Buyers pack in for PLMA show - Private Label Manufacturers Association trade show

Discount Store News, Dec 5, 1994 by Dawn Wilensky

CHICAGO -- Health and beauty care and snack food items were the main course on the menu for buyers who attended the Private Label Manufacturers Association show held here last month.

"We're here looking for H&BC and candy products," said David Henriksen, buyer, H&BC for Bradlees. "We can't do as much private label as the supermarkets but we can do a better job promoting our existing products."

Attendance at the show increased to over 2,000 and the number of exhibitors rose 23% over last year to 1,300.

"We are looking for H&BC, especially in the bath care area," said Bryan Bagwell, vice president, merchandise, Dollar Tree Stores. "We are also looking for consumables, like toothpaste, that people use everyday and will come back to the store for on a fairly regular basis," added Karen Votapka, purchasing manager, Dollar Tree Stores.

Brand loyalty is imperative when building a private label and marketers are doing this by improving quality, packaging and pricing. Premium products have risen to the top of everyone's wish list in store brands and they are becoming a must-have for many of the larger retailers.

CBI Laboratories, based in Carrollton, Texas, has developed an exclusive store brand called SPA Indulgence for Target. The upscale bath line, which has been in stores since September 1994, will be expanded to include skin care, hair care and sun care products next year.

Other retailers, including Target, have also developed premium brands in the snack food category.

At Wal-Mart, its Sam's Choice brand encompasses many product categories and competes successfully with the national brands; Kmart has done quite well with its Nature's Classics line and Target recently renamed its Greatland product line, Great Selections, probably to take advantage of the word "select" and to give the food a more upscale image.

The show also featured packaging that looked just as high-end as many of the national brands.

Interestingly, one company fashioned its private label chocolate chip cookies in a package that looked very much like Sam's American Choice cookies. This is very telling as it indicates the strength of the Wal-Mart brand as a national brand in its own right and the influence that these store brands have in general.

"It used to be that retailers depended on national brands for packaging direction," said Denis Rizzuto, Conair Packaging Co. "Nowadays, more retailers are developing their own identity."

This point was driven home in a speech given at the show by Joseph Antonini, chairman, president and ceo of Kmart, who spoke on "The Changing American Retail Marketplace."

Mona Doyle, president of the Consumer Network, a research firm specializing in national market studies, also spoke on trends and perceptions that impact consumers' spending decisions. Doyle identified national-brand shoppers, swing shoppers and heavy store brand users as today's most common consumers.

Of discount store shoppers, 44% said they were national-brands-only shoppers while 36% were heavy store brand users.

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