Walmart is refreshing the look of Great Value, its largest private label brand

Walmart's Great Value brand is getting a new look. Starting this spring, shoppers will see more modern and colorful packaging.Courtesy of WalmartWalmart's largest private brand, Great Value, is getting a fresh look.Starting in May, the brand's approximately 10,000 items that span from LED lightbulbs to gallons of milk and frozen chicken nuggets will hit the shelves in new packaging, the company announced Wednesday. Walmart first launched the brand in 1993 and hasn't changed its look in over a decade. The price and the products inside of the new packaging will stay the same. Shoppers will see the more modern and colorful packaging of Great Value beginning with snacks, followed by cereals, cream cheeses, and sour cream items. It will take about 18 to 24 months for every product to get new packaging, said Scott Morris, senior vice president of private brands for Walmart U.S.Great Value has higher household penetration than any other store-owned brand in the country, with 87% of U.S. households purchasing at least one item from the brand in the past year, according to market researcher Numerator. The firm says all of the top five private label brands by household penetration in the U.S. belong to Walmart, which is also the nation's largest grocer by annual revenue.Still, Walmart's overhaul of Great Value is an offensive play as more companies improve the quality of their in-house products. Amazon's grocery brand has become the fastest-growing private label by unit volume year over year since launching in October, according to Numerator. Some retailers, such as Costco and Trader Joe's, have attracted customers because of their reputation for low-priced and high-quality private label groceries and wine, among many other products. And Aldi, a retailer that almost exclusively stocks its own brands, is expanding its national reach by opening more than 180 stores in the U.S. this year. Plus, the overhaul coincides with Walmart's significant gains from customers with annual household incomes of more than $100,000. It's reeled in those wealthier shoppers by not only offering lower prices, but also offering speedier deliveries and more unique and stylish merchandise. For example, it's added more chef-driven flavors, plant-based items and trendy ingredients to Bettergoods, a private label grocery line that launched about two years ago.In an interview with CNBC, David Hartman, vice president of creative at Walmart, said customer research indicated that shoppers liked the quality and price of the products, but "felt like the expression of the brand on the pack was kind of lagging.""What they felt was this sense of it being a compromise," he said. "They love the product across food and consumables, but they didn't particularly feel very proud to display it in their home or with their families."The packaging for Walmart's Great Value items, such as its Donut Shop coffee, has a colorful and more modern look.The new packaging looks more colorful and crisper than the previous version. Walmart chose the new design to make it easier for busy shoppers to find what they're looking for, whether in store aisles or on Walmart's app, Hartman said. Clearer and more concise packaging will also help Walmart's pickers, who move fast as they pluck items off the shelves for customers' online orders, Morris said.Morris said the company needs to keep up with the demand for private brands that don't look, taste or feel like cheaper knockoffs of national brands."The bottom line is the customer just continues to expect more out of private brands," he said. In the U.S., the market share of private brands has grown. They hold roughly 20% of overall grocery market share in the U.S. compared to roughly 45% to 50% in Canada and Europe, according to Steve Zurek, NielsenIQ's vice president of advanced analytics. Still, he said, that's a notable jump from roughly 15% about a decade ago in the U.S.He added Gen Z shoppers — the young customers that retailers are now chasing — have pushed private labels further because they buy the brands more than previous generations and often prefer them to well-known national brands. "The stigma has been slowly falling away," he said. "It's almost a badge of honor in some ways, depending on the generation, to have a store brand sitting on the counter while you're entertaining."Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.