Dive Brief:

• Albertsons has added 13 new frozen dessert items to its Own Brands private label portfolio, including four 1.5-quart Signature Select ice creams, three one-pint Open Nature sorbets, and six one-pint Open Nature plant-based frozen desserts made with oat milk and coconut milk, according to a press release. 
• Flavors include cotton candy, cinnamon churro, honey bun swirl, lemon cheesecake, black raspberry chip, vanilla oatmeal, oatmeal cookie, blueberry oatmeal crumble, vanilla caramel, toasted coconut, peanut butter chip, chocolate salted caramel, peach, passion fruit and strawberry. 
• The new products can be found in the frozen dessert section in stores under banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions and Star Market.

Dive Insight:

With its newest ice cream launch, Albertsons is keeping up with consumer demand and trends with plant-based products and unique flavors that shoppers may not be able to find under national brands. 

Albertsons is setting itself apart from its national brand counterparts, which experts say is key to a successful private label company. Private label brands used to be considered cheaper, less desirable alternatives to national brand because retailers would focus on making copycat products rather than setting themselves apart, but that is changing as grocers pour money into R&D.

Albertsons has added a slew of items to its Own Brands portfolio over the years. In 2018, the retailer initially launched its Signature Reserve private label ice cream line with products the grocer said were chosen by culinary professionals and merchants. This line was a part of the grocer’s efforts to launch 1,400 new store-brand products in 2018 — double the number of products it rolled out the year before. 

To improve its Own Brands portfolio even further, in January the retailer appointed Alice Chan, a CPG professional, as its vice president of sales and marketing for its Own Brands business, which gave her responsibility for developing and executing strategic go-to-market initiatives and plans.

Albertson's decision to add additional ice cream flavors could have stemmed from positive feedback to its 2018 expansion. Private label ice cream launches are also on-trend across the grocery industry, In May, Publix rolled out new premium ice cream flavors, and Tops Markets added new flavors to its premium private label line of ice creams last year.

Over the years, Own Brands sales have contributed significantly to Albertsons' top-line results, and they play a big role in the company’s overall strategy. According to Albertsons' 2019 third-quarter earnings report, private label sales account for a quarter of the company's sales, and during its IPO filing in March, the company said it expects its growth to come from private brands as well as from digital initiatives and store updates.

In a recent interview with Grocery Dive, Albertsons' CEO Vivek Sankaran said private label growth will continue to be a core strategy for the company.

"We have so much headroom to get into other categories. And we’re the leader in so many categories like dairy and pizza," he said. "We’re like a CPG company within retail."