Dutch Boy brand to color Sears' PL paint mix - Sears to add brand name paints to its private label merchandise

Dutch Boy Brand to Color Sears' PL Paint Mix

CHICAGO -- When Sears unveils its new paint and hardware "power format" this summer, the Dutch Boy will be sticking his paintbrush into the product mix.

In another thrust into branded merchandise, Sears will add Sherwin-Williams' Dutch Boy brand to its private label Weatherbeater and Easy Living paint lines, DSN has learned.

Sherwin-Williams, Cleveland, has a new Sears marketing team, company sources said, and will begin shipping Dutch Boy in a few months.

Sears declined to comment, however, on what brands it will add to its paint and hardware offerings. Dutch Boy also declined to comment.

In Des Plaines, Ill., Ewald Hoerster, marketing director for DeSotto Inc., exclusive supplier of Sears' private label paint, said he "knew about Dutch Boy's coming, but declined to comment on the effect.

When rolling out new everday prices on March 1, Sears heavily reduced paint prices. It cut Weatherbeater exterior paint to $13.92 a gallon from $19.99 and priced Easy Living interior paint at $12.71, down from $17.99.

Sears already carries some brand merchandise in its hardware and paint departments and its Sears Paint and Hardware specialty stores.

Those include: Phillips, light bulbs; WD-40, lubricant; Olympic, wood stains; Minwax, wood refinishing products; Rust-Oleum, rust preventative paints; 3M, window insulating kits; and First Alert, smoke alarms.

In plumbing and bath, Sears added Pollenexx and Alson's brand hand-held showers since it began its test of branded merchandise last year. And Sears has Franklin Brass towel bars, toilet paper holders and toothbrush holders in about 100 stores. Franklin is its private label supplier of such products.

Whatever tool brands it adds in hardware, the consensus among suppliers is that Sears won't add any brand, such as Stanley and Black & Decker, that competes with its Craftsman private label in either power or hand tools.

"Sears has such a strong franchise with its Craftsman label it will consider only tools that complement it," predicted Thomas R. Sulentic, vice president, special markets, for Black & Decker.

Sears might add top-end power tools for professionals, such as Milwaukee and Makita, Sulentic said. In addition, it could fill in voids in its line with specialty tools, such as Black & Decker's right-angle drill, a $200 tool, he said.

"Any new brands will be designed to bring in new customers," he said, "while building on the core Craftsman customer."

Sears already offers a limited line of Craftsman "Industrial Tools" geared for contractors and tradesmen.

Examples are: circular saw, new everyday price, $138.73, cut from $159.99; reciprocating saw, new, $123.83, old, $139.99; and 3/8-inch drill, $95.29, unchanged.

Sears is reviewing every category of home improvement products in depth, said Dana Severs, national sales manager, for Peerless Faucet, Indianapolis.

Harvey Porter, the Sears account manager for Easco/KD Tools, Lancaster, Pa., said he has seen what brands Sears will add but won't name them. Easco makes ratchet wrenches and sockets for Sears Craftsman private label.

"Craftsman in the No. 1 brand in the nation," Porter said. "They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they took on other tool brands."

In another development, Sears announced that it will increase the size of additional strip center Sears Paint and Hardware stores to the 7,000-square-feet to 10,000-square-foot range.

The 110 stores in Sears' Paint and Hardware chain now average about 4,000 square feet.

The specialty stores will fill the extra space with builders' hardware: plumbing, paint and sundry supplies for masons, plumbers and other tradesmen, a spokesman said.

Sears already carries builders hardware, but it will extend the line in the larger paint and hardware specialty stores, the spokesman said.

Sears will open 50 to 75 more Sears Paint and Hardware stores in 1989 on top of 33 in 1988, he said.

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