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The supermarket chain claims Perform + Protect will be the first multi-category non-food sub-brand to hit the UK market.

The range consists of more than 100 products, including washing detergents and household cleaning items to moisturisers and shaving razors. Sainsbury's has designed the range with a combination of ingredients that it claims will deliver enhanced performance while offering additional protection to ensure that the products are more effective.

Other examples of Perform + Protect products include sensitive bath soak, liquid foot powder, insect repellent and toilet tissue. If successful, the range is likely to be extended to other product areas.

Perform + Protect has its own logo, which the supermarket chain will promote in-store to enable customers to find the products easily.

Sainsbury's is considering backing the sub-brand with a TV campaign featuring Sainsbury's brand spokesman Jamie Oliver through Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. It will also run a range of in-store promotions, leaflets and demonstrations, alongside a direct mail campaign targeting more than one million households.

The launch of Perform + Protect underlines the increasing importance of strong own-label sub-brands to UK supermarkets. Over the past couple of years, Sainsbury's has launched sub-brands such as kids' range Blue Parrot Cafe and Taste the Difference, its premium portfolio of food products.

Last week Tesco launched a children's range, Tesco Kids, with branding and packaging designed to appeal to children as well as their parents (Marketing, July 18). Safeway has also revamped its own-label offering, introducing brands such as its upmarket range The Best.

Separately, Sainsbury's is in talks with Royal Mail about a tie-up that could allow shoppers to collect their mail from its supermarkets.

The supermarket chain has already signed deals with firms including the AA, Blockbuster and Unilever to open concessions in its stores. It is thought that Royal Mail wants access to Sainsbury's customer base by opening concessions that will serve the full range of consumers' postal needs.