Safeway and Warner Bros. Consumer Products Announce Eating Right Kids Food Line Featuring Looney Tunes

Forbes

June 4, 2008
 

Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) and Warner Bros. Consumer Products announced a partnership today that will create a better-for-you line of food products for children, uniting flavor and nutrition. Through a licensing agreement with Safeway(R), the Warner Bros. animated Looney Tunes characters will be featured on the new Eating Right Kids(TM) line of food and beverages, to be sold at Safeway.

Eating Right Kids, an extension of the successful Eating Right(TM) adult line, will launch later this year with select products arriving on store shelves this summer. The line will initially be carried at over 1,700 Safeway locations throughout the United States and Canada. In early 2009, Eating Right Kids will also be available nationally via the Better Living Brands(TM) Alliance. Each product in the multi-category, competitively priced line will feature such world-renowned Looney Tunes characters as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Taz, Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote, Roadrunner, Marvin the Martian and Daffy Duck.

Eating Right Kids is the first broad product line to feature entertainment characters and be dedicated solely to a healthier eating philosophy. Parents will now have an ally helping them show their kids that better-for-you foods can taste good and be fun at the same time.

"The Warner Bros. Consumer Products partnership will allow us to extend the Eating Right brand to a line of products that will appeal to children, and at the same time give parents the comfort that these products are healthier choices," said Mike Minasi, Safeway President, Marketing. "Integrating such well-recognized characters into our brand architecture will make the line more attractive to our target audience and augment the line's success."

"This partnership with Safeway allows us to utilize the Looney Tunes characters' enduring popularity with kids and teens to promote a lifestyle choice that's healthier for them," said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. "Using our iconic characters as ambassadors of health and fitness, the Eating Right Kids program helps simplify good nutrition for parents and their children."

The broad product line will feature more than 100 items across 30 categories including breakfast foods, portable meals, dairy, snacks, and beverages. Products are formulated based on the most recent dietary recommendations and regulations from several federal and state agencies, including Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and the California School Nutritional Guidelines SB12.

The product packaging will retain the Eating Right design architecture while taking full advantage of the personalities associated with the beloved Looney Tunes characters. The Looney Tunes characters will serve as 'Mother's Helper,' making it easy for moms to spot better-for-you food and beverage items for their kids that taste great. The characters will also be integrated into the Eating Right "Spot Your Needs(TM)" easy-reference system, which helps customers quickly identify the nutritional benefits of each product.

"As our nation continues to struggle with the issue of childhood obesity, Safeway has taken a leadership role in providing parents and consumers with food products that are healthier for children, and we believe in this philosophy," said Brad Globe, President, Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products. "Not only will the Eating Right Kids line provide a healthier eating solution for kids and their parents, but we've taken the additional step across the entire Looney Tunes product line in North America to ensure that the majority of food products featuring the characters meet this better-for-you standard and will be exclusively available through the Eating Right Kids line."

Today's announcement is the latest component in a larger, ongoing Safeway initiative focused on providing health and wellness solutions to its customers. The Eating Right line launched in April 2007 with products produced primarily for adults and now has nearly 200 items in more than 30 categories. The philosophy behind the brand is to offer healthier eating solutions across multiple categories with a "Spot Your Needs" easy reference system so consumers can easily identify foods that meet their individual requirements. Safeway also developed FoodFlex, an innovative online nutrition tool that provides personalized information about food, nutrition and alternative grocery options. Last year, Safeway launched its Good to Know program, an in-store and online guide to food nutrition. Good to Know signs are posted throughout stores and on www.safeway.com showing the health benefits of certain products, including the cancer-fighting benefits. For example, the Good to Know product signs on broccoli and tomato sauce note that these foods may help reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, including breast cancer.

About Safeway - www.safeway.com

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,740 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $42 billion in 2007. Safeway supports a broad range of charitable and community programs and in 2007 donated more than $172 million to important causes, such as cancer research, education, food banks and programs focused on assisting people with disabilities. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.

About Warner Bros. Consumer Products

Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.

About Better Living Brands Alliance

Better Living Brands Alliance is a group of world-class food and beverage manufacturing, marketing and distribution companies formed to meet consumer demand and fuel consistent growth in consumption of organic and health and wellness foods and beverages. The Better Living Brands(TM) Alliance mission is to help consumers live better lives everyday by offering brands that delight.

LOONEY TUNES and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and (C) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.