How 9 food retailers are jazzing up their private brands

From expanding their store brand portfolios to creating new supplier partnerships, grocers are ramping up efforts to make their own products shine.

Grocers aren't shying away from making their private brands a main attraction for customers.

Several supermarket chains, discounters and other retailers that sell food have unveiled plans this year to expand their store brand assortments, liven up the packaging for their private label and even roll out new marketing campaigns to help promote the items they say are equivalent to — or even better than — those from national CPGs.

Here are a few notable examples of how food retailers are boosting their store brands this year:

This spring, the Seattle-area grocer unveiled its EveryDay Milk private label line, which includes six varieties and has colorful employee-designed artwork displayed on the packaging. Town & Country said the art was "inspired by the wonders of milk." Its EveryDay line previously only sold free-range eggs.

The grocer also brought sushi items under its private label brand Maka. The line, which launched in October, has 65 core menu items along with a rotating selection of sushi and sushi-inspired dishes. Previously, the grocer sold sushi under three third-party brands, but with Maka, it's working with supplier Sushi Avenue.

At the start of the year, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) said it grew its Wild Harvest private label line with more than 40 additional kinds of organic produce. The new options include bagged apples, russet and sweet potatoes, oranges, broccoli, mangoes, limes, tomatoes and avocados.

The expansion came a few months after UNFI said it had seen its produce sales swell and noted that its then-newly launched Wild Harvest organic bananas had performed well.

CEO Sandy Douglas told investors during an earnings call in March that the company's private label business is seeing double-digit growth, noting its performance was "very strong" during the second quarter.

"We recently skilled up and put a very talented leader on top of that business," Douglas said during the call.

During the discount grocer's fourth-quarter earnings call at the end of February, company executives highlighted plans to grow its small private label portfolio to help boost margins and the company's value proposition to consumers.

"Unique and differentiated private label products represent the next multiyear phase of everyday assortment enhancement" for the company, Grocery Outlet President R.J. Sheedy told investors on the call, noting that private label expansion is a "significant long-term opportunity."

While Grocery Outlet executives didn't provide extensive details on the expansion plans, Sheedy said that it won't compromise the company's core business model, which focuses on selling name brands and using opportunistic buying to source most of its items.

Over the last several months, the grocery company has revealed a string of private label updates.

In March, Albertsons unveiled the makeover and expansion of its Open Nature brand, which now includes 12 new plant-based products, including yogurt alternatives, and has a new font and leaf logo. A month later, the grocer shared how it recently revamped its O Organics line with redesigned packaging to give the brand a modernized look.

Most recently, the company announced the consolidation of its Signature Farms, Signature Care and Signature Cafe private label products under its flagship Signature Select house brand. With that change, the grocer has a new advertising campaign to promote the expanded Signature Select offerings and has developed a refreshed logo as well as a unified packaging design for that line.

The discounter is planning to add "hundreds of national brand equivalents" to its consumables private label portfolio later this year, Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling told investors during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in March.

The company's upcoming store brand items will include "new labels and redefined labels, many of which are being developed in our new test kitchen here in Chesapeake, Virginia," where the company is based, Dreiling said, adding that the additions are part of the company's efforts to boost profitability.

The discounter is growing its private brand assortment across a number of categories, including candy, pet food, over-the-counter health care products and perishables, CEO Jeff Owen told investors during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in March.

Owen said in March that private label sales were a major driver of the company's results for that quarter, noting that store brands account for more than a fifth of the company's total sales.

Natural Grocers has been busy over the last few months announcing expansions to its private label portfolio. Last month, the grocer debuted four scented varieties of Epsom salt bath and foot soaks to the company's premium quality house brand. In April, the grocer unveiled three varieties of organic mustard — yellow, spicy brown and Dijon — to its premium quality house brand just a week after saying it added five new varieties of canned seafood: wild pink salmon; albacore and skipjack tuna; and two varieties of wild sardines. The specialty grocer said it will add sparkling spring water in non-BPA lined aluminum bottles in the future.

The United States’ largest retailer-owned cooperative has been pouring more effort into its coffee offerings. The company announced this spring it teamed up with coffee co-packing company NuZee to launch three single-serve coffee brew-bag items under ShopRite's private label brand Bowl & Basket. The coffee company, which works with small and larger brands to help develop single-serve and private label coffee category products, is packing and shipping the three products — Breakfast Blend, Fresh Roast and Colombian — which are being sold in ShopRite stores.

To help spread the word about its private brands, the company announced in April a scholarship program that incorporates the name of its Our Family flagship private brand. The Our Family 2023 Scholarship Program will award $2,000 each to 25 student recipients who "are making a positive difference in their communities," per the announcement. To be eligible to apply, SpartanNash is seeking "fans of the brand" who live in any of the states served by the company.