ZAGARA'S PLANNING EXPANSION OF PRIVATE LABEL BATH & BODY

MATTHEW W. EVANS

MARLTON, N.J. -- Zagara's Specialty and Natural Foods here, an upscale retailer operating three units in suburban Philadelphia, is expanding its private label bath and body offering.

"Doubling it would be my wish," president John Zagara said of the collection, "hopefully within six months."

Coinciding with this timeframe is the scheduled March opening of a fourth location on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. It is hoped this new unit will exhibit the full private label bath and body assortment. Zagara spoke with SN the day after the Sept. 28 groundbreaking in Concord Township.

"We've had some expansion but not as much as I'd like to see at this point," he said. So the retailer, a division of Genaurdi's Family Markets, Norristown, Pa., is "working on major expansion now."

Driving the plan is demand from customers, according to Zagara. "People come into the Body Natural department and ask 'do you have a [store] brand on this?"' They trust the retailer's private label items across the store as quality items, he noted. "That in itself has played an important role in our ability to roll out private label." He expects success for the larger bath and body assortment based on this.

Store-within-a-store departments called Body Natural exist currently in two Zagara's units. Described as natural and organic health and nutrition centers, vitamins, minerals, herbal supplements and bath and body are sold in the 1,500 square-foot sections. The current private label bath and body line, named identically to the department, comprises about 40% of the 10,000 stockkeeping units merchandised in Body Natural.

Cynthia Tice, principal, Whole Health Integration Services, Cherry Hill, N.J., estimated that about 15% of the offering within Body Natural are under the same label. Tice's firm selects private label products for Zagara's and assists in category management. Some Body Natural items are integrated with national brands and some, like vitamins, are all together.

A history of consumer demand has helped shape Zagara's positioning. The only reason one of the three existing retail units is without a Body Natural department is because of the section's own success. "That department grew so quickly the items outgrew the space and we decided to put it in another tenant space" in the same strip center, Zagara explained.

This bath and body initiative will follow a similar program Zagara's implemented for its vitamins. "We did our vitamins; we have all of them under private label," said Zagara, referring to the fact that all branded vitamin offerings have a Body Natural alternative.

For the widened bath and body assortment, "initially, we are looking at some of the basic, strong categories," said Tice, "shampoos, conditioners, body washes and imported hand milled soaps." The items will be sold new and exisitng units.

Zagara sees the rollout replacing certain items including national brands. "I'm committed to bath and body because it's a fast-growing segment," he said.