Quality Stars at Weis
Strawberry Fruit on the Bottom is one of five flavors of the new Weis Quality Greek Yogurt line.
The editors of Private Label salute Weis Markets, Sunbury, PA, which will celebrate its 100th year in food retailing in May 2012. To mark this occasion, our publication is proud to present Weis Markets with our special Store Brand Trailblazer Award.
Founded in 1912 by Harry and Sigmund Weis, Weis Markets has grown to include 161 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
As it approaches its 100th year of continuous operation, Weis has distinguished itself in its trading area by knowing and responding to the local tastes and preferences of its customers better than its larger national and multi-regional competitors.
From the outset the Weis family, which remains involved in the business, emphasized supplying its customers with the freshest grocery products available from nearby suppliers.
A key component of this formula for success was the family’s insistence on quality especially when it came to producing products with their family name on them. To reinforce this commitment, the retailer early on incorporated “Quality” into the Weis brand name.
“Weis Quality has become part of our everyday vernacular in our company when we refer to our private brand products,” points out Kurt Schertle, senior vice president, sales and marketing. “Even in our shorthand notes to one another we refer to our private brand as WQ. It has become engrained in our company culture.”
Weis Markets chairman Robert Weis and his son Jonathan, the company’s vice chairman, are proud of their company’s heritage. “Early on Robert Weis watched his father and uncle develop products on which to put the Weis Quality brand. His family has always taken a personal interest in the quality of our company’s private brands and that’s a big part of our overall commitment to the program,” notes Schertle.
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| “Weis Quality has become part of our everyday vernacular in our company when we refer to our private brand products.” –Kurt Schertle | “As a regional retailer competing against the national chains in our trading area, we use our private brands to develop our personality.” -Bruno Garisto |
“Our Private Brand Ambassador is the one person in the store responsible for implementation of any new private brand program.” -Regina Tator |
Local Tastes
“We are a 100-year-old company, but we are now going through a renaissance of change,” says Bruno Garisto, former director of private brands, and recently promoted to vice president of center store sales and merchandising. “However, we don’t want to give up those elements that made us successful for so many years and an important part of that success is our private brands program. It’s at the core of what Weis stands for.”
Weis 5 Star premium products include Maple Praline Syrup, Bleu Cheese Stuffed Olives, and Red Pepper & Artichoke Bruschetta.
One of the key elements of the Weis private brand program is the company’s emphasis on locally sourced products. In this regard, Weis operates its own dairy, meat processing plant, and ice cream plant in Sunbury.
Weis in particular points with pride to its locally made, private brand ice cream.
“We feel that Weis Quality brand ice cream provides us with a real competitive point of difference,” says Regina Tator, recently named director of private brands.
“We always have some fun events tied into our ice cream line. In the football season, we have our special Quarterback Crunch variety. We also have seasonal flavors and holiday flavors.” Examples include Red, White, and Blueberry ice cream and Pumpkin premium ice cream.
To celebrate its 100th Anniversary, Weis is coming out with four special flavors:
- Blueberry & Honey Vanilla Nonfat Frozen Yogurt
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Premium Ice Cream
- Birthday Cake Premium Ice Cream
- Toast To A Century Premium Ice Cream
As a locally made product, Weis Quality ice cream is the top-selling brand in its stores, outselling the leading national brands by a wide margin, according to Tator.
Weis also sources all of its private brand fresh poultry and ham products from local suppliers. For example, its Smokehouse Hams are supplied by a Lancaster County supplier.
“Lancaster County is one of the top 10 agricultural counties in the U.S.
As part of our private brands program on the fresh side, we are a regional food retailer and a locally focused food retailer. We have always been that way.
A few years ago, labeling a food as organic identified it as an extra-quality product. Today, identifying a product as local is also a powerful attribute in a lot of our customers’ minds,” says Schertle.
Co-Branding
“As a regional retailer competing against the national chains in our trading area, we use our private brands to develop our personality,” says Garisto. To this end he points out that Weis has developed an exclusive co-branded salty snack line with Utz Quality Foods, based in Hanover, PA. Founded in 1921, Utz is the leading salty snack brand in the retailer’s trading area. The line is branded as Weis 5 Star Chips by Utz and now includes 25 types of chips, pretzels, and party mixes.
