Safeway launches oral care range

Safeway is launching its own sub-brand of oral healthcare products next week under the Oracle Dental Care brand.

The sub-brand consists of 57 different lines, including toothpaste, tooth brushes, mouthwash and dental floss.

It will be supported with national television and press advertising, along with in-store activity, and will feature in the Mail on Sunday’s Taste of Safeway supplement.

The move follows rival Sainsbury’s launch of the TOPS sub-brand oral care range last autumn (MW October 27 1995).

The oral healthcare market is worth about 400m a year and is dominated by Colgate Palmolive and SmithKline Beecham.

Safeway has been particularly active in developing its own-label products, after a review last year concluded that its own-label sub-brands were an area where it could expand.

The chain was perceived by customers as offering too many specialist branded products.

The Oracle sub-brand comes at the same time as the launch of a vegetable and buttermilk spread called Don’t Flutter With Butter, similar to Van den Bergh Foods’ I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.