By Sainsbury’s brand moves into housewares

Supermarket group Sainsbury’s is to introduce its By Sainsbury’s brand across general merchandise lines from next month, including housewares.

By Sainsbury’s is the grocery multiple’s own-label brand. Introduced across food last September, it sits between the Basics value offer and premium Taste The Difference label and is fast playing an integral role in growing own brand offering, with 97% of customers already buying By Sainsbury’s products.

Following the success of the By Sainsbury’s range within food, the chain will roll out the By Sainsbury’s brand in all stores over the next two years across general merchandise categories, including a mix of existing, improved and new products.

Sainsbury’s director of general merchandise Robbie Feather said: “There is a huge amount of loyalty for By Sainsbury’s, driven by its success across our food category. Moving the brand into general merchandise recognises the opportunity to capitalise on this success and extend the loyalty further across the business.”

By Sainsbury’s general merchandise products will be tiered simimilarly to food. Basics will be products at entry price points “that provide unbelievable value”; By Sainsbury’s will be “highly durable, simply crafted and contemporary, everyday products”; and Collection (for Kitchen, Home, Cook) will be a range of “high quality deigned products made with premium materials and finishes”.

This news follows last month’s announcement that Sainsbury’s is relaunching its clothing brand Tu, which last year generated annual sales of £680m from a standing start in 2004. New Tu branding will be rolled out to 395 stores nationwide by this autumn. As part of this boost to the brand, Tu will now be a solely a clothing label and will no longer include general merchandise.

Sainsbury’s general merchandise range, which covers homeware, cookware and domestic appliances, has played an important role in the multiple’s growth over the past few years.

In February, Sainsbury’s announced that annual sales of its general merchandise range had reached £1 billion for the first time. This milestone followed Sainsbury’s best ever Christmas, when general merchandise sales grew by a third compared to the previous year.

At the time, Sainsbury’s noted that over the past year, sales of its cookware range had grown at 16% with 10,000 Cook’s Collection cast iron casserole dishes sold over Christmas and 100,000 frying pans sold in the run up to Pancake Day. Small electricals enjoyed growth of 21% year-on-year too, with 17,000 tablets sold over Christmas alone. TVs were also popular with over 86,000 sold, the equivalent to one every minute in December and January.

Sainsbury’s managing director of general merchandise, clothing and logistics Roger Burnley said: “We’ve invested in getting our general merchandise offer right for customers over the past few years and reaching £1 billion in annual sales shows this has been worth it.

“Rather than just add line after line to the range, we’ve been careful to ensure that our famous brand values of quality and great value have shone through in everything we sell, and we’ve been very successful in identifying and adapting to changing shopping habits.

“We’ve also put real focus on areas that complement our unrivalled heritage in fresh food such as cookware and homewares. This gives our customers confidence when they shop with us.”

Sainsbury’s considers a store to have a full non-food offer when it has 15,000sq ft of non-food space.