottle, in its "friends of fresh & easy" promotional flyer (view here), which is e-mailed to customers who sign up for the "friends" program.

As part of the promotion - which hasn't happened until now because there hasn't been any "Side by Side" wine in the stores - Fresh & Easy is donating $1 for each bottle of wine sold to the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

On May 25 we wrote this story - 'Side by Side': Wine at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Aids America's Wounded Warriors - about the new wine brand and the promotion, which was targeted to begin on May 24-25, leading up to the Memorial Day weekend and holiday, the following Monday, May 30.

Beginning two days after we published our story, it started getting comments (see here) from readers saying they couldn't find the "Side by Side" wines in Fresh & Easy stores.

After getting a few such comments, we checked the situation out and couldn't find the wine in any of the stores we called or checked on in person.

We also put out a message to the numerous Fresh & Easy store workers who read the blog, asking them about the availability of the "Side by Side" wine with the donation to the wounded warriors' program. Not one of the employees had even heard about the wine brand, telling us it wasn't in the stores where they work.

Over the Memorial Day weekend Fresh & Easy Buzz correspondents checked numerous additional Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. No "Side by Side" wine in any of the grocery stores.

Memorial Day came and went and none of the 175 Fresh & Easy stores had the "Side by Side" wine in stock."

In fact, it wasn't until Tuesday (June 14) or Wednesday (June 15) that the first stores started receiving the wine, which is three weeks after Fresh & Easy advertised it in the May 24 "friends of fresh & easy" e-mailer.

We got a heads up from a good source on June 16 that the "Side by Side" wine was being shipped to the stores.

We checked a number of stores on Thursday and today, and all of them we checked had the wine, featured in the stores' wine departments on tower displays like the one at top, which is in a Southern California Fresh & Easy grocery market.

We aren't going to go into the details of what we've learned about the screw up because it doesn't make all that exciting of reading.

But its safe to say Fresh & Easy's corporate marketing and buying departments committed what the U.S. Military, which created the term, and others call a FUBAR.

A grocer shouldn't advertise a product, particularly when its one being promoted as a way to help wounded warriors, unless it has the product in the stores.

Such things can happen, of course. And if it was two or three days between the time the advertisement came out and the product hit the stores it wouldn't be a FUBAR. Instead it would be a mistake of a lessor magnitude.

But that's not the case. It's been three weeks from the time Fresh & Easy advertised the "Side by Side" wine and the product is starting to arrive in the stores.

Had the "Side by Side" wine been available during the week leading up to Memorial Day when it was advertised, we suspect shoppers, seeing that $1 a bottle is being donated to the wounded warriors' charitable organization, would have, because military service members are very top-of-mind leading up to Memorial Day, bought a considerable amount of the wine as a way to do their part to help the cause and wounded warriors, while at the same time getting some wine for the three day weekend.

The "Side by Side" wine is now available, at least in the stores we've checked and verified. That's good news in terms of its starting to generate some donation money via sales for the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

But the non-profit group that helps wounded warriors and their families is out three weeks' worth of donations from sales of the wine because of Fresh & Easy's corporate headquarters FUBAR.

Therefore, we suggest Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's CEO, Tim Mason, who's also the deputy CEO of Tesco and its chief marketing officer, make things right by making a donation in the name of Fresh & Easy to the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

We think a corporate donation of about $3,000 would be fair to make up for the three weeks' of lost sales between the time (May 24, 2011) the "Side by Side" wine was first advertised in the "friends of fresh & easy" e-mailer and this week, when the wine finally started arriving in the stores.

Why $3,000? It represents average sales of 5-6 bottles of "Side by Side" wine per-store, per-week between May 24 and June 15, which we think is a fair average sales assumption, considering it's likely sales of the wine would have been brisk from May 24-May 30, had it been in stores that week leading up to Memorial Day, which was May 30.

Mr. Mason might also suggest to the senior executives responsible for the "Side by Side" wine FUBAR that they reach into their pockets and pony up a donation of $100 or more to the good folks at the organization that helps wounded warriors. If they do so, they'll remember next time to be bit more careful and not advertise a product that's not available to ship to the stores until three weeks later. In fact, as CEO Mason could set an example for them by making a similar donation out of his pocket to the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program.

