Private Label Manufacturers Association

Trinityenews

Timely and widely sourced news articles from the UK Grocery scene

http://www.trinityenews.com/

Private Label Magazine

Private Label Magazine is the industry’s leading American publication dedicated to publishing information that retailers and wholesalers need to know in order to succeed as private label marketers. [Refer also Private label International magazine – same site]

http://www.privatelabelmag.com

Morning News Beat

Daily US and international retail news and analysis by Kevin Coupe

http://www.MorningNewsBeat.com

Brand Strategy Consultants

Brand Strategy Consultants (BSC) Founded by Tom Stephens, recognised internationally for his work in the field of private label. BSC provides brand consulting services to its clients, offering marketing services relating to the sourcing, development, procurement, distribution, launch and sell-through of retailer and manufacturer branded products.

http://www.brandstrategyconsultants.ca

Skyline.com

Trade show tips: Ideas to enhance your exhibiting experience.

http://www.n-email.net/skyline/signup.htm

Just-Food

UK retail news subscription newsletter published daily

http://www.just-food.com

The Grocer

UK retail news subscription newsletter published daily.

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk

Brandweek

A leading US retail brand marketing and advertising magazine.

http://www.brandweek.com

Private Label Manufacturers Association

News and information from Private Label Manufacturers Association, the international trade association of manufacturers and suppliers of store brand food and non-food products to supermarkets, drug stores, and mass merchandisers.

http://www.plma.com
http://www.plmainternational.com

PL Buyer

COMPANY WEBSITE – The web’s most comprehensive information source for today’s busy private label executives.

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Private Label Sourcing

COMPANY WEBSITE – Providing an easy-to-use and accurate site for retailers, wholesalers, brokers, suppliers and service companies to find each other and identify business opportunities. Search by category, label, or supplier name.

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Private label to target caffeine and cleaning - KPMG

ARTICLE – More consolidation in consumer market sector as private equity works up an appetite. Coffee, laundry products and nappies will be the next targets in retailers’ push to put private label products into supermarket shelves and they’re not afraid of the big names, according to Adrian Arundell, Executive Director in KPMG’s Corporate Finance practice.

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The 5 Stages of Global Sourcing Step-by-Step

ARTICLE – A unified buying process drives the ‘revolution’ from domestic sourcing to global brand. The mandate comes down from the boardroom: We need to increase our international sourcing efforts by another 25% in order to remain competitive. While the task might seem daunting and overwhelming at first, developing a core competency in global sourcing is one of the critical business initiatives for retailers and channel masters.

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A peek at private label consumer electronics trends

ARTICLE – It’s no secret that the Wal-Marts of the world offer private label flat panel TVs, DVD players and other consumer electronics (CE), thereby exerting influence on the supply chain. But just how quickly they’re moving and how much power they wield are questions no one seems able to answer – at least not in public.

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Drinkable Yogurt Outpaces Other Categories in Global Growth According to New ACNielsen Study of Food and Beverages

ARTICLE – Beverages that support healthy diets are among the world's fastest-growing food and beverage categories, according to the latest study released by ACNielsen Global Services, an operating unit of The Nielsen Company. The Executive News Report, titled What's Hot Around the Globe - Insights on Growth in Food & Beverage Products noted that Drinkable Yogurts in particular was the fastest-growing food and beverage category purchased by consumers worldwide.

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Cosmetic players find new ways to cut operating costs

ARTICLE – US cosmetic producers are seeking new ways to cut operating costs and increase competitiveness in the face of another tough trading year, says PricewaterhouseCoopers. The measures are being taken due to increasing input costs and retailer power, which will continue to put pressure on operating margins, the firm says.

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Tomorrow's Private Label Consumers

REPORT – Private label has been growing at least at twice the rate of famous brands over the last 10 years. It has grown so fast because it is very much aligned with the prevailing consumer trends and its creators have been adept at aligning it with relevant consumer segments. However, it is not yet as trusted as famous brands, meaning that these two competing groups can still learn from each other. Click the link for the full PDF brief.