The exclusive co-branding program with Utz helps reinforce the Weis positioning as a leading regional retailer. “We think local is even more important than organic to consumers today,” notes Garisto, “although we don’t want to give up the organic draw for consumers either.”
The Living Legacy of Weis
Clockwise: Harry Weis, Sigmund Weis, Jonathan Weis and Robert Weis
Harry and Sigmund Weis founded Weis Markets in May 1912, when they opened a small neighborhood store known as Weis Pure Foods on Market Street in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. It was a modest store that was built on value, ingenuity and hard work, according to the company’s history on its website.
Today, the Weis family remains involved in the business. The company currently operates stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and West Virginia. Overall, the company employs more than 18,000 associates in its stores, distribution center, corporate office and manufacturing facilities.
Built on self reliance, Weis processes its own milk and uses the excess butterfat to make Weis Quality Ice Cream – 64 flavors and growing. Weis is also proud to support local farmers. In Pennsylvania alone, the company annually buys more than 20 million pounds of locally grown produce and it also purchases local produce in all of the states where it has stores.
Weis is long-time proponents of recycling. In a given year, the company recycles more than 23,000 tons of cardboard, 800 tons of plastic and 329 tons of paper.
PL Editor’s Note: Weis private brand portfolio includes the following:
- Weis 5 Star – premium brand of unique, gourmet, and indulgent foods,
- Weis Quality – broad line of national brand equivalent groceries,
- Weis Market Street – full line of deli meats, cheese, prepared soups and salads,
- Weis 2 Go – a variety of chilled ready meals,
- TopCare – broad line of health and beauty care products sourced from Topco,
- Full Circle – a specialty line of all-natural and certified organic products sourced from Topco,
- Paws Premium – a specialty line of pet products sourced from Topco,
- Valu Time – an economy line of basic everyday items sourced from Topco.
Weis private brand portfolio includes 6,650 SKUS and accounts for 21% of dollar sales and 25% of unit volume.
Indeed, Weis meets the needs of its constituents for organic and natural foods by offering them the Full Circle private brand line sourced from Topco. Other Topco private brand lines carried by Weis include TopCare health and beauty care, Paws Premium pet products, and Valu Time budget-priced products.
Another co-branded Weis 5 Star product is:
- Pardoe’s Perky Peanuts -- “Our partner, Pardoe’s Perky Peanuts, Inc., has been using the highest quality ingredients to produce homestyle nut products for nearly 50 years. Pardoe’s is a family owned and operated Pennsylvania business that shares our commitment to deliver exceptional quality and nutritious foods to our customers,” – says Weis on the back of the package.
Weis 5 Star Brand
The retailer launched its Weis 5 Star brand line in 2005. Initially it was employed to identify its exclusive co-branded private brand offerings; but under Garisto it has been repositioned as premium private brand line that includes both co-branded and stand-alone product offerings.
“For our Weis 5 Star program, we want to include a product that is exceptional in some manner – whether it is in a premium category or that it has a product specification that is superior to the national brands and we want to point that out to our customers,” says Garisto.
He points out that Weis has developed positioning statements for all of its private brand lines. For Weis Quality products the brand essence is: quality, sensibility, trust. In addition, these products need to be equal to or better than the quality of national brands. For Weis 5 Star products the brand essence is: unique, gourmet, indulgent. As Garisto explains its: “The Weis 5 Star brand denotes quality. Every time you think of 5 stars –whether it be a 5-Star general or 5-Star hotel – it always represents the best.”
New Product Development
The introduction of new private brand products is a powerful force in keeping customers engaged in exploring a retailer’s merchandise mix. The Weis team has their game on in this regard. On the Weis website under the New Products heading, there are dozens of new Weis Quality and Weis 5 Star products showcased.
“We watch the market trends to assist us in new product development – especially what’s the hot new flavor or haute cuisine on the restaurant scene that is being popularized on the food TV networks,” says Tator.
