Safeway Launches Personal Care Line

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October 19, 2010

Safeway launched In-Kind, a personal care private label line featuring lotions, body washes, shampoos, conditioners, facial products and hand soaps “formulated with gentle ingredients,” according to the company

During a recent third-quarter earnings call, Steven Burd, chairman and CEO, said this about In-Kind: “We introduced a line of products we think are among the highest in content of natural ingredients at any price on the market, branded or non-branded,” noting that “there is a concerted effort internally on corporate brands, which I think will continue to pay dividends.”

Burd continued to explain that “private label sales in both units and dollars are outpacing national brands. I think that is automatic in a business downturn…. We’ve recently re-branded our private label carbonated beverages and are experiencing very strong demand. We set what most people would consider to be a pretty high bar for that carbonated beverage price, and we’re beating that by a country mile.”

All In-Kind products have more than 90 percent natural ingredients, “clean, fresh, and natural scents and strong efficacy,” according to the blog, which noted that all In-Kind products are free of parabens, sulfates, animal by-products, pesticides, phthalates, EDTA, petroleum or petroleum-based products, synthetic colors, mineral oil or synthetic fragrances.

Ice Cream Packaging
Safeway also revamped its private label ice cream packaging and production methods, according to a Progressive Grocer report.

The custom-shaped 48-ounce container for Safeway’s private label ice cream -- currently offered in the grocer’s stores -- is the result of a collaborating with Huhtamaki. Safeway unveiled a new custom-shaped package with branded graphics that is more cost effective than previous packaging due to production changeover speed and flexibility. More than 60 private label ice cream SKUs at Safeway – including Safeway Select, Lucerne as well as regional lines such as Eating Right and Jersey Maid -- currently use the new containers.

Safeway ice cream is produced at two company-owned and operated plants in Bellevue, Wash. and Phoenix. Four Huhtamaki Systems FM-1400 forming machines, which make the Convocan MX containers, are used in the Phoenix plant.

“This in-house system and our partnership with Huhtamaki allowed us to respond to marketplace conditions with ease, speed and relatively little expense,” Ed Olivero, VP of dairy manufacturing at Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway told Progressive Grocer. “From start to finish, package design as well as tooling, installation and production was accomplished within six months. Actual conversion of five forming units in both of our ice cream plants was completed within a week, and we were feeding new containers directly into the filling lines.”

“[T]he Huhtamaki in-plant system has served us well for years,” said Safeway’s Olivero: “The ease, speed and cost effectiveness with which this new package was developed exemplify our partnership at its best.”

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