Making the 3,000 corporate donation would be a good way for Mason and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to demonstrate it's standing "Side by Side" with the Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program and the wounded warriors' and their families the no-profit organization helps.

'Side by Side': Wine at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Aids America's Wounded Warriors

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is offering something extra as part of the introduction of its new "Side by Side" brand Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines this week.

For each bottle of wine sold, the grocer is donating $1 to Azalea Charities' "Aid For Wounded Warriors" program, which helps U.S. soldiers who've been wounded or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The wine is being introduced in Tesco's 175 Fresh & Easy stores in California, Arizona and Nevada this week and is priced at $5.99 bottle, $1 of which goes to the fund to aid the wounded warriors.

The non-profit group assists soldiers who've been wounded or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq in variety of ways.

For example, the all-volunteer organization purchases specific items weekly for the wounded warriors, at the request of U.S. Military and Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Fisher House rehabilitation  facilities throughout the country. Many of the items bought are things not provided to the men and women as part of their military and veterans' medical care.

The Azalea Charities' project, which is based in Northern Virginia near the nation's capital, also provides financial support to the CrisisLink Program, which is a telephone hot line for the wounded warriors and their families.

You can learn more about Azalea Charities' "Aid for Wounded Warriors" program here. There's also a link at the page that can be used to make an online donation.

We're approaching Memorial Day weekend, which includes cookouts and picnics but is really about honoring those who've made the ultimate sacrifice for their county.

We honor their families as well on Memorial Day, along with all those still living who've served.

And among those who've served and are still living, as a people and country we owe more to them than we're currently giving, particularly those wounded warriors who seldom if ever complain - in fact many want to get back to Afghanistan or Iraq and rejoin the brothers and sisters they left there - and define the term the "American Spirit."

We invite those of you reading this to join us in making a donation this week to whatever organization helping wounded warriors or veterans you choose.

For example, along with Azalea Charities' wounded warrior assistance program, there's the "Wounded Warrior Project," which offers a myriad of programs and services to aid wounded warriors and their families, as you can learn about at the group's website here.

Most of us can afford to donate $10, $20 or more to programs helping those who've served and were wounded or injured doing so.

There's no better time to help than now, a few days before Memorial Day.

If you don't think you can afford a small donation, look at it this way - just spend $10 or so less at the grocery store (sorry grocers) while stocking up for your backyard cookouts and Memorial Day picnics this weekend. Then donate that $10 or so to one of the two wounded warrior assistance programs mentioned in this story, or to any other organization assisting active duty soldiers or veterans.

Take our word for it, in the grand scheme of things doing so will make you feel even better than having that extra beer or two, second hamburger or hot dog and extra serving of dessert this weekend will.

And with the money you saved buying (and eating) a little bit less at the grocery store for your weekend party, you'll have enough to donate whatever amount you can afford to help those Americans who should be on our minds and in our thoughts not only on Memorial Day but throughout the year.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy ♥'s California With 27 New Varieties of Proprietary Brand Wines From the Golden State

Wine Category Merchandising & More
News/Analysis/Commentary

In a series of stories over the last few months, we've reported in detail and offered analysis about why Tesco is banking on California with its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, not only for most of its new store growth this year but also as the place it hopes that growth will translate into break-even and eventually turn at least a slim profit for its money-losing Fresh & Easy chain of 166 small-format food and grocery stores.

[See the following stories, for example, to learn more about Tesco's banking on California with Fresh & Easy. January 14, 2001: Tesco 'Banking' on California in 2011 For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA; and January 11, 2011: A 'New York State of Mind': 'The Insider' On Walmart, Apollo Global Management, Tesco's Fresh & Easy and the NRF in New York City. Also see - January 23, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Looking For Locations For New, Smaller-Format 4,000-to-5,000 Square-Foot Stores; and February 16, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Celebrates Three-Store Opening Trifecta Today in Southern California.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is signaling its focus and commitment to California, along with in a symbolic way confirming our reporting, this week by its introduction this week of 27 varieties of California wines under seven proprietary or private brands.

