Brand Extension: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introduces 'eatwell' Fresh Meat Lines

Private Brand Showcase

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has extended its eatwell healthy foods' private brand into the fresh meat category, with the launch of a new line of Chicken Sausages and two value-added meat lines - eatwell Chicken Bake and eatwell Chicken Stir Fry (pictured above and below) - into its 182  fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The eatwell Chicken Sausages line, which hit some Fresh & Easy stores last week and others this week, based on our regular store visits and conversations with store workers, includes varieties like the Mild Italian and Apple Cinnamon varieties pictured below.

The Chicken Bake items, which include a tray for cooking in the oven, and the eatwell Stir-Fry SKUs come in varieties like the Roasted Red Pepper, Chipotle and Mango and Cajun-Style, pictured at top.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is currently featuring the eatwell sausages at a 2-for-$7 (16oz pkg.) introductory price. The Chicken Bake and Stir-Fry items, both of which as also 16oz, are being offered at a 2-for-$10 introductory price in the stores.

The extension of the eatwell private brand - Fresh & Easy uses F&E as a co-brand on the items - into the meat and value-added meat categories is part of a major expansion of the brand, which the El Segundo, California based grocery chain began in December 2011.

In January of this year Tesco's Fresh & Easy began launching numerous new eatwell items in the brand's existing categories - fresh-prepared foods/refrigerated, dry grocery and frozen foods. That launch, which includes about 60 new items, continues this month.

In the summer of 2010 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market extended its eatwell private brand into the dry grocery category, as we reported in this story -  August 18, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Extending 'eatwell' Healthy Foods' Private Brand Into Dry Grocery Category. Prior to that the brand was only used for fresh-prepared foods.

Up until late last year the grocery chain offered just a few eatwell items in the dry grocery category, such as canned chili and snack crackers.

But beginning in December 2011 and continuing through the present, Fresh & Easy has been launching numerous eatwell dry grocery items, such as: boxed breakfast cereals, instant oatmeal, whole grain and vegetable pasta SKUs, pasta and grill sauces, boxed meal kits (like Macaroni & Cheeseburger; just add meat and prepare), chocolate chip fiber snack bars and some others.

Fresh & Easy also introduced refrigerated tortillas under the eatwell brand in January, a line of frozen dairy desserts, bagged Italian salad kits (produce), a line of refrigerated heat-and-eat soups similar to those if offers under its Fresh & Easy brand, and numerous new fresh-prepared meal items.

The grocery chain also promoted its eatwell healthy foods' brand in January (see the instant oatmeal and cereal endcap display below, for example), offering numerous items at sale prices in its weekly advertising circulars and via its "Friends of Fresh & Easy" e-mail flyer, which it now combines with its "Friends" loyalty/rewards card.

For example, for about three weeks last month Fresh & Easy promoted its eatwell frozen meals, which as we reported here the grocer introduced in September 2010, a month after it extended the healthy foods' private brand into the dry grocery category in August 2010, in its stores, as well as featuring them in the two promotional media vehicles noted above.

As you can see in the photos below, which were taken at a store in Northern California on January 7, 2012 by Fresh & Easy Buzz's senior correspondent, Tesco's Fresh & Easy gave its eatwell brand frozen meals multiple facings and plenty of freezer case space during the January 2012 promotion.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market introduced its eatwell healthy foods' brand in April, 2010, a story we broke here - April 1, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch New 'EatWell' Brand Lower-Sodium, Fewer-Calorie Prepared Foods Line; and followed up on with this piece the next day - April 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy's New 'EatWell' Healthier Fresh, Prepared Foods Brand to Hit Stores on April 7.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy announced the launch of the eatwell brand not long after the publication of our April 1, 2010 story.

By extending its eatwell brand into the meat and value-added meat, the healthy foods private brand is now represented across all consumable food categories at Tesco's Fresh & Easy - dry grocery, frozen foods, perishables- refrigerated, produce, fresh-prepared foods and meat, which is something we reported over a year ago that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market would do.

Take a look at this piece we published in February 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle?

Also see these additional stories about Fresh & Easy's eatwell brand:

January 4, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Kicks Off 2011 With an Appeal to 'eatwell'

January 6, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hopes 'eatwell' Makes For A Healthy 2011

 January 18, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Extra-Low Every Day Low Price' Merchandising Program

January 20, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'eatwell' Brand Frozen Meals Take Center Stage In-Store This Week

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

September 10, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Extending its 'eatwell' Healthy Foods' Brand Into Frozen Food Category

September 27, 2010: First Items in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'eatwell' Brand Frozen Foods Line Arriving in Store Freezer Cases This Week

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

April 1, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch New 'EatWell' Brand Lower-Sodium, Fewer-Calorie Prepared Foods Line

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

[Editor's Note: All photographs credit Fresh & Easy Buzz. The eatwell Sausages, Chicken Bake and Stir-Fry photos were taken February 12, 2012. The eatwell grocery endcap display photogrpahs was taken January 9, 2012, The eatwell frozen meal photos were taken January 7, 2012.]

Tesco Celebrates the Holidays With Mince Pie Ice Cream in the UK and Pumpkin Spice at Fresh & Easy in America

Private Brand Showcase

A slice of pie, often with a scoop or more of ice cream on the side à la Mode style, is a post-Christmas dinner dessert tradition throughout much of the world, particularly in Europe and America.

For example, no proper British family would be caught dead without having a mince pie on the cupboard for dessert on Christmas Day.

By the same token, most American families include pumpkin pie as part of their holiday dessert offerings, often along with apple pie, and in some cases even mince.

As any kitchen anthropologist knows, when it comes to pie à la Mode, there are two types of eaters: the ones who like just a bit of ice cream to go along with a healthy slice of pie; and those ice cream lovers who prefer just a smidgen of pie to go along with their ice cream.

Those in the latter camp can rejoice this holiday season - at least if you live in the United Kingdom, California, Nevada or Arizona.

Why: Because Tesco in the United Kingdom and its sibling in America, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which has 184 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, are celebrating the holiday mince and pumpkin pie traditions in each respective country with special seasonal ice cream flavors.

Just in time for Christmas, Tesco has come out with mince pie ice cream under its Tesco Finest premium private brand, which it's offering in most of its 2,700-plus stores in the United Kingdom.

The ice cream is the second seasonal Tesco Finest brand product it's come out with a mince pie theme and taste. The other one is noted and pictured in this December 4, 2011 story: 'Merry Crispmas' ... From Tesco.

The Tesco Finest Mince Pie Ice Cream includes mincemeat made with French brandy and ruby port wine and bits of buttery pastry (the crust). There's also citrus and loads of spices, including cloves and cinnamon.

The limited edition ice cream, which is designed to stand alone rather than merely share a plate with mince pie, although mince pie lovers might find themselves "double-dipping" in a like-for-like à la Mode fashion.

Fresh & Easy, which is owned by Tesco, is offering its own frozen version of pumpkin pie, with its limited edition fresh&easy brand Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream, pictured above.

