Dive Brief:
- 7-Eleven Inc. has announced several new additions to its line of private label candy and desserts for Valentine’s Day, according to a Thursday press release.
- The limited-time selection includes peach heart gummies, chocolate-flavored heart pretzels, oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies and individual slices of cake in rainbow or marshmallow cookie dough.
- These items help move 7-Eleven toward its larger goal of adding more than 200 additional private label items to its stores during 2024, as outlined in parent company Seven & i’s third quarter earnings call for fiscal year 2023.
Dive Insight:
Because of the pressures on consumer spending thanks to years of high inflation, 7 Eleven is in a “traffic battle” in the U.S. that it’s seeking to win in part with value offers.
Private label items offer “a value to customers and a better margin … to franchisees and stores,” 7-Eleven Inc. President Stan Reynolds said during the Q3 call, which took place in early January. Margins on 7-Eleven’s store brand items are 54%, as compared to 32% for national brands.
“Our goal is to increase the mix of our fresh food, proprietary beverage and private brand offerings to 34% of merchandise sales by 2025,” said Reynolds during the call. Proprietary items made up 24% of the product mix in 2022.
In 2023, the company added more than 130 new private brand items, including bagged chocolate and other candies. This year, it expects to expand into several new categories, including frozen foods, Hispanic foods, energy drinks, rapid hydration and liquor.
7 Eleven also expects to extend its proprietary drinks, foods and other items to the more than 200 newly acquired Stripes locations it agreed in January to acquire from Sunoco.
Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also operates and franchises Speedway, Stripes, Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits locations.