The seven private brands of California wines are: " I ♥ CA," "Wink," "Pacific Coast Highway," "Cloud Valley," "WineWrights," Barrel Ranch" and "Open Field."

All of the new wines, a mix of reds, whites and blends, come from noted California grape-growing and wine-making regions such as Napa, Monterey and Santa Barbara. You can view a list of all 27 varieties with tasting notes here.

The "Cloud Valley," Barrel Ranch," and "Open Field" brands were developed for Fresh & Easy by Terravant Wine Company, which is located in the Santa Barbara area, which is where the grapes for the red and white wine varieties under the three proprietary brands originate from, according to Richard Wherry, a wine buyer at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

The new private brand wines are hitting the shelves of all 166 Fresh & Easy stores this week and, according to our sources, some of the 27 varieties will appear tomorrow in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market's advertising circular at promotional prices.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy is using as one of its promotional tag-line's for the new California wines: "Wine as golden as the state it's from," a clear local appeal since a whopping 117 of its 166 stores are in the Golden State, as are all of the new stores (11 units) opened so far this year, along with all the new Fresh & Easy markets - nine new stores in Northern California and one unit in Southern California - set to open in March and April. There are 28 Fresh & Easy stores in metro Phoenix, Arizona and 21 units in metro Las Vegas, Nevada.

Also look for the slogan..."We wish they all could be California wines" in advertisements and in-store signage.

As we've noted in past stories in Fresh & Easy Buzz, in our analysis the wine category is one of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's strongest in terms of product selection and merchandising. As we've also noted in past stories, it's been our analysis that one of the weak aspects of the wine category at Fresh & Easy has been a shortage of proprietary brands and varieties of California wines, particularly since the Tesco-owned chain is based in California and as noted above has all but 49 of its 166 fresh food and grocery markets in the Golden State.

The addition of the 27 new California wines under the various private brands goes a long way to improving this weakness, in our analysis. We also like a number of the brand names, as they speak to various aspects of the state of California and its wine-growing regions, represented by the various varieties.

And, as for the " I ♥ CA brand," it has a double meaning, in that not only is it a proprietary wine brand for California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, it's also a pretty could expression of where Tesco is putting its fortunes with its Fresh & Easy chain - which is in the Golden State. Doing so warrants a whole lotta' love.

Sidebar - Synergy Time: The World ♥'s California Wine

Tesco would be smart to look into exporting its new California wines to its other divisions throughout the world, particularly to the United Kingdom but also to Asia, where in places like Japan, South Korea and China, all countries where Tesco has stores, wine consumption is growing by double digits.

Why? Tesco needs to create much more synergy between its global operations and its Fresh & Easy outpost in the U.S.

Since Tesco's new (as of March 2) CEO Philip Clarke's previous job was as head of Tesco's European and Asian retail operations, he should see the value of the "California" brand when it comes to merchandising wine, particularly in the emerging Asian markets, but also in Europe.

Selling the 27 new varieties of Fresh & Easy's proprietary California wines in various Tesco global divisions also would be a nice boost for wine category sales volume for the U.S. operation. And the more volume when it comes to private brand food and drink products, the better cost of goods a retailer can get - which translates to higher margins on those items for the retailer.\

Importing the new California wines to various Tesco global retail divisions outside the U.S. would be fairly easy. Containers come and go from the two major ports in Southern California and in Oakland in Northern California on an hourly basis.

Additionally, Fresh & Easy could get some nice street cred in California (political, agricultureal, consumer circles), exporting wines produced in the state to its retail operations in Asia and Europe.

Lastly, exporting the new California wines to other Tesco global outposts would be a good test towards creating better synergy between the mothership in the United Kingdom and its U.S. operations, along with those in other parts of the world. After all, Tesco is the third-largest global retailer, after Walmart and France's Carrefour.

As our 'The Insider' columnist suggested in this column last year - October 8, 2010: 'The Insider' - Incoming Tesco CEO Philip Clarke Needs to 'Imagine' When it Comes to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA - its' going to take imaginative thinking and strategy, and in our analysis nomore than banking on California, for Clarke and his deputy CEO Tim Mason, who runs Fresh & Easy, to make a success out of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA.

