Wal-Mart Gives Its Store Brand a Makeover

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) has completely overhauled its oldest and biggest store brand, a move likely to send shock waves through the ranks of branded grocery manufacturers around the globe.

For the past year, Wal-Mart has worked with suppliers and consumers to test the quality of more than 5,250 of its Great Value private-label products against leading national brands. With thousands of products spanning 100 categories, Great Value is not only the biggest brand Wal-Mart carries, it's the biggest grocery brand in the entire country.

The extensive testing prompted the company to change the formulas for 750 everyday items, mostly foods, such as its kids' breakfast cereal, which was made crisper, for example. Senior Vice-President Andrea Williams, an innovation specialist who worked on new product development at Frito-Lay (PEP) and Hershey (HSY) before joining Wal-Mart in 2007, has also launched more than 80 new products under the Great Value line, such as thin-crust pizza, fat-free caramel swirl ice cream, and organic cage-free eggs.