Private Label: Hot and Accessible

Private-label brands showcased chips, bars, baked goods and more across the Private Label Trade Show Floor, which was held in Rosemont, Illinois Nov. 12-14.

From brands that already partner with convenience stores to ones that aim to expand into the channel, the category is still hot.

Most middle-class families are “marginal” middle-class families as high prices and inflation have put extreme pressures on everyone, especially people with children, said John Ross, president and CEO of Chicago-based IGA, Inc., a keynote speaker at the tradeshow.

Is private label the answer?

Read ahead to learn about some brands spotted at the show ...

Brim’s Snack Foods manufactures pork rinds, ready-to-eat popcorn, puffs, curls, balls, ring corn snacks, potato chips and more.

The Bartlett, Tennessee-based company operates a manufacturing facility in Memphis, Tennessee, and a facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

In addition to producing its Brim’s brand, it manufactures for many brands and produces National Brand Equivalency (NBE) private labels for retailers nationwide.

Empwr, McMinnville, Oregon, is a company that produces protein and fiber snack bars. Made in the United States and Canada, the bars are low sodium and can be non-GMO, gluten free or Kosher. None of the bars contain artificial colors or flavors.

Varieties include enrobed dough bars, uncoated bars (which are available as a plant-based/vegan version), granola bars, crisp bars, fruit bars and nut bars.

Flavors include cookies and cream, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate caramel, peanut oat, apple cinnamon, sweet apple, fruity cereal, banana nut, dark chocolate and more.

Herr’s produces more than 350 SKUs in two facilities, one near its headquarters in Nottingham, Pennsylvania, and one in Chillicothe, Ohio. The brand makes up to 1 million pounds of potato chips every week and sells products in all 50 states and in more than 40 countries.

Herr’s provides potato chips and jalapeno poppers to 7-Eleven and Casey’s.

Crown Bakeries, Nashville, Tennessee, offers several small sized packaged bakery items for convenience stores, including brownie bites in a four-pack pouch, a cinnamon swirl snack and individually wrapped baked doughnuts.

The company also offers snack cakes, bagels, biscuits, English muffins for foodservice and retail needs.

Brooklyn Brands products are largely available in 7-Eleven Japan stores, but the Bronx, New York-based private-label brand is aiming to get into more U.S. c-stores.

It offers individually wrapped cream puffs, eclairs, black and white cookies and more.

Meurer Brothers Bakery offers private-label and branded product lines.

Bakery items are available in fully baked, thaw-and-serve and retail pack-and-bulk formats. Fond du Lac, Wisconsin-based Meurer offers mini-Danish, Danish strip, Danish rounds, turtle cookies and French cream coffee cake varieties.

Damascus Bakeries/Brooklyn Bred provides naturally fermented crust, focaccia, flatbreads, wraps, buns and more.

The Brooklyn, New York-based brand provides wraps for Wawa’s foodservice wraps and fold-over rollups for Sheetz.