Former Ahold own brand leader heads up Kroger Our Brands
As of November 2021, Juan De Paoli has been Kroger’s new head of private brands.
He joined the company from Ahold Delhaize, where he was the senior vice president of private brands since 2018 and in other private brand roles with the company since 2013. He worked with the Retail Business Services arm, based in Salisbury, N.C.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Juan De Paoli to our team as the vice president of Our Brands,” Stuart Aitken, senior vice president and chief merchant and marketing officer, Kroger, told Store Brands. “At Kroger, we promise to be Fresh for Everyone, and Juan’s passion for connecting with customers and his foresight into emerging trends will continue strengthening our customer loyalty and further differentiate Our Brands as best-in-class products that are both affordable and delicious. Juan’s more than 20 years’ experience in building and growing world-class brands for national and private label products is paramount to the continued growth and innovation of our leading brands, including Simple Truth, Private Selection and Kroger, among others.”
De Paoli sported the cover of Store Brands magazine in July 2018 while with Ahold, featured in a profile on the company. His private brand experience is extensive, also leading to time as vice president of program management at Topco Associates for a year, and serving as director of own brands at H-E-B for 11 years, touching on the grocer’s branding, product development, packaging, consumer insights and brand growth.
De Paoli’s ascension to Kroger and its store brands program is listed on his LinkedIn page.
In a Store Brands’ report on the growth of private label, De Paoli stressed that developing cleaner products will grow own brands among younger shoppers, a key target.
“Millennials and Gen Zers are a lot more open to or are more private brand-driven because of that perfect intersection of quality and value,” he said in the report.
And he said in the trends story that private brands needed to step up in the digital space. “Private brands need to keep up with the industry and in some cases set the pace.”
Kroger is a leader in its digital presentation of private brands, and the grocer recently saw a 14% bump in same-store sales on a two-year stacked basis. The company introduced 140 new store brand items during the second quarter and 253 new private brand products in Q1.