The ice cream, which retails for $3.99 (1.25 quarts) is spiced with nutmeg, ginger and cloves, similar to how a traditional pumpkin pie is.

Like the Tesco Finest Mince Pie Ice Cream, Fresh & Easy's Pumpkin pie version is also designed to stand alone, although we see numerous à la Mode opportunities. A scoop or two sharing the same plate as a white or vanilla cake might make for a nice taste contrast, for example. Sort of turning the pie (or cake) à la Mode tradition on its head, so to speak.

Mince pie used to be a much more popular Christmas holiday dessert item than it is today in the United States. It remains so for Americans of a certain age but ask most Americans under about age 60 if they would like mince pie for dessert come Sunday and, with some exceptions (British expats for one), the answer will be no thanks.

Pumpkin pie remains a holiday favorite in America though, its popularity usually knowing no age boundaries. For example, here at Fresh & Easy Buzz we know numerous kids as young as 6-years-old and on up who love the spicy custard pies, and not just for the holidays.

But ice cream could be another matter. For example, we've searched pretty comprehensively and haven't found a mince pie ice cream in the United States, perhaps for the reason described above regarding the overall popularity of mince pie in America.

But perhaps those mince pie adverse younger folks might like the pie's flavors offered in ice cream form?

As such, perhaps Fresh & Easy's product developers should consider giving a fresh&easy brand mince pie ice cream a go next holiday season. The recipe is in the family, after all.

And even if younger consumers don't take to it, there's definitely a age 60-plus (which happens to be the fastest growing population cohort in the United States) or so group of people out there in California, Nevada and Arizona that would likely give it a try.

[Photo Credit #1: fresh&easy Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream = Fresh & Easy Buzz.]
[Photo Credit #2: Tesco Finest Mince Pie Ice Cream = @Cinabar, via Twitter.]

Recent Private Brand Showcase Stories

December 5, 2011: The Tesco Christmas Dinner Pizza - A Festive Feast Without the Fork

December 4, 2011: 'Merry Crispmas' ... From Tesco 

December 1, 2011: Master Chocolate-Maker Tells the Story Behind Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Holiday Confections

November 14, 2011: Safeway Puts its Brand on Ice in San Francisco For the Holidays

November 13, 2011: Trader Joe's Introduces 'Wasabi Arugula' ... Minus the Wasabi

November 9, 2011: Glatt to Meet You Paisan - Kosher 'Meats' Italian at Mollie Stone's Markets

Readers: Click here to read all past stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature.

The Tesco Christmas Dinner Pizza - A Festive Feast Without the Fork

Private Brand Showcase

United Kingdom-based Tesco, which owns 184-store El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, is having trolley carts full of fun in Britain this year developing and merchandising limited edition private brand food products for the Christmas holiday season.

For example, yesterday (read here) we wrote about Tesco's limited edition Tesco Finest brand "Crispmas Dinner" collection, a line (range in British industry terminology) of Christmas dinner-inspired crisps (potato chips) in flavors like mince pie and roasted turkey with stuffing, which it's now offering for sale in its stores in the UK, for the Christmas and New Years' the holiday season.

But saying "Merry Crispmas" to shoppers with its "Crispmas Dinner" snack crisp collection is merely the tip of the festive feast-inspired iceberg of creativity coming from Tesco's private brand product developers.

Enter Tesco's first-ever Tesco private brand Christmas dinner pizza (pictured at top and below), which the retailer is introducing in its stores in the UK this week.

The chilled, ready-to-heat pizza, which is a carnivore's delight, features a turkey, sage and onion stuffing, and is piled high with sausage, smoked bacon and mozzarella cheese.

Here's how chilled foods range product developer Louise Sampson, the proud parent of the turkey and pork-packed Christmas dinner pizza, describes the Tesco holiday creation:  "We set out to create a pizza for all those people who simply can’t wait until Christmas Day for the festive feast and wanted a sneak taste beforehand. We have created a pizza worthy of the big occasion with a stone-baked thin base which allows the toppings to take centre stage."

The timing of the Christmas dinner pizza could be spot on for Tesco.

Why? Because pizza has recently become the most-popular prepared foods item (chilled and frozen) sold in UK supermarkets.

For example, in 2010 British consumers bought a total of 466 million pizzas from UK stores, as compared to a mere 156 million curries, according to data compiled in August of this year by Kantar Worldwide's UK office.

Tesco has been taking advantage of the booming pizza market in the UK - its corporate spokesperson says over the last 18 months its been overhauling, upgrading and developing new pizza varieties, and now offers 119 different refrigerated and frozen pizza varieties in its stores there.

Tesco is the leading food, grocery and general merchandise retailer in the UK.

It has an about 30% market share, according to research firm Kantar Worldwide, which is nearly as much as the number two and three chains, Walmart-owned ASDA and Sainsbury's, have combined, which is about 36%. Number four supermarket chain Morrisons has about 13% .

Together the four supermarket chains are refereed to in the UK as the "Big Four," largely because together they account for nearly 80% of all the food and groceries sold in the nation.

The Tesco Christmas dinner pizza not only is a creative seasonal item for Tesco, it also allows for plenty of food product fun and buzz creation. We're writing about it after all.

The idea of taking the makings a traditional Christmas dinner and putting it on a pizza might seem odd at first. However, with the exception of the turkey and stuffing, the other items - turkey, ham, bacon, onions and cheese - are pizza-topping mainstays. In the case of turkey, we're surprised it isn't used more often than is it as a pizza-topping, particularly since roasted chicken has become a popular choice for more upscale pizza offerings.

In our analysis and opinion, Tesco's Christmas dinner pizza could serve two classes of consumer, those, like Louse Sampson opined about, who want an early taste of what will be their traditional Christmas dinner to come in a few weeks, and those who, not wanting to go to all the work of shopping for and preparing a traditional Christmas dinner for Christmas Day, instead buy a few Tesco Christmas dinner pizza's along with their favorite beverages and keep it simple, enjoying a festive feast without all the hassle - and without the fork.

Suggestion: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain should jump on the Christmas dinner pizza bandwagon and whip up a limited edition version of its own at its kitchen facility in Riverside County, California.

Why? No U.S. grocery chain offers such an item, for one. But even more so, it would be a fun and attention-getting creation (and in our estimation perhaps even a good seller) - the Fresh & Easy Christmas dinner pizza - for the grocer this Christmas and New Years' holiday season.

The clock is ticking. But there's still time if the Fresh & Easy fresh-prepared foods' product development team obtains the recipe from the mother ship in the UK this week and gets producing, post-haste.

Photo credit: SMS, exclusive to Fresh & Easy Buzz.

Recent Private Brand Showcase stories

December 4, 2011: 'Merry Crispmas' ... From Tesco 

December 1, 2011: Master Chocolate-Maker Tells the Story Behind Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Holiday Confections

November 14, 2011: Safeway Puts its Brand on Ice in San Francisco For the Holidays

November 13, 2011: Trader Joe's Introduces 'Wasabi Arugula' ... Minus the Wasabi

November 9, 2011: Glatt to Meet You Paisan - Kosher 'Meats' Italian at Mollie Stone's Markets

October 28, 2011: October 28, 2011: Move Over Chipotle - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introduces its Own Brand of Burrito Bowls

Readers: Click here to read all past stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature.

