Q&A: Inside Walgreens' Nice! Breakfast Foods Launch
In late May, drug store chain Walgreens expanded its Nice! private brand into a new category: breakfast.
The retailer debuted a number of cereal products, in varieties such as Marshmallow Treasures, Cinnamon Squares, Toasted Honey O’s, as well as assorted instant oatmeals, oats and granolas for consumers to start their day with, all at low prices.
Walgreens also teased that future private label breakfast options would be joining the line later this year. A recent survey from Acosta Group found that at brick-and-mortar drug stores, 69% of consumers shop for groceries, personal care and household items in addition to their pharmacy needs.
To learn more about Walgreens’ private label strategy when it comes to breakfast product development, Store Brands spoke with Emily Cowan, Walgreens associate manager of Owned Brand Commercialization for Grocery & Pet.
Store Brands: When did the idea come for the Nice! brand to enter the breakfast category?
Emily Cowan: We noticed that out of all Walgreens offerings, the breakfast category was a space that we’re missing out on and is something Walgreens wanted to pursue previously. Although Walgreens was interested in this route, we wanted to make sure the timing was right. We see that consumers are more cost-conscious than ever, so we wanted to use this as an opportunity to focus on core staples that customers gravitate towards and our selection of Nice! cold cereal and oats fits that.
SB: What was the goal of the launch and how long did it take for the new items to come together?
EC: The goal for launching the Nice! Brand cereal and oatmeal assortment was to bring value to our consumers. We wanted to launch great quality products at an affordable price point that everyone could afford. We knew this was a space we wanted to get into based on competition, so the timing to launch this year felt right. From concept to launch, it takes us about a year to launch these items in store.
SB: How did the Walgreens team determine what products/flavors needed to be included in the initial launch?
EC: We worked closely with our vendor partners to ideate on what top selling flavors and products were in the market that we were missing. We wanted to make sure we had a good mix of better for you items as well as core staples such as Lucky Charms to make sure we had mass appeal to all pallets. We also referenced syndicated data such as IRI (now Circana) to help us understand where our opportunities were versus the market, as well as benchmarked versus proven sellers within national brands.
SB: Are there any early signs of success for these products that you’re able to share?
EC: We have received a lot of positive feedback via our online reviews as well as from our store employees who have been great advocates of promoting these items to our customers! We have also seen a lot of vendors now reach out to us who are interested in growing this business even more with additional breakfast staples.
SB: What can you tell us about what’s next for Walgreens in the breakfast category?
EC: Our main goal will always be to stick to core products and being the high-quality, value brand on the shelf for cold cereals. As we look ahead, Walgreens is looking to enter the refrigerated and frozen area with egg bites coming out in August. This will be a great opportunity to see where our customers stand and if this is something they can truly get behind and become interested in purchasing.