FreshDirect to Launch Private-Label Groceries

CHICAGO — FreshDirect is showcasing its new “Just FreshDirect” and “Cloud 9” brands at the Private Label Manufacturers Association’s store brands show here.

While the online grocer doesn’t have a booth, both brands are featured in the “Idea Supermarket” section of the show floor in hopes of attracting new suppliers.

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Just FreshDirect will launch next month with an initial 20 shelf stable, dairy and frozen products. Butter, eggs, unbleached flour, organic milk and olive oil will be among the first items.

By the end of next year, the brand will include 150 items.

“Our goal is to have representation in almost every category,” Emma Fuerst Frelinghuysen, the online grocer’s senior director of private brands, told SN.

Read more: SN's 2013 PLMA coverage

Cloud 9 launched last month with 14 household items, including bathroom tissue and garbage bags. The line will grow to 20 items next year.

Fuerst Frelinghuysen describes the brands as “truthful” and “transparent.” Product packaging identifies where the food or beverage was sourced or farmed. For instance, the milk is farmed by New York farmers; eggs, from Alderfer Farms in Pennsylvania; and granola, handmade in Upstate New York.

“Our customers have told us that they want to know where their food comes from,” said Fuerst Frelinghuysen.

The brands are priced 10% to 20% less than national brand counterparts.

FreshDirect teamed with Daymon Worldwide to create the brands.