Trader Joe's Introduces 'Wasabi Arugula' ... Minus the Wasabi

Private Brand Showcase

Trader Joe's, which we often refer to as an iconic grocer because of its rabid fan base and creative private brand development and merchandising, has introduced an interesting new addition to its eponymous store brand fresh, packaged produce line - Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula.

What makes the new Wasabi Arugula item interesting isn't so much what's in the bag though. Instead, it's what's not inside that grabbed our attention.

Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula doesn't include actual wasabi. Instead, what's inside the bags is a spicier version of the common arugula, also called rocket lettuce, that's sold in many U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores.

The grocer, which has about 360 stores in the U.S., already offers basic arugula or rocket lettuce under its Trader Joe's brand, packaged in cello bags similar to the new "Wasabi Arugula". Therefore, when its private brand development team and the marketers at the corporate offices in Southern California decided to introduce the spicier arugula variety under the same brand, they needed a catchy name. TJ's specializes in catchy names for its various private brand products, after all.

Enter wasabi, that extremely popular - except among the faint of palate - Japanese condiment (it's Japanese horseradish to be specific) - that's not only the staple at every sushi bar in the world but also provides a special kick when paired with many types of foods (and with other condiments like mayonnaise). it's also a catchy and fun word to say. If you don't believe us, say Wasabi fast three times straight right now.

The result: Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula. And below the product name on the package a tag line says: "Arugula with a little extra punch."

The Wasabi Arugula packaging isn't deceptive. It makes no claim of containing actual wasabi - although including a packet of wasabi salad dressing would make some lovers of the Asian condiment do back flips of joy.

But when spotting the package of Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula in the produce case from a slight distance away in the grocery aisle (point-of-purchase), the first thing that does come to mind is: "Interesting, arugula with wasabi." That is, until you pick the package up and look at it closely. In other words, the name (the hook) works to draw shoppers' attention to the product. That's good brand marketing.

The 7oz bags of Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula sell for about $2.39-$2.59, depending on where the particular TJ's grocery market is located in the U.S.

We didn't see any cross-merchandising of chopsticks near where the Trader Joe's Wasabi Arugula was displayed in the refrigerated produce case. Doing so might be a cute idea though, in keeping with Trader Joe's whimsical merchandising philosophy.

Related Stories

November 9, 2011: Glatt to Meet You Paisan - Kosher 'Meats' Italian at Mollie Stone's Markets

October 28, 2011: Move Over Chipotle - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introduces its Own Brand of Burrito Bowls

October 26, 2011: Farms ... at Safeway? Grocer Launches its Newest Private Brand ... 'Safeway Farms'

>View all the past stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature at these links - private brand showcase, private brands showcase.

Glatt to Meet You Paisan - Kosher 'Meats' Italian at Mollie Stone's Markets

Although the item won't be introduced until early next year, Mollie Stone's is giving Fresh & Easy Buzz and our readers the first look at the label for its Nonna Luisa brand organic tomatoes, above.


Private Brand Showcase

Central to the 26-year run of success for privately-owned Mollie Stone's Markets, which operates nine supermarkets in the San Francisco Bay Area, is its format, which combines a strong selection of everyday food, grocery and general merchandise essentials - what it calls neccessity shopping - with a healthy assortment of specialty, gourmet, ethnic, natural, organic and fresh-prepared foods, which it calls passion shopping.

In many ways the format is the brand for Mollie Stone's.

And speaking of branding, a growing and evolving aspect of the grocer's neccessity and passion shopping approach and format - the stores are neither basic supermarkets or specialty markets - is its focus on private brand development, merchandising and promotion.

For example, although Mollie Stone's has only nine-stores, the grocer, which is majority-owned by partners Mike Stone and Dave Bennett, has three private product brands of its own - Mollie Stone's, which it uses on assorted dry grocery items, fresh meats, produce and baked goods; Mollie O Organic (for organic products); and Nonna Luisa, which is the retailer's Italian foods' brand.

Earlier this year Stone and Bennett also introduced the first item in what we call their "personal brand." That brand is Mike & Dave's, taken from the partners' first names. The first product is Mike & Dave's Wing Sauce.

Mike & Dave's is technically a fourth private brand for Mollie Stone's. But we call it a "personal brand" because not only is it named after the two partners who serve as each others wingmen, but they're also marketing the brand to other retailers via wholesalers and distributors, in addition to selling it in the nine Mollie Stone's stores. Therefore it's a venture product brand for the partners in addition to one sold in their stores.

There will be additional items under the Mike & Dave's brand, according to Dave Bennett, who is the retail operations, marketing and buying/merchandising-focused half of the ownership team. Stone focuses on the overall running of the chain from a headquarters perspective, along with finance, administration, new store development and other related tasks.

Mollie Stone's, which has its headquarters office near the bay in the Marin County town of Mill Valley - its stores are in San Francisco (three units) and (one each in) Sausalito, Greenbrae, (Marin County), Burlingame, San Bruno, San Mateo (San Francisco Peninsula) and Palo Alto (Silicon Valley) - is currently beefing-up its private brand offerings as part of that neccessity shopping/passion shopping overall brand its been developing since Stone and Bennett founded the small but high-volume chain in 1985.

For example, this week the grocer is introducing a line of fresh-cut Glatt Kosher meats under its Mollie Stone's private brand in a number of its San Francisco Bay Area stores, including the three small in size but high in sales volume markets it operates in San Francisco.

The Mollie Stone's brand Glatt Kosher meat line features a selection of  in-store cut, prepared and packaged cuts of beef roasts and steaks, ground meats and other varieties, as you can see in the photos above and below.

Kosher foods are a specialty of Mollie Stone's - and a passion of co-owner Bennett, who is one of the leading kosher category mavens in the food and grocery business.

For example, earlier in Mollie Stone's history, Bennett managed the Palo Alto store in addition to being involved in running the other stores the partners' operated at the time.

Over the years Bennett and his team at the Palo Alto supermarket created one of the most extensive kosher category product assortments of any chain or store in the Bay Area.

They also focused on enhancing the kosher offering for the key Jewish holidays, which has resulted in the Palo Alto location becoming a shopping venue for many Jewish consumers from throughout the nine-county Bay Area, particularly during the key Jewish holidays like Passover. There are nearly 7 million residents in the region, many of whom are observant Jews.

But Bennett isn't a kosher-centric kind of grocer when it comes to private brands or products of any kind, nor is Mollie Stone's a on-trick food retailer when it comes to ethnic and specialty foods and its own brands.

For example, Bennett tells us Mollie Stone's is in the process of growing its Nonna Luisa Italian foods private brand, which is named after the most important member of any Italian household, not to mention the entire culture. That person, of course, is Nonna (grandmother).

