(Refiles to fix typo in quote in fourth paragraph from bottom) (For other news from the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/FoodandAgriculture09?PID=500) (Recasts, adds quote, byline, updates stock price)
By Nicole Maestri
CHICAGO, March 16 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of private brands for Wal-Mart, told the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago on Monday that the relaunch of Great Value, the country's largest food brand in both sales and volume, includes new items such as double-stuffed sandwich cookies, frozen pizza and organic cage-free eggs.
Wal-Mart has also changed formulas for 750 products under the brand, which includes thousands of products across 100 food, beverage and household product categories.
Great Value was first introduced in 1993, and Thomas said the packaging is being updated to feature pictures on a white background, making it easier to spot the brand on its shelves.
The new packaging will also give the line a consistent appearance across the store.
"The packaging is simple, it's clearer and it's much easier to find," Thomas said. "We've created a package with better pictures on a white background so it really pops off of the shelf, and that makes it easier to find when they go aisle to aisle on their shopping trips."
Wal-Mart has said that its private brands are becoming more important as consumers look for ways to stretch limited budgets amid the recession.
As shoppers run out of money in between paychecks, they are trading down to buy cheaper private brand products instead of national brands, Wal-Mart said.
Thomas said the gap, on average, between the price of a national brand and a private brand is 5 percent to 20 percent.
Thomas said she has worked for 18 months on the relaunch, which includes some new items, reformulated items and existing items in new packages. Some reformulated products include cereal, cookies, yogurt, detergent and paper towels.
The new Great Value items will begin rolling out this month, with the entire brand in the new packaging by the end of the summer, Thomas said.
She said no markdowns are planned on existing Great Value items. Instead, Thomas said that in some stores consumers will see the old Great Value packaging sitting on shelves next to the Great Value items in new packaging, as Wal-Mart sells through the current inventory.
While Thomas declined to disclose the cost of the relaunch, she said customers should not see any change in the prices they pay for Great Value items.
"We've carefully designed this so that the price of the product wouldn't go up," she said. "Prices were not impacted by the relaunch."
But she also said Wal-Mart will watch the brand to make sure it holds its own against national brands and deserves the shelf space it is being given.
"We have to earn our way just like our national brands," she told Reuters TV.
Wal-Mart shares were up 8 cents, or less than 1 percent, at $49.27 on the New York Stock Exchange. (For summit blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/summits/) (For more on the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit, see [ID:nSP463170]) (Additional reporting by Martinne Geller and Ben Klayman; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Gerald E. McCormick)