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Traffic light risk rating for food suppliers

ARTICLE – Suppliers of private label food and drink to multiple retailers may be given 'traffic light' ratings to show their attention to food safety and risk management, under a new project, BeverageDaily.com can reveal. At least one major supermarket in the UK is understood to be considering the scheme, which has been developed by insurance group Marsh. Supermarkets abroad have also shown an interest.

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Buyers looking into natural ingredients to reduce costs

ARTICLE – Detergent makers continue to show interest in obtaining a larger fraction of their ingredients from natural plant sources, as alternatives to the more traditional—and costly—petroleum-based feedstocks, but the long-term outlook is not clear.

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Soft Branding

ARTICLE – Hollander is one of the last remaining pillow companies in the U.S., but you've probably never heard of it. That's about to change. When the discount chain Costco wanted to launch a new offer for "Two pillows for $10," it called Leo and Jeff Hollander, the father-and-son team that owns Hollander Home Fashions. When Laura Ashley decided to introduce its own branded pillows, down comforters, and mattress pads, it struck a deal with Hollander. Considering that the company is one of the largest bedding manufacturers in the country, cranking out 150,000 pillows a day, it's more than likely that something in your bedroom is made by Hollander. It's also likely that until recently, you would have had no way of knowing it.

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Brand Killers Store brands aren't for losers anymore. In fact, they're downright sizzling. And that scares the soap out of the folks who bring us Tide and Minute Maid and Alpo and...

ARTICLE – Melanie Turner has forgotten her shopping list. But the 42-year-old pension consultant, who has just entered Costco's 133,000-square-foot warehouse store in Norwalk, Conn., doesn't seem to mind. Turner knows right where she's going. In the dish detergent section, her hand goes past Procter & Gamble's Cascade to grab two 96-ounce bottles of Kirkland Signature, the in-store brand that Costco has plastered on everything from cashews to cross-trainer sneakers.

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US: Buzz Off announces new private-label initiative

ARTICLE – Buzz Off Insect Shield, the developer of insect-repellent apparel, has announced a new strategic business initiative focusing on private label manufacturing, including development of new 'Buzz Off' apparel and products for camping, home, garden and pet care.

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The Private Label Company Signs First Two Customers

ARTICLE – Jimmy Suh, managing director of The Private Label Company LLC (PLC), today announced that Langham Hotels International has signed to become one of its first customers. The PLC is the recently formed joint venture between The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. and TRUST.WIZCOM., offering superior reservations, sales, and distribution services to hotel and travel companies.

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Not private equity target

ARTICLE – David Jones's top shopkeeper, Mark McInnes, expects private equity groups to continue circling the retail sector in 2007 looking for bargains. But he does not believe the department store is a target. Mr McInnes told The Courier-Mail the retailing bonanza that is forecast to take place over the next two years will be a double-edged sword for some retailers, as the badly run ones are likely to be put under the microscope by private equity during 2007.

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Caned by canned imports

ARTICLE – Australian farmers are struggling to compete with subsidised imported foods selling as house brand products in major supermarkets, a Queensland senator has warned. Nationals Senate leader Ron Boswell said shoppers were increasingly confronted with shelves lined with canned potatoes from Belgium, peas from Italy and jam from Denmark – all sold under supermarkets' own labels.

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Fashion business - the booms and busts of bridge lines

ARTICLE – When Isaac Mizrahi announced last month he was shutting down his design business, the fashion world focused on his flamboyant signature collections. But it was the distinct absence of a profitable lower-priced line, known as a bridge line, that perhaps most contributed to his failure.

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An empirical investigation of category-level effects of consumer factors on private label purchase

THESIS – Private label brands have been examined in the literature for more than forty years (Narasimhan and Wilcox, 1998). Due to the rapid growth of private-label market share, researchers have looked into different influential factors in attempting to find out the reasons behind the success of these store products. As consumers reflect the demand side of fast-moving goods, their perceptions critically affect decisions on brand selection, and therefore the performance of the brands.