Readers

Fresh & Easy Buzz has written extensively about the wine category, wine merchandising and retailing at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. For a selction of those stories, click on the links here: Fresh and Easy proprietary wines, Fresh and Easy wine, fresh and easy wine category, Fresh Easy wine category review, liquor wine beer categories and wine merchandising. Use the "older" and "newer" links at the bottom of the linked pages for additional pages/stories.

Will France's Gas Station-Like Self-Serve Wine Pumps Make A Splash in U.S. Grocery Stores?

Fill'er up with ... red, white or rose wine.

The big red gas station-style tank pictured above is just that - a self-service pump that dispenses wine. And it's showing up in an increasing number of supermarkets in France, such as in the Cora supermarket in Dunkirk, which was the first store to get one of the self-serve vino dispensers in late 2009. The tanks come in 500 and 1,000 liter sizes. They also come in a brushed chrome color, as well as in the red colored version.

The in-store, self-service bulk wine dispenser's inventor, Astrid Terzian, and her French company, La Cuve, Réserves Précieuses, are looking for grocery chains and store owners in the United States that would like to give the vino pumps a shot in their stores.

The unit, called La Cuve, operates in a straight-forward way - just think self-service gas pumps. Shoppers bring their own containers, such as gallon water jugs or any others they choose to use, to the store, go to the pump, decide on the varieties of wine offered they want and - just like at the self-service gas station, pump the wine into the container, instead of the automobile gas tank.

Once a shopper has finished filling the reusable container with his or her wine of choice, the machine prints out a label with the price, so the store's checkout clerk knows what to charge. The price labels can also include a bar-code.

The La Cuve wine pump's inventor says she came up with the idea for it in late 2008 because she was focusing on two growing consumer trends, environmental awareness and frugality. The elimination of single-use packaging, glass wine bottles and wine boxes, makes the bright red pumping unit not only a big bulk-wine dispensing machine, but a big 'green' one as well, in the environmental sense of the word.

Additionally, since the wine for the machines is shipped in bulk rather than in glass bottles or cardboard wine boxes, both of which are then packed in cardboard case boxes for shipping and store distribution, it's carbon footprint is much lower than individual bottle or box wine SKUs.

Currently, in France, the price of a gallon of wine from the in-store wine pumps is 1.45 euros per liter, which is about $2.

The wine pump seems to us like it might be ideal for certain natural foods chains, independents and retail cooperatives, along with certain supermarkets in the U.S., that do a lot with bulk food and beverage merchandising. Most of these retailers also have bulk units in their stores that turn peanuts into peanut butter, for example, a concept not unlike dispensing bulk wine.

On the natural-organic format side of the street, we're thinking chains like Whole Foods Market, the PCC Co-Op chain in Washington state, Sprouts Farmers Market and its cousins, Henry's Farmers Market and Sunflower Farmers Market, along with a number of other grocers. The 'green' street cred of the bulk-wine dispensing machines, combined with the price savings aspect, just might be a solid concept for these grocers and numerous others with similar formats.

There also could be room in the discount grocer segment for the wine pumps. For example, the fast-growing Idaho-based WinCo Foods chain has massive bulk foods sections, which include the peanut butter grinders mentioned above, in its 90,000 -to- 100,000 square-foot discount supermarkets. The wine pump is a logical extension to such merchandising.

Smart & Final's new SmartCo Foods discount stores also have big bulk sections, which are an element of the store's supermarket/warehouse-style/farmers market combination format.

We could even possibly see the wine pumps in small-format hard discount stores like Aldi, for example, as well as in beverage superstores like the BevMo chain.

Lastly, the machines might be a big hit in membership warehouse stores like Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale, where bulk, in the form of buying in bulk but generally packaged goods - as well as shoppers' motivation to save money - is the norm.