The grocer, according to Bennett, is in the process of adding two new items to its small but growing Nonna Luisa private brand line, both imported from Italy - shelf-stable Gnocchi and Organic San Marzano tomatoes. The label for the tomatoes is pictured at the top of this story.

Bennett tells Fresh & Easy Buzz the new items are will be introduced in the nine Mollie Stone's stores between January-March of next year. There are currently pasta, oils and vinegars under the Nona Luisa brand.

We aren't surprised Mollie Stone's has decided to grow its Nonna Luisa Italian foods' brand because, just as Bennett is the in-house kosher foods maven, the grocer also has its own in-house Italian foods maven, who's also a mensch, and has been with Stone and Bennett since nearly the beginning in 1985, when Mollie Stone's Markets' was founded.

That maven, mensch and Italophile, all rolled up into one, is Angelo Demante, who's managed the Sausalito Mollie Stone's grocery market  since it opened in 1988.

Demante, who's worked in the food and grocery retailing business for over a half century, not only is and speaks Italian, he knows the Italian foods' category inside-out, and regularly creates in the Sausalito store some of the best-looking Italian food product displays we've seen, particularly during holidays such as Columbus Day, Easter and Christmas, when many Italian specialty foods are popular and in demand.

In fact, we're told by a source we're only identifying as Deep Clerk that Demante, who may be the oldest-in-age but youngest-in-spirit - particularly when it comes to the Italian foods category - supermarket store manager in America, may already have an end-cap picked out in the Sausalito store for the new Nonna Luisa brand Gnocchi and canned tomatoes set to be introduced early next year.

If Mollie Stone's can make the launch happen in January, the timing could be perfect: Angelo Demante, the grocer's Italian foods' maven and mensch, can simply replace boss and kosher category maven Dave Bennett's current holiday kosher foods end-cap with his own, featuring the two new Nonna Luisa items imported from Italy, which would be another great way for kosher to meet Italian at Mollie Stone's Markets'.

Related Stories

May 16, 2011: 'Wing Man-to-Wing Man' - Mollie Stone's Markets' 'Mike & Dave' Create, Set to Launch 'Personal Brand' Wing Sauce

June 23, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets' Owners' Eponymous Mike & Dave's Wing Sauce Grows Display Wings

July 14, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets' Takes Next Step in its Social Media Journey By Hiring First In-House Manager

August 4, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets' Year of Passionate Improvement Continues With Launch of New Website Tomorrow; But There's Also More In-Store

Read additional stories about Mollie Stone's Market here.

You can view all the stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature, including our most recent about Safeway Store's new private brand and Fresh & Easy's new burrito bowls, here.

Move Over Chipotle - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introduces its Own Brand of Burrito Bowls

Private Brand Showcase: Fresh-Prepared Foods

Taking a cue perhaps from the super-popular Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has introduced a new line of refrigerated, fresh-prepared ready-to-heat burrito bowls under its fresh&easy kitchen fresh-prepared foods private brand.

The 15 ounce burrito bowls (pictured at top), which come in three varieties -  pollo asado (chicken), carna asada (beef) and carnitas (pork) - recently hit the refrigerated display cases in the 183 Fresh & Easy fresh food and grocery markets in California (134 units), Arizona (28 stores) and Nevada (21 units).

In addition to the meat main course, the burrito bowls also contain ingredients eaters would expect to see inside a traditional tortilla-wrapped burrito, including rice and beans. We spotted corn in one of the bowls as well.

The everyday retail price for all three varieties of the fresh&easy kitchens' burrito bowls is currently $4.49 each.

Chipotle's famous burrito bowl.

Burrito bowls,which are essentially open-face traditional burritos in a bowl, have been a big hit for Chipotle Mexican Grill, the natural foods and ingredients-focused fast-casual food chain that's been growing rapidly since the first restaurants were opened in 1993.

There are currently about 1,200 Chipotle restaurants, with many more on the way. Most of the units are in the U.S. Chipotle also has restaurants in Canada and the United Kingdom.

The chain, which has as its motto "Food With Integrity," takes great care in sourcing the ingredients it uses in it ready-to-eat food items. It also puts a major effort on ethical and local food sourcing, along with environmental sustainability.

Unlike most U.S. fast food chains, Chipotle doesn't attempt to offer every sort of food combination possible on its menu, instead offering a limited assortment of items, using a mass customization approach that offers the basics, such as beef, chicken and pork as the base, and then lets customers customize the offering and build their own meals. For example, see the burrito bowl menu item here.

At $4.49 each, Fresh & Easy's burrito bowls retail for 30%-40% less than Chipotle's.

A number of U.S. natural foods companies have had frozen burrito bowls on the market for some time. Among the most popular brands are Evol Foods, Amy's Kitchen and Helen's Kitchen. The food-makers offer all-vegetarian varieties of burrito bowls as well as the meat versions. The frozen bowls take just a few minutes to heat in a microwave oven.

All three of the above noted brands are carried by numerous grocery chains, independents and natural foods retailers.

For example, Whole Foods Market carries the Evol and Amy's Kitchen burrito bowls in most of its 300-plus stores in the United States. The Amy's Kitchen brand is popular with big supermarket chains as well as in natural foods stores.

We've also spotted ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat burrito bowls in the deli/prepared-foods departments (refrigerated and heated cases) in a number of Whole Foods stores, including in California.

Iconic specialty grocery chain Trader Joe's also offers a line of frozen burrito bowls under its Trader Joe's store brand. Varieties include chicken, beef and pork.

California, Nevada and Arizona, the three western states where Tesco has its 183 Fresh & Easy stores, are, along with New Mexico, Texas and Colorado, the most Mexican food-focused states in America. The traditional burrito, for example, has become the first cousin to the hamburger among eaters in the three states, regardless of nationality.

The burrito bowl, in our culinary analysis, is sort of the California-Mex version of the traditional burrito - a blend of Mexican food tradition meets California cuisine.

From a culinary perspective the burrito bowl can also be conceptualized perhaps as the spicy Latin relative of the open-face sandwich, which is served on a plate rather than in a bowl though, and hasn't been a very popular restaurant item in America since the 1970's.

The burrito-minus-the-tortilla is becoming increasing popular, particularly in the west. Therefore, if Fresh & Easy displays its new private brand line of burrito bowls properly in-store, which it's currently doing in our observation, and promotes the new line, we think the grocer just might have a winner on its hands.

We also think a couple all-vegetarian burrito bowl varieties, and maybe a couple breakfast burrito bowls, are the  logical SKUs for a line extension when the time comes.

[Readers: Click on this link - private brand showcase - to read a selection of related stories.]

[Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Farms ... at Safeway? Grocer Launches its Newest Private Brand ... 'Safeway Farms'

Private Brand Showcase

Farms ... At Safeway?

The answer to the sentence above is yes, if the specific question is ... What's the name of Safeway Stores' newest private brand.

Pleasanton, California-based Safeway Stores, Inc., which we've nicknamed the "Private Brand Factory" because of its prolific practice of creating new food and grocery brands, is this week launching its newest own brand - "Safeway Farms" - which it's debuting on a line of packaged fresh produce items and salads.

