Brand Extension: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Introduces 'eatwell' Fresh Meat Lines

Private Brand Showcase

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has extended its eatwell healthy foods' private brand into the fresh meat category, with the launch of a new line of Chicken Sausages and two value-added meat lines - eatwell Chicken Bake and eatwell Chicken Stir Fry (pictured above and below) - into its 182  fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The eatwell Chicken Sausages line, which hit some Fresh & Easy stores last week and others this week, based on our regular store visits and conversations with store workers, includes varieties like the Mild Italian and Apple Cinnamon varieties pictured below.

The Chicken Bake items, which include a tray for cooking in the oven, and the eatwell Stir-Fry SKUs come in varieties like the Roasted Red Pepper, Chipotle and Mango and Cajun-Style, pictured at top.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is currently featuring the eatwell sausages at a 2-for-$7 (16oz pkg.) introductory price. The Chicken Bake and Stir-Fry items, both of which as also 16oz, are being offered at a 2-for-$10 introductory price in the stores.

The extension of the eatwell private brand - Fresh & Easy uses F&E as a co-brand on the items - into the meat and value-added meat categories is part of a major expansion of the brand, which the El Segundo, California based grocery chain began in December 2011.

In January of this year Tesco's Fresh & Easy began launching numerous new eatwell items in the brand's existing categories - fresh-prepared foods/refrigerated, dry grocery and frozen foods. That launch, which includes about 60 new items, continues this month.

In the summer of 2010 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market extended its eatwell private brand into the dry grocery category, as we reported in this story -  August 18, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Extending 'eatwell' Healthy Foods' Private Brand Into Dry Grocery Category. Prior to that the brand was only used for fresh-prepared foods.

Up until late last year the grocery chain offered just a few eatwell items in the dry grocery category, such as canned chili and snack crackers.

But beginning in December 2011 and continuing through the present, Fresh & Easy has been launching numerous eatwell dry grocery items, such as: boxed breakfast cereals, instant oatmeal, whole grain and vegetable pasta SKUs, pasta and grill sauces, boxed meal kits (like Macaroni & Cheeseburger; just add meat and prepare), chocolate chip fiber snack bars and some others.

Fresh & Easy also introduced refrigerated tortillas under the eatwell brand in January, a line of frozen dairy desserts, bagged Italian salad kits (produce), a line of refrigerated heat-and-eat soups similar to those if offers under its Fresh & Easy brand, and numerous new fresh-prepared meal items.

The grocery chain also promoted its eatwell healthy foods' brand in January (see the instant oatmeal and cereal endcap display below, for example), offering numerous items at sale prices in its weekly advertising circulars and via its "Friends of Fresh & Easy" e-mail flyer, which it now combines with its "Friends" loyalty/rewards card.

For example, for about three weeks last month Fresh & Easy promoted its eatwell frozen meals, which as we reported here the grocer introduced in September 2010, a month after it extended the healthy foods' private brand into the dry grocery category in August 2010, in its stores, as well as featuring them in the two promotional media vehicles noted above.

As you can see in the photos below, which were taken at a store in Northern California on January 7, 2012 by Fresh & Easy Buzz's senior correspondent, Tesco's Fresh & Easy gave its eatwell brand frozen meals multiple facings and plenty of freezer case space during the January 2012 promotion.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market introduced its eatwell healthy foods' brand in April, 2010, a story we broke here - April 1, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch New 'EatWell' Brand Lower-Sodium, Fewer-Calorie Prepared Foods Line; and followed up on with this piece the next day - April 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy's New 'EatWell' Healthier Fresh, Prepared Foods Brand to Hit Stores on April 7.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy announced the launch of the eatwell brand not long after the publication of our April 1, 2010 story.

By extending its eatwell brand into the meat and value-added meat, the healthy foods private brand is now represented across all consumable food categories at Tesco's Fresh & Easy - dry grocery, frozen foods, perishables- refrigerated, produce, fresh-prepared foods and meat, which is something we reported over a year ago that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market would do.

Take a look at this piece we published in February 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle?

Also see these additional stories about Fresh & Easy's eatwell brand:

January 4, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Kicks Off 2011 With an Appeal to 'eatwell'

January 6, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hopes 'eatwell' Makes For A Healthy 2011

 January 18, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launches 'Extra-Low Every Day Low Price' Merchandising Program

January 20, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'eatwell' Brand Frozen Meals Take Center Stage In-Store This Week

August 18, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Extending 'eatwell' Healthy Foods' Private Brand Into Dry Grocery Category

September 10, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Extending its 'eatwell' Healthy Foods' Brand Into Frozen Food Category

September 27, 2010: First Items in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 'eatwell' Brand Frozen Foods Line Arriving in Store Freezer Cases This Week

May 18, 2009: Strategy Session: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Needs to Move From its One Store Brand Fits All Strategy to A 'Three Brand' Store Brand Strategy

April 1, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch New 'EatWell' Brand Lower-Sodium, Fewer-Calorie Prepared Foods Line

April 2, 2010: Fresh & Easy's New 'EatWell' Healthier Fresh, Prepared Foods Brand to Hit Stores on April 7

[Editor's Note: All photographs credit Fresh & Easy Buzz. The eatwell Sausages, Chicken Bake and Stir-Fry photos were taken February 12, 2012. The eatwell grocery endcap display photogrpahs was taken January 9, 2012, The eatwell frozen meal photos were taken January 7, 2012.]