Private label leaders returned from the recent PLMA conference in Chicago with lots of information to digest and new ideas on how to drive growth in 2011. PLMA regularly holds a conference in Chicago in November in which suppliers and retailers get together to show their wares and discuss new ideas and products. Attendance was up +15%, according to a PLMA spokesperson, despite a year that was average at best for private label growth.
After growing strongly in 2008 and 2009, sales of private label foods are flat in 2010 as brands counterattacked and increased trade and consumer promotion. Despite this, private label leaders are optimistic that private label brands will return to gaining share. The leading private label companies Treehouse (THS) and Ralcorp (RAH) were well represented, as were many of the key supermarket retailers like Target (TGT), Kroger (KR), Super Valu (SVU) and Safeway (SWY).
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