We counted around 17 SKUs in the fresh produce and packaged lettuce/salad categories under the new Safeway Farms fresh produce brand in store visits.

Those items include fresh produce category staples like packaged Red Leaf, Green Leaf and Romain lettuce, bagged spinach, and petite baby carrots (pictured at top and below), along with bagged salad blends - American Blend, Spring Mix and Italian Mix, for example - salad kits, like Caesar and Southwestern Ranch, and ready-to-eat salad bowls in four varieties.

We also spotted one Safeway Farms steam-in-the-bag SKU, which is a steam-and-eat vegetable medley item.

The grocer's new Safeway Farms brand also features a selection of ready-to-eat salad bowls, called "Safeway Farms Cafe Bowl," in varieties including Cranberry-Walnut, Cobb and two others.

A list of the Safeway Farms' SKUs we've identified is at the end of this piece.

Safeway Stores hasn't announced its new private brand to the press via a press release or statement. Therefore it's likely you're reading about Safeway Farms for the first time in Fresh & Easy Buzz.

With the addition of Safeway Farms to its store brand portfolio, Safeway Stores, Inc. now offers three private brands in its fresh produce departments. In addition to the new brand, the others include - O' Organics (for organic packaged produce) and Eating Right, which is the retailer's healthy foods brand.

Safeway Stores' also offers a few packaged produce items under its "Safeway" value brand. The "Safeway" brand will go away in produce however, in favor of Safeway Farms, we're told.

Dual corporate name, no corporate name PB strategy

Safeway Farms is the second new private brand the supermarket chain has introduced this year that includes the the "Safeway" corporate name as part of the brand name.

The other Safeway name-inclusive brand is Safeway Kitchens, which we wrote about here in May. The brand featuring the corporate name was launched earlier this year, featuring a variety of bread and bakery items. The supermarket chain recently extended the Safeway Kitchens brand, which we said in the May 2011 story it would do, from the bread and bakery items into a two or three SKU line of breakfast cereals.

The Northern California-based grocer now offers four private brands featuring the Safeway name. Those brands are: "Safeway" (it's everyday value store brand), Safeway Select (a premium-oriented brand), Safeway Kitchens (so far in the bread/baked goods and breakfast cereal categories), and now Safeway Farms, which it's debuting in the fresh produce category.

At the other end of its private brand spectrum, Safeway Stores, Inc. offers numerous brands that don't include the "Safeway" name as a part of the brand name.

Those brands include: 'O Organics, which has become the leading organic foods brand in the U.S. with over $1 billion in annual sales; Eating Right (healthy foods) and Open Nature, the natural foods brand the supermarket chain introduced early this year with a line of fresh meats and poultry, and has since expanded into multiple categories encompassing perishables (deli, dairy), bakery (including a full line of breads), frozen foods and dry grocery (salad dressings, breakfast cereals, cookies and crackers and more).

Additional non-Safeway labeled private brands include: Signature Cafe (ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat fresh-prepared foods); Primo Taglio (lunch meats, cheese and related perishable deli items); Rancher's Reserve (fresh beef in the meat department); Waterfront Bistro (fresh and frozen packaged fish and seafood); Lucerne (dairy products); mom to mom (a line of baby products including disposable diapers, infant formula and toiletries); Priority Pet Care (pet supplies); and Bright Green, which is a line of environmental-friendly or "green" household product (cleaners, paper goods, light bulbs) and general merchandise items.

In early summer Safeway also introduced a new value-priced and value-positioned private brand called Pantry Essentials.  So far we've seen a handful of consumable items under the new brand, including toaster pastries and pancake mix in the dry grocery category, and packaged hot dogs in fresh meat.

Safeway Stores has also replaced the non-consumable products it previously offered under its Basic Red brand, which before that was called Value Red, with the Pantry Essentials brand. The products are household items - toilet tissue, paper towels, facial tissue, garbage bags, paper plates, plastic cups and a few others.

Safeway sells its 'O Organics and Eating Right brands to other retailers in the U.S. and overseas through an entrepreneurial venture business it created in 2009. It plans to offer its fast-growing (in SKU-count and dollar sales) Open Nature natural foods' brand as part of that brand marketing and wholesaling business in the near future, a source in a position to know at the grocer's headquarters in Pleasanton recently told Fresh & Easy Buzz.

Meanwhile, the addition of the Safeway Farms' brand and the new produce items under it demonstrates that Safeway Stores, Inc. plans to continue extending the "Safeway" product brand name (and corporate name) throughout store departments - it's in the dry grocery, bakery, perishables, frozen food and general merchandise categories under the Safeway and Safeway Kitchens brand names already - along with putting a focus on its various non-Safeway-named private brands, the two most recent being the price and value focused Pantry Essentials brand and the value-added Open Nature, both of which were launched this year.

Below are the Safeway Farms' brand produce SKUs we've identified:

Packaged Specialty Produce
Safeway Farms Petite Carrots
Safeway Farms Steam In Bag Vegetable Medley

Packaged Lettuce
Safeway Farms Romain Lettuce Singles
Safeway Farms Hearts of Romain
Safeway Farms Green Leaf Lettuce
Safeway Farms Red Leaf Lettuce

Safeway Farms (packaged) Lettuce Mixes
Spring Mix
American Blend
Baby Spinach

Safeway Farms (packaged) Salad Kits
Apple, Blue Cheese & Pecan
Southwestern Ranch
Italian Salad
Supreme Caesar

Safeway Farms Cafe (salad) Bowls
Cranberry-Walnut Salad
Chef Salad
Cobb Salad
Spinach Dijon Salad

Related Stories

June 19, 2011: Safeway Has A Picnic in San Francisco Featuring the 'World's Longest Picnic Table' to Showcase its 'Open Nature' Natural Foods' Brand

May 28, 2011: At The 'Brand Factory': Safeway Stores' Launches Newest Private Brand - 'Safeway Kitchens'

February 7, 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle?

January 5, 2011: Safeway Adds 'Open Nature' to its Natural-Organic-Healthy Foods' Private Brand Portfolio

April 8, 2011: The Branded 'Signature Cafe' in Safeway Stores' Soon to Open 'Social Safeway' in Washington D.C. Should Turn A Few Heads

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

Click on this link - Safeway Stores Inc. - to read additional stories about Safeway.

Click on this link - private brand showcase - to read past stories in our 'Private Brand Showcase' feature.

Northern California-Based Grocer Raley's Adds Private Brand Value With its Family Picnic Pack

Raley's adds value with its Family Picnic Pack in two key ways: The product's the-whole-is-greater-then-the-sum-of-its-items nature offers a convenient and affordable concept for shoppers; and the reusable thermal carry bag provides a value that keeps on giving long after the picnic is over and the food is consumed. [Photo credit: Fresh  & Easy Buzz.]

Private Brand Showcase

We're always on the lookout for retailers that come up with creative, value-added ways to merchandise and promote their own-brand products.

