Great Value Won’t Replace National Brands: Wal-Mart

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Efforts by Wal-Mart Stores to relaunch its Great Value corporate line do not mean national brands will get less shelf space, William S. Simon, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Wal-Mart U.S., said here this week.

“We are a house of brands,” he told investors here during a field trip sponsored by Morgan Stanley, New York. “We’ve always been a house of brands — it used to say ‘brands for less’ on the side of the building — and we believe selling national-branded product is a very important driver that communicates value to our customer.

“We are relaunching Great Value because the opportunity to update the packaging and the product specs are there for us, and it’s also a way for us to fill in holes and gaps where we may not have a national brand or we may not have a national brand where we believe, for whatever reason, we can get the best price in the market. It’s an important initiative for us, but it will by no means overshadow or replace any national brands. Our customers prefer national brands.”

Once the updated Great Value lines begin appearing at Wal-Mart stores, their presence will be more pronounced “because the packaging is different,” Simon said. “But there are no plans to replace shelf space [for national brands] with space for Great Value products.”

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