The merchandising of bulk, or un-packaged foods, which is how it all began centuries ago, is growing significantly in consumer popularity currently in the U.S. It never went away. Many grocers have featured it continually, in updated forms for decades. It's also more than a retro fad. Bulk merchandising is increasingly popular because of the cost-savings - bulk flour, nuts and oatmeal, just three examples, are generally much cheaper than the same packaged products - as well as the 'green' attributes, less packaging, it offers.

Numerous U.S. natural foods stores, along with some supermarkets, also offer various liquid products, like spring water, olive oil and vinegar, in bulk. Customers bring their own container to the store and fill' er up.

There are also companies that operate stand-alone, coin-operated spring water vending machine kiosks in numerous cities and towns. Customers put the money, usually about 50 cents a gallon, in the coin box, put their re-usable container under the spout, and fill up.

The only major drawback we see with the wine pump is the potential for frequent in-store customer self-service sampling; the grabbing of the hose, tilting back of the head, and tasting away directly from the source. This could particularly be a serious problem with minors.

In fact, if the wine pumps are to make it to the U.S., its likely some sort of locking device would have to be installed on the machines in-store so that only shoppers of legal age could have access to them.

Of course, one can make the argument that it's just as easy for a customer, of legal age or under age, to grab a bottle of wine or other alcoholic beverage off the shelf, open it, and give it a taste. Interestingly, this doesn't happen very often in most grocery stores. And in terms of purchasing the bulk wine at checkout, the process is no different than a customer's purchasing of alcoholic beverages in a bottle, can, keg or box. If the checkout clerk has a question as to the customer's age, she asks for their identification.

On a closing note, were we to offer a grocer who decided to test one of the wine pumps in his or her stores a bit of marketing advise, it might be to name the wines dispensed from the machine using the jargon from a similar form of liquid dispensing which is very familiar to consumers - the gas pump. The wine names: How about ... Regular, Premium and Diesel?

In Vino Veritas: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Introduce 25 New Wines as Part Of Wine Category Makeover We First Reported On in October, 2008

Wine Category Merchandising

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will introduce 25 new wine SKUS in its stores over the next three months, 15 of which will be proprietary wines exclusive to Fresh & Easy, according to wine category manager Karen Fletcher.

The 25 new wines will be a mix of domestic and imported varieties, Ms. Fletcher says, and will range in price from a low of $1.99 a bottle -to- $40 a bottle.

"Fresh & Easy's new selection of wines will be perfect for summer drinking and includes traditional favorites such as a California Cabernet from Sonoma. Unique imports will also be added to the company's range including a Malbec from Argentina, sparkling wines from Italy and a Tempranillo-Shiraz and Ribera del Duero from Spain," Fresh & Easy corporate wine category manager Fletcher says.

"We're always hunting for new wines so our customers have something new to enjoy. We have some great picks coming from California, Washington, Argentina, Spain and Australia. "Now that we're offering all of our wine at 20 percent off 6 (bottles), which is our best deal yet, it's a great opportunity for our customers to try something new, or to buy their favorite wines at a great price."

Tesco Fresh & Easy's Fletcher is referring in the quote to the retailer's just-launched 20%-off purchases of six bottles of wine or more promotion, which we reported on and wrote about in this piece yesterday: In Vino Veritas: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Kicking-Off 20 Percent-Off Six Bottles Or More Wine Promotion This Week; Promotion Runs Until April 25.

In October of 2008 Fresh & Easy Buzz reported exclusively about the wine category review led by category manager Fletcher taking place at Fresh & Easy corporate headquarters in El Segundo, California. [That story: Category Management Report: Fresh & Easy Conducting Wine Category Review and SKU Rationalization; We Offer Some Analysis.]

Additionally, in this November 11, 2008 piece [Wine Category Report: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Kicks Off New Merchandising and Promotional Efforts Designed to Grow Wine Category Sales.] we wrote about Fresh & Easy's plans to grow its wine category sales.

The introduction of the 25 new wines over the next three months, along with the 20%-off deep-discount promotion launched this week and running until April 25, are a direct result of the wine category evaluation we wrote about in October of last year and the merchandising and promotional plans we reported on in November, 2008.

Own brands

Proprietary brands and wines are a major part of Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's wine category merchandising strategy.