One such development that recently caught our eye is the Family Picnic Pack created and now being offered for sale by West Sacramento, California-based supermarket chain Raley's, which operates 133 stores under the Raley's (superstores), Nob Hill Foods, Bel Air (supermarkets) and Food Source (discount warehouse) banners in Northern California and Northern Nevada.

Raley's Family Picnic Pack features all the fixings needed for a summer picnic (except for the drinks and napkins), and includes a reusable thermal carry-bag to tote everything in.

The centerpiece of the retailer's picnic pack is a 16-piece assortment (4 breasts, 4 wings, 4 thighs, 4 drumsticks) of Raley's in-store-made ready-to-eat fried chicken, which comes chilled so it can be kept cold in the thermal carry bag.

Along with the fried chicken, the Family Picnic Pack includes a 3lb container of potato or macaroni salad, a 15-count package of cookies from the in-store bakery, a 12-count package of paper plates and a dozen-pack of  forks, all under the Raley's store brand.

In addition to the selection of Raley's brand ready-to-eat foods, paper plates and cutlery, the grocer's Family Picnic Pack also includes a package (12-count) of King's (brand) Hawaiian Rolls, which is a popular brand and item in the market regions where it has stores.

The reusable thermal bag is designed to keep all of the refrigerated items at a proper temperature while traveling to and while at the picnic, along with serving as a carry bag to hold the Family Picnic Pack, which is retailing for $19.99 and designed to feed eight people, which works out to just $2.50 per-person.

Raley's Family Picnic Pack is a hit on three levels from a retailer product creation standpoint, in our analysis.

First, it's value-added, meaning it takes various existing single items sold in the stores and bundles them into a seasonal (summer picnic) theme, thereby creating a product (the Family Picnic Pack) which previously didn't exist.

A major benefit of this is that most customers aren't likely to purchase each of the private brand items contained in the picnic pack individually while on a shopping trip. However, by bundling the products into a thematic single product, customers are more likely to do so because of the suggestive merchandising and selling aspect of the Family Picnic Pack.

The added value comes both in creating the meal concept of the Family Picnic Pack - (almost) everything needed for a picnic - along with including the reusable thermal carry bag as part of the package.

Second, by focusing the picnic pack item selection primarily on Raley's brand products, the retailer not only can achieve incremental sales on the own-brand items (see above) but also achieve secondary marketing and product promotion for the private brand ready-to-eat and non foods items.

For example, buying the Family Picnic Pack might be the first time many customers will have tried some or all of the Raley's brand products that comprise it. So in that instance it has the ability to generate brand and item trial, which is a key brand marketing objective.

Further, since all but one of the items in the picnic pack are private brand, it also serves as a promotional vehicle for the Raley's brand products.

Lastly, at $19.99 the Family Picnic Pack is affordable - the total cost is less than buying the fried chicken, potato or macaroni salad and rolls at KFC, and the plates and forks separately, for example, plus you get the thermal carry bag (added value) - while still providing a high single-SKU-ring for Raley's.

For example, for each shopper who adds a Family Picnic Pack to his or her grocery purchases at a Raley's-owned store, that total order jumps by $20, which is music to a grocer's ears because the more a customer spends during a single shopping trip (market basket size) the better it usually is for a food retailer's profit margin on the order.

Additionally, affordability combined with a high ring is a great combination for a retailer, assuming the product sells, because it offers a greater opportunity for higher volume sales. When the $19.99 Family Picnic Pack is broken down to its per-serving price of $2.50 person (for eight), which Raley's isn't doing in its promoting and advertising of the seasonal item but should, the value becomes much more apparent. A compare the price-per-serving to KFC sign in the stores would likely sell additional picnic packs for example.

The family-owned grocer, which has about $3.1 billion in annual sales, is currently offering its Family Picnic Pack in selected Raley's, Bel Air and Nob Hill Foods banner stores. According to a Raley's spokesperson, plans call for the retailer to offer the picnic pack through most of August. Customers can also pre-order it on the grocer's website for later pick-up in-store.

In addition to its flagship "Raley's" store brand, the West Sacramento-headquartered chain also offers products under its Sunnyside Farms and Bayview Farms (dairy products) private brands, both of which it shares with Modesto, California-based competitor Save Mart Supermarkets, and Nob Hill Trading Company, which is an upscale-oriented specialty foods' brand.

Raley's is also an owner-member of the Topco private brand development and marketing cooperative. The grocer features a number of the cooperative's brands in its stores, including Full Circle, which it uses as its natural and organic products' store brand.

Adding value like Raley's has done with its Family Picnic Pack not only is a good way for food and grocery retailers to increase sale but it's also an excellent way to draw attention to their private or store brands. And using seasonal themes, such as summer and picnics, affords grocers an ongoing way to create value added items like Raley's has done with its summer season picnic pack.

Related Stories

July 20, 2011: Limited Edition Sunnyside Farms Ice Cream Flavors, Including the Latest Featuring an Iconic Cookie Brand, Hit Save Mart and Raley's Stores For the Summer Season

April 20, 2011: Raley's Supermarkets Introducing New 'Raley's Tonight' Fresh Heat-and-Eat Gourmet Entrees

October 30, 2010: Raley's Launches New 'Raley's TO GO' Pre-Packaged, Refrigerated Fresh-Prepared Foods Line

Click here to read additional stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature.

Beyond the Press Release: A Couple Reasons Why Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Expanding its 'Gourmet' Private Brand

Private Brand Showcase
Analysis

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced today it's introducing 12 new fresh-refrigerated ready-to-heat food items under its "fresh&easy Gourmet" brand, which it introduced into its stores in California, Nevada and Arizona in January of this year.

In today's press release, which you can view here, Tesco's Fresh & Easy says it introduced the "gourmet" fresh-prepared foods brand in February 2011.

It's true February is when Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced the debut of the brand in a press release.

But "fresh&easy Gourmet" was actually launched in January of this year, as we were the first to report in this story - January 21, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introducing New 'Gourmet' Private Brand - about three weeks before the fresh food and grocery chain announced the launch of the first batch of items under the brand, which it did on February 8 in this press release.

[Read our story here - February 8, 2011 - Private Brand Showcase Déjà Vu: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Announces its New 'Gourmet' Brand - along with this piece from the day before - February 7, 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle? - for details and extensive background and analysis on the "fresh&easy Gourmet brand.]

The 12 new items in the grocer's "fresh&easy Gourmet" line are divided into three categories - fresh-prepared meals, Gourmet (meals) for two and fresh pizzas. All the items are refrigerated and ready-to-heat. (See a list of the 12 new items here.)

Upscale-specialty focus continues

The introduction of the additional SKUs in the "Gourmet" fresh-prepared foods' line just six months after the introduction of the brand is further evidence of an important phenomenon we first pointed out, based on our reporting, observation and analysis, in late 2010 and have continued to offer evidence of since then about Fresh Easy's private brand focus.

