Albertsons rebrands and revamps private label
- Albertsons’ Signature brands — Farms, Cafe and Care — will all be rebranded as Signature Select.
- The brand, acquired as part of its merger with Safeway in 2016, offers more than 8,000 products.
- The transition is underway at several banners and will be complete by early next year.
Albertsons Cos. Inc. is revamping several private label lines, rebranding them under the Signature Select name.
According to a May 31 release, Albertsons’ Signature Farms, Signature Cafe and Signature Care products will all be rebranded as Signature Select. The release said the Signature Select brand will be refreshed to feature a new logo and packaging.
Albertsons said the transition is underway at stores that include Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco and Shaw’s. It’s expected to be completed by early next year, the release said.
“Signature Select is our flagship brand offering shoppers an incomparable assortment of quality products at an incredible value,” said Jennifer Saenz, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at Albertsons, in the release. “We are incredibly proud of our Signature family of brands and by bringing these sub-brands together under one name, we are building greater brand recognition, driving brand loyalty and creating customers for life.”
Albertsons acquired the Signature brand in 2016 when it merged with Safeway. The brand is rooted in Safeway’s first private label S, which debuted in the 1960s, according to the release. The Signature brand now includes more than 8,000 items from paper products to pasta, snacks, canned produce, ground meats and packaged salads.
The move follows other changes to Albertsons’ private label brands, which the grocer calls its Own Brands. In March, its O Organics line received a packaging refresh and a marketing push toward Gen Z and young millennials and its health-conscious Open Nature brand also got a redesign.
Albertsons has also launched a marketing campaign around the rebrand, focusing on building an emotional connection with consumers. The “Put Your Signature On It” campaign will appear across media — print, social media, online and streaming — and will reference how the Signature Select line offers cheaper product alternatives with the same taste and quality, Albertsons said.
Private label products have grown in popularity as consumers seek greater value amid inflated prices in grocery and other categories. As Retail Leader reported, private label products saw record growth in 2022, and they’re on track to see similar growth this year, according to data from the Private Label Manufacturers Association and Circana. Dollar volume for store brands increased by 10.3% from January through March this year compared to the same time last year, according to the data. National brands in comparison grew by about half — 5.6% — compared to the first three months of 2022.