The strategy comes directly from United Kingdom-based Tesco, which is one of the top retailer's of wine globally. Tesco creates and merchandises numerous varieties of proprietary wines in its stores in the United Kingdom, where its that nation's leading food and grocery retailer, and elsewhere throughout the world where it has stores.

Tesco also is the number one retail buyer of Australian wines, and as a result is able to get excellent bargains on Australian-made wine to use in its various proprietary wines. For example, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market proprietary value brand, Big Kuhuna, which it sells for $1.99 a bottle in California and for $2.99 in Nevada and Arizona, is an Australian wine. There are two varieties of Big Kahuna, a white and a red.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market wine category manager Karen Fletcher is familiar with this system since she came to Tesco's Fresh & Easy from Tesco in the United Kingdom.

Master of Wine

Tesco's Fresh & Easy also uses a Master of Wine, who works with Ms. Fletcher and the wine category buyers to create the proprietary wines for the stores.

According to the Masters of Wine Institute, there currently are only 274 Masters of Wine, located in 23 countries. The designation requires rigorous testing in order to earn it. [You can learn more about the Masters of Wine designation here.]

New wines: pricing

Tesco's Fresh & Easy isn't saying what percentage of the 25 new wines to be introduced over the next three months are in what price ranges; just that the retail price-points will range from $1.99 -to- $40. However, according to a source, we're told that the majority of the 25 new wines will be in the value-price range, which generally means under about $12 a bottle.

Right now wines selling for under $10 a bottle make up the vast majority of the volume being sold, with wines priced at about $6.99 and below comprising the highest percentage of the under $10 segment.

In other words, with wine as with most all else at present, value is ruling among shoppers.

SKU rationalization

Tesco's Fresh & Easy also doesn't say if it's discontinuing any wine SKU to make room for the 25 new varieties. We can report that the retailer is eliminating some slower moving wines as part of its category evaluation and the introduction of the new SKUS. Out with some old, in with some new -- that's what a category evaluation and SKU rationalization is all about.

As part of its strategic objective to increase wine category sales, look for additional new category developments and promotions in the coming months, in addition to the introduction of the 25 new wines over the next three months, and the 20%-off promotion which lasts until April 25.

Below is a linked selection of a few wine category pieces from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

>March 26, 2009: In Vino Veritas: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Kicking-Off 20 Percent-Off Six Bottles Or More Wine Promotion This Week; Promotion Runs Until April 25

>October 27, 2008: Southern California Market Report: Beverages & More to Join Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy to Form Manhattan Beach Food and Beverage Retailing Triangle

>March 22, 2008: In Vino Veritas: No Whining About This 'Parker-Point' Rating for a Fresh & Easy Proprietary Spanish Wine

>July 22, 2008: Obituary: Innovative Trader Joe's Head Wine Buyer and Popularizer of Value Wines Robert Berning; 73

>March 4, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

>July 9, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Announces 63 Wine Awards to Date; Will Face Off Again Against Wine Award Winning 'Big Kahuna' Trader Joe's at State Fair

>September 22, 2008: Fresh & Easy Buzz Strategy Session: Trader Joe's and the Key to Enlightenment?

>November 11, 2008: Wine Category Report: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Kicks Off New Merchandising and Promotional Efforts Designed to Grow Wine Category Sales

>October 27, 2008: Category Management Report: Fresh & Easy Conducting Wine Category Review and SKU Rationalization; We Offer Some Analysis

>April 25, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch A Marketing-Oriented, Brand-Building Consumer Public Relations Campaign For its Store Brand Products and its Wines

>April 30, 2009: Raising Arizona and Getting Local in the Neighborhood: State's First 100% Locally-Produced Wine Offers Win-Win for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Arizona Stores

>July 14, 2008: Breaking News & Analysis: CA Assemblyman Introduces 'Tesco Fresh & Easy Law' to Ban Stores With Self-Checkout-Only From Selling Alcoholic Beverages

>November 10, 2008: Competitive Retailer Wine Category Report: First Person Singular - 'How I Sold 37 Bottles of Wine in 45 Minutes at Trader Joe's'

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