These days, scarcely a day goes by in the retail business without a newspaper headline or TV news segment heralding the recent growth of private-label products. Yes, those items once known as generics – or simply store brands – are creating quite a buzz, thanks to quality improvements, a surge of innovation, and an economy that has increased interest in value-priced offerings.

Why would retailers invest in their own line of private-label products? There are several reasons:

• Develop popular items with wide appeal to expand sales volume
• Control the quality of the product
• Drive down prices on national brands
• Control the packaging
• Achieve pallet efficiencies

While many retailers will be known for name brands like Sony, Rubbermaid, and Goodyear, they will continue to augment their product offerings with their own private-label items.

China and other countries are used constantly by retail buyers as a source of their private-label items, however, you as the potential retail suppler could offer to be the domestic factory for their private-label items. If you can offer a better quality product that rivals the national brands while offering a savings to their customers, you will win the contract from the retail buyer to product their private-label products.

Consumers’ expectations of private-label products have changed and the products have changed as well. Today, store-brand products no longer are cheap imitations of their national brand rivals. They are on a path to equal or surpass the name brands when it comes to innovation.