To complement its steadily growing line of 7-Select private-label products as well as the fresh-baked-daily items in its bakery case, some 5,700 participating  7-Eleven stores are adding 15 packaged bakery items under the company’s private-label brand. 

 

Snack cakes and pies, mini-donuts and breakfast pastries fill in the snack category for consumers who prefer their treats sweet rather than salty. New items include Powdered Sugar Mini-Donuts, six-pack; Chocolate Frosted Mini-Donuts, six-pack; Crunch Mini-Donuts, six-pack; Powdered Sugar Mini-Donuts, 10-ounce bag; Chocolate Frosted Mini-Donuts, 10-ounce bag; Chocolate Cupcakes, two-pack; Gold Crème Cakes, two-pack; Iced Cheese Danish; Iced Cherry Cheese Danish; Iced Apple Danish; Bear Claw Danish; Apple Snack Pie; Cherry Snack Pie; Iced Honey Bun; and Glazed Honey Bun.

 

To introduce the new snack cakes and sweet treats, participating 7-Eleven stores are offering each of the single-serve items at a special discounted price of 99 cents through the end of the year.  The items will each have a recommended value-price of $1.19 starting next year.  Suggested retail price for the 10-ounce bags of mini-donuts is $1.99. 

 

The new line of bakery items has been in development for more than a year under the supervision of Joe Hermes, 7-Eleven senior product director for bakery and produce, and Bakery Product Manager John Vaughan. Hermes has more than 30 years in the deli, bakery and foodservice business, including operating his own wholesale bakery and a previous position as vice president of sales at Dawn Food Products, an international bakery supplier.  Vaughan, a 27-year 7-Eleven veteran who has spent the last several years as a fresh foods merchandiser for the company’s stores in the Southwest, was tapped to manage the introduction of the new line.   

 

“Customers who turn to private label are looking for better values and ways to save money,” Hermes said, “but just saving money isn’t enough to keep them as repeat purchasers.  Our goal was to match or improve on the taste and quality of the baked goods by the national brands.  If you can do that and save a customer money, they’re more likely to become loyal to that product.”

 

In blind taste tests, the new 7-Eleven line of packaged bakery was preferred on average three-to-one compared to its national brand counterpart.  Hermes said new snack cake items are already in development for introduction in 2010, including seasonal specialties. 

 

7-Eleven stores already has introduced about 225 private-label food and non-food products under the 7-Select brand, and another 40 new items are scheduled to be in stores before the end of the year.

 

Based in Dallas, Texas,  7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses some 7,850 7-Eleven stores in North America.