CINCINNATI – Convenience stores in the Kroger family are now selling some of the company’s store-branded food items under the Simple Truth banner, Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) reports. Launched in 2012, Simple Truth products are free from 101 artificial preservatives and ingredients that customers have requested not be in their foods.

“On a few select items, [Simple Truth products are] … in a lot of our convenience stores,” Michael Schlotman, Kroger CFO and executive vice president, told Oil Price Information Services during a second-quarter earnings call. “We're really trying to learn how broad the brand can go and who all connects with it. As you know, historically, a convenience store isn't a place you go to for healthy offerings and we are trying to make sure that the customer, if that's what they want, they can find what they want.”

Schlotman didn’t elaborate further on how long the pilot program would run before the company rolled out more private-label food items to its 781 convenience stores, which operate under Kwik Shop, Loaf N’ Jug, Quik Stop Markets, Smith’s Express, Tom Thumb Food Stores and Turkey Hill Minit Markets. Currently, the convenience stores stock a small selection of private-label products from Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organics.

Learn more about offering healthier options in your stores through NACS reFresh resources.