AWG Brands Overhauls Oral Care Category
AWG Brands, the private brands of Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc., is expanding its oral care offerings to help member retailers capitalize on this $10.6 billion category, company officials said.
The overhaul in the category includes extending into new subcategories such as interdental brushes and soft picks. There is also a focus on kids’ items, such as toothbrushes with fun characters, bright colors, and suction cups.
For the first time, oral care items are also launching for the first time in the Always Save brand, which is the opening price point and value focused brand of the four AWG Brands.
“After extensive work with our vendor partners and knowing oral care is a high-usage category, we knew the oral care category was an area where we could grow our presence of the Always Save and Best Choice brands,” said Emily Detwiler, executive director, AWG Brands. “We want to make sure we have options for consumers across different brands and usage types.”
New items were also launched in AWG Brands’ flagship brand, Best Choice. According to AWG research, there have been a substantial number of national brand oral care products launched over the past five years. Upholding Best Choice’s promise to offer equivalent options to these national brands have helped drive sourcing of the new Best Choice oral care items. In total, 11 new items are available to AWG member retailers in the Best Choice brand.
“Oral health is both functional and aesthetic for consumers,” said Stacy Leeton, AWG senior category manager, Health & Wellness. “They are looking for quality products that go above and beyond to help them with their oral health without high costs and these Always Save and Best Choice products fill those needs.”
The average U.S. household purchases oral care items 10 times per year, but shoppers only spend 39 seconds in the aisle each time. As a whole, AWG Brands is putting an emphasis on growing this important category through quality, value-driven products that meet consumer needs both functionally and financially.
This AWG Brands assortment revitalization comes about as a component of the company’s strategic review of all categories in collaboration with key vendor partners. This work includes opportunity alignment illuminated by the company’s proprietary AWG Partner Gateway data-sharing platform.