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Time To Kill "The Supermarket To Asia" Myth

ARTICLE – Travelling to food markets around the world, I feel a great sense of frustration and a sadness at the generally held misconceptions regarding the competitiveness of the Australian food industry. Despite the daily stories in the media highlighting the declining fortunes of our food industry, there is still a blind belief and confidence amongst producers, which is fostered by many trade officials, that Australia is a leading force in global food. This self perpetuating myth needs to be killed once and for all.

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Organic Food Goes Mass Market

ARTICLE – Supermarket chains launch less expensive brands to capture growing organic foods market. In a bid to capture a slice of the fast-growing organic-foods market, mainstream supermarket chains are rushing out their own store-brand lines that can cost significantly less than comparable specialty brands often found at health-food and gourmet stores. The pricing could remove a big barrier for many Americans who have wanted to try organic rice, cookies or cans of soup but have been put off by the prices.

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Making money from food isn't a snack

ARTICLE – Janine Perrett opens the cupboard and finds a food factory fighting to stay at home. He entered the country as a Scandinavian backpacker but now Stig Jensen is in a fight to remain as one of the last medium-sized Australian food manufacturers.

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Private label threat to smaller brands

ARTICLE – Last time you walked around your supermarket, you might have noticed the swift and none too subtle change taking place on the shelves. As consumer groups put it, the new supermarket frontier has arrived, and it's private labels. Last year Coles and Woolworths announced home brands would be increased to around 30 per cent of products in supermarkets, a move that veggie growers said would favour cheaper imports over Australian-grown.

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Private label the way to go for expanding lettuce grower

ARTICLE – One of the state's top lettuce producers believes the growth in private labels is good news for growers. On yesterday's Country Hour we heard the concerns of the processing sector as sales of some home brand products now account for over half of the market.

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Aldi and Australian supermarkets

ARTICLE – The battle for your grocery dollar is set to take a new direction this week. After months of speculation the cut price German grocery chain, Aldi, which is highly secretive about its operations, has now confirmed it will open its first two Australian stores this coming Thursday.

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Supermarket house brands

ARTICLE – Week after week Australians struggle with wayward shopping trollies, queue at checkouts, price checks and discount petrol tickets... all part of the great supermarket experience. And now, while our routine has continued, supermarkets have been transforming thousands of the products on offer. The transformation is having, and will have, a major impact on what ends up in our trolleys, on our dinner plates, and what's grown on Australian farms.

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Coles Myer planning to double homebrand range

ARTICLE – Coles Myer says farmers should not fear the growth of generic homebrand lines. The company, which owns the Coles and Bi-Lo supermarket chains, is planning to double its homebrand range to 2,000 products within the next few years. Many fruit and vegetable growers are worried that the supermarket giant will buy low-quality, cheap imports to fill the range.

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Supermarkets and the shift to home brands

ARTICLE – 2006 has been foreshadowed as the year of private label brands, as supermarkets look to create points of differentiation. The shift means a rationalisation in shelf space, and the emergence of budget and premium housebrand products. The trend will create winners and losers, according to market analyst with the Rabobank Tim Hunt. He expects there will be the loss of 'mid to lower end brands' with a smaller market share.

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Consumers switch to Homebrand products

ARTICLE – New figures show Homebrand products like milk, sugar and butter already account for more than 50 per cent of sales through the major supermarkets. Frozen and canned Homebrand vegetables and dried fruits are also becoming more popular, according to research by accountancy firm KPMG. Food processors are starting to feel the pressure, as supermarkets aim to fill one-third of their shelves with their own labels.

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Home brands threaten food manufacturing

ARTICLE – We've heard from veggie growers about the difficulties they're facing making a living in horticulture, but what about those further up the food chain? Research on home brands suggests it's not just growers who should be worried, but food manufacturers and processors.