That phenomenon is the grocer has since late 2010 focused (not exclusively of course) its own-brand efforts into a more upscale-oriented specialty and higher-end niche in order to attempt to create private brand product differentiation vis-a-vis its competitors, as well as in an attempt to come out with products that can potentially offer higher gross margins, which is something Tesco's Fresh & Easy needs to achieve in a major way. The jury remains out in our analysis as to how this strategy is working thus far.

The quote from John Burry, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's chief commercial officer (head of buying and merchandising in U.S. industry terminology) in the press release issued today also strengthens our analysis, first developed last year, that the Tesco-owned chain of 176-stores has been and continues to move into a more specialty-gourmet-upscale niche in terms of its primary private brand development focus.

The quote: "Customers love our Gourmet products, so we expanded the range with some truly unique and exciting meals only available at Fresh & Easy," said John Burry, Fresh & Easy Chief Commercial Officer. "We are happy to continue to bring more restaurant-quality, fresh food options for our customers to eat at home, as more and more people look for ways to save money."

Our point isn't that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is focusing exclusively on this higher-end and specialty niche. Rather, it's where the grocer has been putting the majority of its private brand focus, starting in late 2010 and continuing to the present.

More unique niche items, higher gross margins

It's all about trying to give consumers a reason to shop at Fresh & Easy - differentiation; unique own-brand products. Think Trader's redux, for example, except in the case of fresh-prepared foods Trader Joe's isn't a key player, as it prefers the frozen foods' category over fresh-prepared when it comes to meals, side-dished and the like.

It's also all about gross margin. In order to break-even with Fresh & Easy by the end of Tesco's 2012/13 fiscal year, which ends February 2013 (about 19 months from now), which Tesco CEO Philip Clarke has publicly said will happen, the grocer must get its gross margins (and overall operating margin) up dramatically. [See - April 19, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Posts Biggest One-Year Loss Yet - $307 Million Loss on Sales of $818 Million.]

Increasing gross margins is one reason Tesco's Fresh & Easy is focusing more on the upscale-specialty niche when it comes to private brand new product development. than it has in the past.

For example, the new "fresh&easy Gourmet" meals for two retail for $9.99 each, which is a higher price-point than the grocer's similar "fresh&easy brand" prepared meals of a similar serving size.

The gross margins just aren't there to date with Fresh & Easy's overall private brand offering, which comprises about 65% of the about 5,000 SKUs offered in its stores.

The higher-end, higher retail price-point items carry a higher gross margin than the mainstream "fresh&easy" brand items do, which explains in part its strategy of focusing on them more so at present.

Expect to see the trend continue when it comes to the grocer's private brand development across all categories.

Related Stories

February 8, 2011: Private Brand Showcase Déjà Vu: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Announces its New 'Gourmet' Brand

February 7, 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle?

January 21, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introducing New 'Gourmet' Private Brand

December 23, 2010: New Items Show Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Niche-Specialty Category Private Brand Development Focus

December 13, 2010: House (Sparking) Cider Rules at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Recent Private Brand Showcase Stories

July 20, 2011: Limited Edition Sunnyside Farms Ice Cream Flavors, Including the Latest Featuring an Iconic Cookie Brand, Hit Save Mart and Raley's Stores For the Summer Season

July 11, 2011: Tesco Developing New Flavors For 'ChokaBlok' Ice Cream Brand; Launching Range in Central Europe

July 7, 2011: Not Just A 'Flash in the Pan': Tesco's New Brand of the Same Name With Potential 'Fresh & Easy Twist' Hitting United Kingdom Store Shelves

July 6, 2011: Tesco Launches New 'Flash in the Pan' Brand Ready Meals in UK Stores; Files Brand Trademark in U.S.

June 26, 2011: Tesco Bringing Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'goodness for kids' Brand to the UK - With a 'Tesco' Twist

June 27, 2011: Tesco Introduces First Items in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Developed 'Tesco goodness for kids' Brand in United Kingdom Stores

June 23, 2011: Mollie Stone's Markets' Owners' Eponymous Mike & Dave's Wing Sauce Grows Display Wings

June 19, 2011: Safeway Has A Picnic in San Francisco Featuring the 'World's Longest Picnic Table' to Showcase its 'Open Nature' Natural Foods' Brand

June 11, 2011: Sliders, Meatballs and More - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introducing Six New Heat & Serve Food Items

You can click on this link - private brand showcase - to read all the stories in our Private Brand Showcase feature.

Limited Edition Sunnyside Farms Ice Cream Flavors, Including the Latest Featuring an Iconic Cookie Brand, Hit Save Mart and Raley's Stores For the Summer Season

Private Brand Showcase

Northern California's second and third-largest supermarket chains (Safeway Stores, Inc. is number one), Modesto-headquartered Save Mart (240 stores with about $5 billion in annual sales) and West Sacramento-based Raley's (131 stores and about $3.1 billion annual sales) have a relationship that's unique among food retailing competitors in the U.S. - the two grocery chains share the same fresh, refrigerated and frozen dairy products' private brand, Sunnyside Farms, as well as a secondary value brand, Bayview Farms.

But the relationship goes far beyond merely sharing the private brand: The two competing chains are also the primary owners of the company that produces the dairy products via a joint-venture called Super Store Industries, based in Lathrop, which is located between Modesto and Stockton in the Northern Central Valley.

Save Mart operates supermarkets under the Save Mart, Lucky, S Mart and Max Value banners, along with a chain of discount warehouse format stores called Food Maxx. The stores are located throughout Northern California and south to Bakersfield in the Central Valley.

Raley's operates three supermarket banners - Raley's (combo superstores as well as supermarkets), Bel Air and Nob Hill Foods, along with a discount warehouse banner of its own, Food Source. It's stores are primarily in the Sacramento region, San Francisco Bay Area, south coast and Northern Central Valley areas. Both chains also have stores in Northern Nevada.

As a part of Super Store Industries, the main feature of which is a buying-merchandising office and massive distribution center for Save Mart and Raley's in Lathrop, the joint-venture also owns two dairy processing plants, Mid Valley Dairy/Sunnyside Farms in Fairfield and Sunnyside Farms in Turlock.

The Fairfield plant produces Sunnyside Farms' and Bayview Farms' fresh fluid milk, while the Turlock plant produces cultured dairy products - cottage cheese, yogurt and the like - and ice cream and frozen novelties under the Sunnyside Farms private brand, which is offered in the various banner stores operated by the two competitors.

And it's Sunnyside Farms brand ice cream which is the topic of this Private Brand Showcase piece today.

Earler this year the Sunnyside Farms' ice cream brand product development team at Super Store Industries' came up with a plan to create a series of limited edition ice cream flavors as a way to celebrate the key summer ice cream selling season and to create some excitement and added sales for the Sunnyside Farms brand in Save Mart and Raley's-owned stores.

The first limited edition flavor, Sunnyside Farms Limited Edition Premium Watermelon Sherbet was launched in late May. The summer-only flavor features a smooth watermelon-flavored sherbet with flakes of milk chocolate shaped to look like watermelon seeds.

