Dive Brief:

• Giant Food Stores is changing its name to The Giant Company, the grocer announced Wednesday. It’s also updating its corporate logos with new typography and font elements for its Giant and Martin’s brands.
• Unveiled during the company’s annual meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the new logos include a red leaf connecting both sides of the “A” along with other changes, like a separated “N” and “T” in the Giant name. The logos utilize “a contemporary color and design scheme, underscoring the brand’s modern, fun and caring culture,” according to the company.
• Giant’s new name and logos will roll out across its stores and other operations over the course of this year. It’s currently visible on the outside of The Giant Center in Hershey, where the company meeting was held, and at its headquarters in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Dive Insight:

The new name applies more of a corporate sheen to Giant as it oversees a growing portfolio of retail sub-brands. It also further distinguishes the company from sister chain Giant Food based in Landover, Maryland.

Perhaps most significantly, the change comes amid a flurry of innovation at Giant. The grocer launched new e-commerce brands last year, Giant Direct and Martin's Direct, and planted a new small-scale specialty store brand in the heart of its operating region. Giant Heirloom Market, which offers a curated selection of fresh and specialty products, now operates three stores in Philadelphia.

The Giant Company is also rapidly expanding its pickup and delivery services, pushing into new private label categories and implementing store technology, from in-store robots to an augmented reality game for kids.

“We wanted to make sure our name reflects all we aspire to be as an omni-channel retailer,” Giant Company president Nicholas Bertram said in a statement.

Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. banners, which are all locally operated, have been getting similar facelifts over the past several years. Food Lion updated its corporate logo in 2014, while Stop & Shop rolled out a logo in 2018 that coincided with its store remodel campaign and featured modernized typography and a stoplight image.

Competing retailers have also updated their names and logos in recent years. Late last year, Kroger introduced a logo with a curvier font and a new tagline, “Fresh for Everyone.” In 2017, Walmart legally changed its name to clarify it no longer wanted to be known by the hyphenated “Wal-Mart.”