Loblaw Debuts 'Great Food' Banner Focuses on Fresh

JON SPRINGER

TORONTO — “Great” is joining “Super” in Loblaw's new store lineup.

Months after introducing a new prototype and banner for its Superstore hybrid discount stores, Canada's largest supermarket operator has rechristened three of its conventional Loblaw grocery stores in Ontario as “Loblaw Great Food.” The stores, which officials described as “pilot stores” for future conventional renovations, “represent the return to Loblaw's strength in innovation for fresh food selection and quality,” the company said in a statement.

Loblaw Cos. is in the midst of an extensive turnaround designed in part to drive better results from its existing store base. Last summer, the retailer introduced a “pilot” for its Real Canadian Superstore division, shortening its name to Superstore and introducing a new logo, store layout and merchandising features designed as “modules” it could replicate in additional stores. Loblaw's new Great Food stores take a similar approach, David Primorac, a spokesman for the retailer, told SN. They show off a new decor package, including signs, graphics and new uniforms for store employees, while complementing a merchandise selection geared toward fresh and prepared foods, enhanced bakery items and revamped sections for home kitchen goods and health and beauty aids.

“Loblaw Great Food will really appeal to our customers who enjoy fresh food and entertaining, and who want the very best for their families and themselves,” Galen Weston, Loblaw's executive chairman, said in a prepared statement. “I believe we're offering a unique shopping experience with equally unique products and that combination is very exciting to me, and I'm convinced it will be for our customers.”

One observer of the Canadian grocery market, who asked not to be identified, told SN that the most significant change in Great Food stores is an expanded home meal replacement program.

“Home meal replacement was a weakness for Loblaw as compared to Sobeys and Metro,” said the source, who visited one of the new stores recently. “Loblaw had put a lot of effort into frozen goods but hadn't done a great job with meals you could take home and have for dinner that day, beyond roasted chickens. These stores definitely improve on that, but I wouldn't say they've leapfrogged the competition. They're catching up.”