Private label food sales continue to grow

U.S. private label food sales rose $9 billion to a total of $271 billion in 2024, reports the Private Label Manufacturers’ Association, a processors’ trade group. Interestingly, some of the biggest expansion in the category is coming from nontraditional food retailers like Walmart and Target, reports The Food Institute, a food news site.

Walmart recently introduced Bettergoods, a premium private label line offering plant-based alternatives and specialty items, for example, the Institute reports.

“Dollar General revealed plans to bolster its arsenal of more than 3,200 consumable private label products with roughly 100 new offerings under its Clover Valley brand. Additions include honey mustard, blue cheese, and Thousand Island salad dressings; apple cinnamon fruit and grain bars; and eight flavors of ice creams,” the Food Institute story also relates.

Private label has come a long way from the 1970s and ’80s when it was sold mainly in white cans with army-like stenciled labels.

Retailers are realizing they can make more on a wide range of private label goods than they can on branded products. It’s a lesson Trader Joe’s and Aldi have taught the business over the years.

With prices up in recent years, consumers are searching for lower prices and private label provides them. And quality keeps improving as does the variety of offerings.

A personal note, I was editor of a magazine called Private Label Buyer from 2010 to 2012 when a former publisher drove it out of business with a competing magazine. Such was the cut-throat nature of the trade magazine world in those days when magazines still made money from print advertising.