“One of the most successful new products that we recently introduced is our Weis Quality Greek Yogurt. We watched it grow in popularity and saw it as a new niche in the yogurt category. We think it is here to stay. This is where our category managers play an important role in communicating with us about new product trends. We actually beat some of the national brands in bringing this new line to market.
The new line is featured on the retailer’s website and described as: an excellent source of protein, 0% fat, contains no high fructose corn syrup, and all natural.
Weis Quality Pierogies are another food line tagged as new by the retailer.
The pierogies represent a relaunch of a prior item under a new formulation now being made exclusively for Weis by a leading national brand manufacturer based in Pennsylvania. “We make sure that we stay close to our category data and that we go after product development opportunities that make sense,” says Garisto. “We do more business in the frozen pierogie category than we do in the frozen pasta category. As a regional retailer, it is our job to understand who our customers are and develop products that meet their expectations and needs.” In this case, Weis is responding to the fact that there is a sizable community of consumers in its trading area who have roots in Eastern Europe.
Private Brand Ambassadors
Weis understands that store associates are key contact points with customers at point of purchase. To this end, the retailer has implemented a formal Private Brand Ambassador Program in which it recruits and trains one associate – typically the assistant store manager -- from each store to be the retailer’s “eyes and ears” at the store level.
Private Brand Ambassadors receive training during an annual Summit meeting that includes presentations by senior Weis executives about the positioning and role that private brands play for the retailer, sampling stations that includes taste tests comparing private brand products to their national brand counterparts, and interaction with Weis private brand partner vendors.
Included in the handbook distributed at the annual Summit is the following Mission Statement: “Deliver value to Weis Markets by maximizing sales of all Weis Brand products at store level through brand education, knowledge sharing, relationship building and maximum distribution.”
At the store level, the Weis private brand team sends out weekly communications to the ambassadors that discusses new product introductions, new promotional programs and current products being featured in the weekly ad circular. “Our Private Brand Ambassador is the one person in the store responsible for implementation of any new private brand program,” notes Tator. “It is their responsibility – not necessarily to do it themselves – but to make sure that it gets done.”
To entice local customers to the grand re-opening of its Camp Hill store, Weis delivered 2,500 bags of free groceries – all Weis Quality products -- to the surrounding neighborhoods.
Good Neighbor Programs
Throughout its history, Weis has understood the importance of acting as a good neighbor in its local communities. In this regard, the retailer is actively engaged in several community-service programs on an ongoing basis.
Playing an important role in this effort is the Weis Lifestyle Initiatives team made up of three registered dietitians. The team helped develop the company’s cause marketing initiatives including the Weis Fight Hunger and Weis Paws for Pets programs and is a key part of Weis Markets growing health and wellness initiatives as expressed in its HealthyBites program. This includes its bi-monthly HealthyBites magazine that provides nutrition and wellness advice such as a heart-healthy diet, ways to improve the nutrient density of readers’ diets, and food recipes that prominently feature Weis Quality products as ingredients along with some national brand products.
The HealthyBites program also includes in-store displays of better-for-you foods on sale, in-store radio messages, and a Healthy Living section on the retailer’s website.
Another wellness initiative is its annual support of Breast Cancer Awareness during the month of October. As it announces in its weekly ad circular, during the month “Weis Markets will donate a portion of sales to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.”
Weis also has implemented several environmental initiatives and continues to work with EPA’s GreenChill Partnership. As part of its sustainability and recycling efforts, this year Weis announced the conversion of its Weis Quality 24-pack natural spring water to bottles that are made from 100% recycled PET plastic. “We are very proud to be the first supermarket chain in the country to offer this environmentally friendly private brand item to our customers,” says Weis on its website that features the new item.
New Leadership
“We have made a lot of changes and improvements here at Weis under the leadership of Dave Hepfinger,” says Schertle. Hepfinger joined the company in March 2008 and is now the Company’s president and CEO. “He has been instrumental in driving sales and our overall market strategy. He has made a lot of positive changes while also honoring our long history of accomplishments. He has made sure that we build upon our brand equity, which is due in large part to the very strong private brand program we have today.”
