Kroger expanding Simple Truth

The Kroger Co. is kicking off 2018 with some big news about its private brands — the Cincinnati-based retailer is expanding its Simple Truth brand and launching its largest-ever Our Brands customer sales promotion, featuring savings on thousands of Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic items.

“We're proud of the high-quality ingredients that go into our Simple Truth products,” said Robert Clark, Kroger's senior vice president of merchandising. “We’re equally proud of what’s not in these foods. Simple Truth products are free from 101-plus artificial preservatives and ingredients.

Kroger introduced Simple Truth in its fourth quarter 2012, and the brand now offers over 1,400 unique products across multiple categories, including grocery, meat, produce, deli, bakery, baby, household essentials and personal care. Kroger said Simple Truth also offers more Fair Trade Certified products than any other private brand grocery brand in the country.

In Kroger's third quarter 2017, Our Brands delivered strong performance, making up 28.2 percent of unit sales and 25.6 percent of sales dollars, excluding fuel and pharmacy. Simple Truth continued to grow in popularity the same quarter, with sales growing 19 percent.

"Our Brands is shaping the way we are redefining the grocery customer experience as outlined in our Restock Kroger plan," Clark said.

Kroger said Simple Truth will continue to innovate and introduce new affordable items in 2018 that align with customer trends, including increasingly popular categories like beverage, snacking and non-animal proteins.