Southeastern Grocers rolls out ‘clean label’ private brand

Dive Brief:

Southeastern Grocers has unveiled a private label line of budget-friendly, “clean label” products, the Florida-based grocery chain announced Thursday.
The new store brand, called Know & Love, will launch gradually through 2024 and ultimately encompass more than 1,000 items, including dairy products, produce, ready-made foods, beverages and household goods.
Southeastern Grocers’ decision to enhance its private label strategy reflects a strong interest among food retailers in using their own brands to hold down prices while strengthening margins and building connections with shoppers.

Dive Insight:

Southeastern Grocers described the Know & Love private label initiative as an effort “to offer customers a wide range of affordable, clean label products made with ingredients they ‘know,’ to create the everyday products they’ll ‘love.’”

The retailer, which runs supermarkets in five states under the Winn-Dixie, Fresco y Más and Harveys Supermarket banners, said the brand would focus on items that don’t contain almost 100 “undesirable” ingredients, including partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, certified color additives and artificial sweeteners like saccharin, sucralose and aspartame.

Brooke Rice, senior director of own brands for Southeastern Grocers, said the company decided to create Know & Love after customers and associates began showing increasing interest in products with “simple ingredients.” The retailer’s goal was to “create a budget-friendly, clean label line centered around two fundamental traits: trust and transparency,” Rice said in a statement.

Southeastern Grocers said it plans to slowly transition products under its Naturally Better line and select goods under the SE Grocers brand that reflect the “quality and clean label standards” it has applied to Know & Love brand to the new brand.

In addition to appealing to shoppers by highlighting what Know & Love products are made from, Southeastern Grocers is also looking to use visual cues to draw attention to the new line.

In devising packaging for products sporting the Know & Love name, Southeastern Grocers sought to come up with a visually appealing design that adheres to clean labeling principles and also conveys “a sense of trust, reliability and affordability” to shoppers, the company said. The packaging also uses distinct colors to help shoppers identify gluten-free and plant-based items, according to the announcement.

Southeastern Grocers is one of many food retailers investing in private label as a way to combat record-high inflation for shoppers. Earlier this year, for example, United Natural Foods, Inc., added over 40 types of organic produce to its Wild Harvest private label line, while Albertsons expanded its Open Nature brand to include 12 new plant-based products and gave its O Organics line new packaging.