The Central Valley area near Turlock where the Sunnyside Farms ice cream plant is located is a key watermelon growing area, so the limited edition flavor ties-in to one of the many locally-grown crops from the area, as well as fitting the war summer season well.

The ice cream flavor development team followed up on the seasonal Watermelon Sherbet ice cream item in late June when it launched its second limited edition ice cream flavor into the Raley's and Save Mart stores. That flavor, Sunnyside Farms Cinnamon Churro Premium Ice Cream, celebrates the popular hand-held Mexican desert item the Churro, which is a cinnamon favored bread or cake-like treat that's popular with Latinos but in recent years has also become a cross-cultural favorite, particularly in parts of the U.S. like California and Nevada which have high Latino or Hispanic populations.

California's Central Valley and much of Northern California has a significant Latino population, so like the Watermelon Sherbet the Sunnyside Farms Limited Edition Cinnamon Churro Premium Ice Cream also has a strong local angle in terms of celebrating one of the many foods Hispanics have introduced into the region and America at large.

Sunnyside Farms introduced the limited edition ice cream flavor with a Latino twist in a big way on June 26, offering free samples from its Sunnyside Farms ice cream truck at the Toyota Save Mart 350 NASCAR race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma County. The limited edition flavor was introduced into the Save Mart and Raley's stores just a couple days earlier.

This week Sunnyside Farms is introducing its newest limited edition ice cream flavor into the stores owned by the two grocery chains. That flavor, Sunnyside Farms Circus Animal Cookie Premium Ice Cream (pictured above and at top), features swirls of pink and white cookie batter ice cream and Mother's brand Circus Animal Cookies, which have been a favorite of kids of all ages in Northern California for many decades.

Mother's is an iconic cookie brand in Northern California. And its Circus Animal Cookies have been a favorite of three generations of children - and their parents - in the region, due in large part to the fact the brand was founded in San Francisco in 1914 and baked in nearby Oakland from 1915 until 2006. [See the companion story below on the blog or read it by clicking here -

Save Mart and Raley's should have a big hit on its hands with the Limited Edition Sunnyside Farms Circus Animal Cookie Premium Ice Cream because it should evoke nostalgia in older consumers who grew up eating the Mother's Circus Animal Cookies while at the same time grabbing the attention of the latest generation of kids who will want to taste the ice cream that includes their favorite animal-shaped cookies in it.

And speaking of kids, ice cream and local angles, on Saturday (July 16) Sunnyside Farms' employees who work at the Turlock, California plant, along with volunteers from the community, gave a little something back to the community's children when they spent the day constructing a "green" play structure called the "Sunnyside Farms-Got Milk Play Structure," in Bristol Park in the city of 75,000 residents.

The "environmentally friendly" play structure (pictured above and below) is made from 41,310 recycled plastic milk jugs.

Along with wanting to provide a place for kids to have fun and get exercise, Sunnyside Farms' says it hopes the play structure will inspire Turlock residents to "take small steps daily, such as recycling and exercising, to care for our environment and build healthier families"

That play structure will come in handy after the kids (and mom and dad) enjoy the newest limited edition ice cream from Sunnyside Farms, made right in town and packed with those Mother's Circus Animal Cookies. Mom and Dad will have to find their own form of exercise though.

The way Mother's Cookies Crumbled ... and Was Reborn

The creation of Sunnyside Farms' latest limited edition ice cream featuring Mother's Circus Animal Cookies would never have happened were it not for food giant Kellogg Company buying the Mother's brand and assets in 2008 and re-launching Mother's Cookies in mid-2009.

Read why in the sidebar below:

The Mother's brand of cookies is extremely popular in Northern California, due in large part to the fact the company and brand was founded in San Francisco in 1914 by N.M. (Noah) Wheatley, who ran a newspaper stand on the corner of Market and Kearney Streets in the city and bought the rights to a recipe for some home-baked cookies from one of his customers. The recipes he bought produced the first Mother's Cookies.

In 1915 Wheatly set up a one-man-shop in a small building across the bay on 12th Avenue in Oakland, where he baked and sold about 2,000 Mother's cookies a day, until in 1922 he moved to a larger location on 18th Street in Oakland and hired some employees.

From there, sales of the Mother's brand of cookies began to soar, and by 1942 Wheatley had moved into a larger and much more modern bakery plant at 810 81st Avenue in Oakland, where he eventually had over 750 people working for him there and in sales in several additional western states.

In 1962 the Wheatley family sold the thriving Mother's Cookie brand and company to George Markham, who was a vice president at the company. 

Mother's continued to grow and Markham later sold the company to a group of employees who operated the cookie company from 1983 to 1996.

In 1996 the company was sold to to Artal NV, a Belgian company that two years later sold Mother's Cookies to Specialty Foods Corp., which was a conglomerate put together by the famous (or infamous) investor-Bass Brothers who were doing a roll up in the cookie brand category, for about $100 million.

Prior to buying Mother's Cookies, Specialty Foods Corp. purchased the Archway cookie company. After the Mother's purchase the Bass Brothers' conglomerate became the third-largest cookie-baker and marketer in the U.S., after Nabisco and Keebler.

In 2000 Specialty Foods Corp. sold the combined Archway and Mother's company (remember it was an investor roll up) to Italy's Parmalot Finanziari for about $400 million. At the time Parmalot was fast-growing and diversifying from its then primarily milk and tomato products business into cookies and other categories.

Mother's ownership merry-go-round was far from over though.

In 2005 Parmalot filed for bankruptcy amid a scandal over the illegal sale of corporate bonds that ended up taking the company down.

In 2005 Parmalot sold Archway-Mother's to the U.S. private equity firm Catterton Partners, which proceeded to close the Oakland Mother's Cookies factory in 2006, firing about 240 workers and moving the baking operations to Archway plants in Ohio and Canada.

Things got worse though.

In 2008 there was an accounting scandal at the private equity firm-owned Archway-Mother's Cookie Company, which combined with the financial crisis that hit the same year spelled the end - the company filed bankruptcy and fired all the workers, taking the Archway and Mother's brands off grocery, drug and mass merchandise store shelves.

Consumers in Northern California where Mother's Cookies got its start in 1914,took the news personally. For some it was like a loss of a family member.

Campaigns were launched asking various companies to buy the Mother's brand and assets and bring the cookies back.

Northern California grocery chains like Safeway Stores, Save Mart, Raley's and others even joined in, suggesting to companies like Nabisco, Keebler and others that if they took over the brand there was room on the shelves for it.

In 2008 Lance Inc. bought the Archway brand and assets and reopened the plant in Ashland, Ohio.

But it didn't want Mother's.

But shortly after, in December 2008, food giant Kellogg Company, which owns leading cookie brand Nabisco, got approval from the bankruptcy court to acquire the Mother's brand and assets and announced it would bring back most of the brands popular varieties, including Circus Animals, and have the cookies in the pink and white packages back on store shelves by mid-2009, which it did, re-launching Mother's Cookies in May 2009.

The first stores to get the cookies were located in Northern California.