In announcing third quarter earnings, Kroger highlighted the strong gains its store brands have made during the period.
Gary Millerchip, Kroger’s Senior Vice President and CFO said, “Our Brands continue to resonate deeply with customers, as sales grew 10.4% during the quarter. The outstanding quality and value offered by these exclusive to Kroger products is an important differentiator in our go-to-market strategy, and this is especially true during periods of high inflation,” Millerchip said. “Our Brands products are margin accretive and represent a key pillar in our strategy to grow profitability while also delivering greater value for customers.”
Kroger CEO and Chairman Doug McMullen echoed those sentiments.
“We continue to expand and diversify Our Brands portfolio at every price point. After launching Smart Way as our opening price-point brand last quarter, we introduced several new Smart Way products this quarter and plan to roll out additional products next quarter,” McMullen said. “These products are meeting the needs of our customers on a budget, and we’ve already seen 2 million households to purchase Smart Way products.”
Overall, Kroger launched 147 new own-brand items in the third quarter. These included holiday season products and plant-based, ready-to-cook meals, both under the Home Chef meal kit label. McMullen added Kroger’s Our Brands pet food products saw “tremendous growth.”
All sales for the quarter, which ended Nov. 5, climbed 7.3% to $34.2 billion, up from $31.8 billion a year earlier. Sales were up 6.4% year over year.