Food and supply store chain Smart & Final is in the RFP phase of a creative agency review, according to parties who reached out to us this week.
The California-based company, which formed as a conglomerate of several retailers, has worked with a string of agencies in recent years.
The Phelps Group won a 1998 review to help the business rebrand, and Newport Beach’s HEILBrice appears to have been its last AOR, based on this brand spot shared on the agency’s YouTube page about a year ago.
A Smart & Final spokesperson declined to discuss the review, writing, “As a matter of practice, Smart & Final does not publicly comment on information related to its agency partners.”
According to Kantar Media, the chain spent just over $5 million on measured media in 2016.
In terms of the overall business, Smart & Final recently saw its revenue dip after acquiring several bankrupt Haggen Inc. stores and turning them into Smart & Final Extra! locations. But the company remains in expansion mode, and according to Supermarket News it “posted net income of $12.9 million [for 2016], vs. $38.3 million a year ago.”
We do not currently have information regarding the agencies involved in the review.