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Aldi drives growth in private label product sales

ARTICLE – Independent retailer Aldi is driving private label growth in Australia, experiencing an increase in the number of shoppers visiting its stores and a substantial increase in the amount shoppers are spending in-store, a report released by marketing information company ACNielsen has revealed.

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Private-label demand forecast to boom

ARTICLE – More than half (57%) of Australian manufacturers are already supplying private label products to retailers, a survey conducted by leading market research company ACNielsen has found. The survey also found that of those manufacturers not producing private label products, the likelihood of doing so in the future was very low – 67% said it was unlikely they would commence private label manufacturing in the next three years.

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Grocery makers feel heat over slow consumer spending

ARTICLE – Australian grocery manufacturers are feeling the effects of slow consumer spending with most saying retail business conditions have been in decline over the past 12 months, a report by ACNielsen has revealed. The findings extracted from ACNielsen’s bi-annual Retail Barometer survey capture responses from over 100 senior leaders from top Australian fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies on business confidence and concerns, retailer relationships, Private Label trends and promotional trade spend.

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Aldi driving Australian Private Label growth

ARTICLE

• Aldi attracting more shoppers and encouraging higher spending
• Families with young children core demographic group for Private Label Independent retailer

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ACNielsen Private Label Report

REPORT – A continuous monitor of sales and consumer acceptance of Private Label products by retail account. For years, Private Label development in Australia has lagged behind most other developed countries. However, this is starting to change with share reaching 18 percent of packaged grocery (excluding tobacco products), as Aldi, which generates almost all of its sales via Private Label, continues to grow its footprint in the Australian grocery market. For more info or to purchase the report, click here: http://au.acnielsen.com/products/documents/PLreportflyerLR.pdf

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Private label gains valuable Aussie acceptance

ARTICLE

• Australians’ acceptance of private label brands highest in Asia Pacific region
• A nation divided – Australians polarised on perception of private label quality
• Private label for all – 52% disagree that private label is only for budget-conscious

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ACNielsen Bi-Annual News Release: Retail business confidence in decline, but manufacturers still hold some optimism to see out 2006

NEWS RELEASE – Australian grocery manufacturers are feeling the effects of slow consumer spending with most (53%) saying retail business conditions have been in decline over the past 12 months, a report released today by leading marketing information company ACNielsen has revealed.

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ACNielsen Bi-Annual News Release: Retail suppliers report stable business conditions for 2006 and outlook is cautious for year ahead

NEWS RELEASE – Inflation driving record sales growth in the grocery channel in 2006; Retail manufacturers expect business conditions to decline over the next two years; Private Label manufacturers the most pessimistic about the future.

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ACNielsen China Trend Watch 2006

REPORT – Little Emperors, the first wave of China’s one-child policy, are entering the workforce. Having worked hard at school with a period of unprecedented growth, this most dedicated consumer group in China is enjoying income levels unmatched by that of previous generations.

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Breaking News: ACNielsen predicts the face of retail in 2010

REPORT – More than ever, the future of the always changing retail landscape is in the hands of consumers. Factors such as high gas prices have forced people to alter their shopping habits, in turn forcing retailers to re-shape the industry by thinking outside the box.

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ACNielsen Insights Asia Pacific ? Price and Profitability: What Your Brand Needs To Know About The Price of Profitability

ARTICLE – Brand survival and profit Fundamentally, a brand’s continuity depends on its ability to sustain itself over the longer term. This means that the profit it attracts by virtue of building its equity must be utilized in ensuring its sustenance. Therefore, almost all marketing activity centered around the four Ps of marketing (Price, Place, Promotion, Packaging) carefully balances the resultant outcome on the fifth P – Profitability.

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ACNielsen Grocery Report

REPORT – The ACNielsen Grocery Report is produced annually and provides unique insight into trends affecting the Australian grocery sector. The report draws from various ACNielsen data sources and covers seven key areas including the economy; retail spending; packaged grocery inflation; packaged grocery growth; Private Label trends; top 100 grocery suppliers; and retailer shares.

