The Kroger Co. Expands its Our Brands Portfolio to Offer Customers Increased Value, Variety and Quality

In the past 18 months, the company has introduced 1,000 new food and household items

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Jun 21, 2017, 14:00 ET

CINCINNATI, June 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) announced today the expansion of its exclusive Our Brands product lines to offer its customers greater value, variety and quality. The company currently offers more than 30,000 Our Brands items, including food, beauty, personal care, pet and household essentials, many of which are made at one of the company's 38 U.S. production plants that employ 8,600 manufacturing associates.

"Our Brands sold a record-setting 8.2 billion units in 2016, which equates to customers choosing to add 1.25 million of our exclusive products to their shopping carts every hour that our stores are open," said Gil Phipps, Kroger's vice president of Our Brands. "Through innovation, we are committed to introducing new items monthly that give our customers a wide selection of choices and price points, and always guaranteed quality."

The foods in Our Brands, such as Kroger®, Private Selection®, Simple Truth®, Simple Truth Organic® and HemisFares™, are specifically designed, rigorously tested and consistently evaluated to ensure that they continue to satisfy and delight. Kroger's team of chefs, food scientists and culinary experts are constantly exploring, testing and inventing to enhance its offerings of organic, natural, premium, fusion, value and conventional eats.

In third-party blind taste tests, Our Brands has routinely outperformed competitive national brands and other private label foods. New flavor-forward and specialty products that Our Brands has introduced this year include: HemisFares™ Japanese Dry-Aged Red Miso; HemisFares™ Double Brewed Soy Sauce; Kroger® Simply Baked French Fries with Olive Oil & Sea Salt; Kroger® Deluxe Funnel Cake Ice Cream; Private Selection™ Moroccan BBQ & Basting Sauce; Simple Truth® Dairy-Free Paletas (fruit bars); Simple Truth Organic Blueberry Ginger Kombucha; and Simple Truth Organic® Cold Brew Coffee.

Launching early next month, Our Brands will introduce Simple Truth® Low Cow Lite Ice Cream, which is low calorie (240-280 calories per pint) and high protein (24 grams per pint). The first six rich and creamy flavors will include birthday cake, chocolate, lemon cake, mint chocolate chip, sea salt caramel and vanilla bean.

Along with the commitment to expand its Our Brands offerings, Kroger recently launched its Prep+Pared meal kits pilot in select Cincinnati stores. Prep+Pared meal kits offer restaurant-quality meals that are easy to cook in about 20 minutes and answer the question, "What's for dinner?"

At The Kroger Co., we are dedicated to our purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit^SM. We are 443,000 associates who serve eight and a half million customers every day in 2,792 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Our Family of Companies operates an expanding ClickList offering – a personalized order online service – in addition to 2,255 pharmacies, 782 convenience stores, 311 fine jewelry stores, 220 retail health clinics, 1,453 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Our Company has been recognized as one of America's most generous companies for its support of more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners, breast cancer research and awareness, the military and their families, and more than 145,000 community organizations including schools. As a leader in supplier diversity, we are a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.