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ACNielsen Top 100 Brands Report

REPORT – ACNielsen's bi-ennial Top 100 Brands Report is Australia's foremost report on the country's leading FMCG and grocery brands. The report is compiled based on annual sales through supermarkets and grocery stores and included a listing of the top 100 brands within a single category as well as the top 25 umbrella brands.

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ACNielsen Convenience Report

REPORT – ACNielsen's Convenience Report is produced annually and supplied to more than 18,000 retailers and suppliers in the Australian convenience sector via Australian Convenience Store News, the leading publication in the sector. The report is a comprehensive summary of convenience store market share, category values and growth trends and state-based data.

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ACNielsen Global Executive News Reports

REPORT – ACNielsen Global Executive News Reports keep you in touch with worldwide trends through our analysis of actual retail sales data. A typical report represents the vast majority of the world’s Gross Domestic Product and population, giving you unmatched insights into the many-faceted issues that are shaping the global Fast-Moving Consumer Goods industry.

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ACNielsen Global Consumer Confidence and Opinion Reports

REPORT – ACNielsen conducts a regular syndicated online consumer survey across multiple countries, giving you important information about the attitudes and opinions of consumers worldwide. Consumer Confidence is measured twice a year across more than 30 countries, along with other timely social, economic and political issues.

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ACNielsen ShopperTrends 2005

REPORT – ACNielsen | ShopperTrends is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of consumer shopping patters across different trade sectors, from hypermarkets and supermarkets to traditional wet markets. Regionally, this allows retailers to compare the relative level of development of each country as well as quantify the potential for development.

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ACNielsen Market Information Digest 2005

REPORT – The ACNielsen | Market Information Digest (MID) is a crucial reference tool for companies interested in packaged goods markets. It provides immediate access to valuable information on a wide range of product categories, as well as key demographic and retail trade data. It enables you to conduct cross-category analysis, as well as identify new opportunities in adjacent categories.

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Retailing

REPORT – The future of retailing has been the subject of significant speculation over recent years, particularly with the advent of direct marketing and internet shopping. For the foreseeable future, most retailers will be faced with the challenge of attracting consumers to their store, persuading them to spend money once inside and achieving this with the most efficient retail operations.

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The Retail Store as a Brand

REPORT – In recent years, more and more retailers have seen the importance of branding and have recognised the need to adopt distinctive positioning within their marketplaces. However, the drivers of branding for retailers are often misunderstood, and it is sometimes unclear what a retailer needs to do to develop their brand.

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CONSUMER INSIGHT - Insights today for tomorrow's decisions

ONLINE MAGAZINE – The Future of Health & Wellness The Private Label Playbook (large article); Imagine…One Click. One Place. All the Answers; The Drive to Go Local; Rollback Sushi and Discount Organics: What Wal-Mart’s Push to Upscale Consumers Means to You.

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The Rise of Retailer Private Labels - Threat and Opportunity for Australia's Food Industry

ARTICLE – The rise of retailer private label products is both a threat and an opportunity for Australia's food industry, according to a report from leading global agribusiness financier Rabobank.

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FMCG marketers respond to private label squeeze

ARTICLE – While almost 60% of Australian FMCG marketers are already supplying some private label products, those that aren’t are planning to spend up on advertising to fight back against the rise of retailer’s own brands, according to a new survey from ACNielsen. The survey, Retail Barometer looked at emerging trends in private label manufacturing and is hailed by ACNielsen as the first survey of its kind. It includes interviews with more than 100 senior leaders from Australia’s top Australian FMCG manufacturers.

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Retailsource

COMPANY WEBSITE – Retail Source focuses on the development, sales and marketing of branded and private label retail products. Our highly experienced multidisciplinary professionals are dedicated to providing an extensive array of products and services to the consumer packaged goods industry. We are the industry's most experienced Private Label professionals and can manage the complete spectrum of Private Label development process.

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Battle for private label shoppers intensifies

ARTICLE – Though traditional retailers have long had the corner on private label targeting the value conscious shopper, increased private label competition from value channels threatens their share.

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