The Truth About Supermarket Own-Brands

[Dos_Box]

Channel 4 put this up on YouTube last week and thought it might help you all save a few pennies

 

[sigma]

When I was a student, I worked in a biscuit factory in the holidays. As well as a well known brand of digestives, own label "wheatmeal" biscuits also came off the same line, but with a different recipe and different cutters.

 

They were indescriblable delicious when still fresh and warm. There as a gateaux room too....

[Dos_Box]

When I was a student, I worked in a biscuit factory in the holidays. As well as a well known brand of digestives, own label "wheatmeal" biscuits also came off the same line, but with a different recipe and different cutters.

 

They were indescriblable delicious when still fresh and warm. There as a gateaux room too....

 

Yep, the vast bulk of frozen pizzas sold in the UK all come from the same factory in Leyland!

[synaesthesia]

*eyeballs the Carlsberg factory...*

[Fazza]

Weetabix make wheat biscuits for other people but it doesnt mean the cheap own brand wheat buscuits are the same as Weetabix as they use different/cheaper recipes. BMW make Minis but that doesnt mean if you buy a Mini you are a BMW owner/driver!

[Dos_Box]

*eyeballs the Carlsberg factory...*

 

There is a company in the US that makes most of the 'bespoke' spirts sold there. All out of one plant.

[LeMarchand]

BMW make Minis but that doesnt mean if you buy a Mini you are a BMW owner/driver!

 

Most "new" mini drivers certainly drive like they think they're in a BMW.

[sigma]

*eyeballs the Carlsberg factory...*

 

I went to one in Copenhagen for "breakfast" once....

[sigma]

Same with clothes. My sister who was a buyer, saw cheap label and designer label clothes all made in the same factories in the far east.

[Koldov]

There's a great debate about this in the guitar world with the Cort (cor-Tek) guitar factories in Indonesia/Korea/China. Beside their own Cort branded guitars PT Cort manufactures for Ibanez, Fender/Squier (includes amps), G&L, Gretsch, Laguna, Avalon/Lowden, Music Man, Schecter, Lakland, Strandberg, EVH, Chapman and Jackson among others.

 

But just because the same factory makes the guitars, it doesn't mean they're in any way similar in quality (have the same specifications/hardware/wood) and I'd imagine each brand has their own strict QC standards.

 

I know someone who is a great believer in the 'they all come from the same factory' idea... however, the thing is, as @sigma and @Fazza says, it might be made at the same factory (which makes a lot of sense regarding scale, staff training, machinery and logistics), but it most probably has different quality ingredients etc. I doubt any business can afford to make the same quality end product and then just have it packaged differently and sold cheaper, it doesn't make any sense, unless there are other market forces and economies of scale at play, but I still doubt it's the 'same quality' of product... mostly 'evidence' of this is purely anecdotal. You have to look at the product not who is making it, I mean a factory gets an order to make a product and the brand 'X' who makes the order specifies what goes into the product. If supermarket 'Y' also make an order with that factory to supply a 'similar' product, they will also have to specify what goes into making the product. My guess is that the cheaper brand will have less 'quality' components/ingredients.

 

As with most things in life, whether that actually means anything or not is all down to personal taste/perceived brand loyalty/preference... I've seen many supermarket 'own brand' taste tests that have had them come out on top versus the 'name brands'. I personally don't care which brand makes it, only if it tastes good!

 

Didn't Kellogg's have to address this directly with their "we don't make cereals for anyone else" advertising slogan.

[jthompson]

This just reminds me of any number of Apprentice episodes where they put on their business suits and hair nets and toy about in a development kitchen before sending their recipe off to a factory. "Forget the guidance on ratios, I want to put more chalk in these sausages to bulk them out and reduce the unit cost! Let's GO!!"

[Dos_Box]

Many of the power tools sold in Lidl\Aldi contain parts made by the 'big boys'. They use them for testing new items such as motors, controls etc.

Which is why some may have had poor reliability in the past.

Obviously they are not built to the same standards, but the innards can often contain Bosch etc. parts.

[NegativeKillDeath]

Many years ago in my supermarket shelf filling days I would often open a case of own brand butter/marge and half way down the label would switch to that of a different supermarket.

[Jawloms]

I did fruit picking one summer holiday 30 years ago. I can't remember the exact numbers for raspberries but we got paid something like 45p per pound we picked. Then we walked back in to the same field, had to be more fussy about picking "the nice ones" and got paid 40p per pound but they were for M&S. So yes, M&S had a higher standard of product but actually paid the pickers less!

[jthompson]

I did fruit picking one summer holiday 30 years ago. I can't remember the exact numbers for raspberries but we got paid something like 45p per pound we picked. Then we walked back in to the same field, had to be more fussy about picking "the nice ones" and got paid 40p per pound but they were for M&S. So yes, M&S had a higher standard of product but actually paid the pickers less!

 

Maybe the assumption is that the shortfall is made up for by you ingesting the ropey ones whilst you work.

[Dos_Box]

Many years ago in my supermarket shelf filling days I would often open a case of own brand butter/marge and half way down the label would switch to that of a different supermarket.

 

In Morrisons, they have their own brand butter and a 'savers' butter. The savers butter was exactly the same as their own brand, but in a different colour wrapper of the same material.

This is 10-15p cheaper!

[AlistairB1983]

On a similar point (and something with which I've now had about 12 weeks of experience!), for baby formula Cow & Gate and Aptamil are made in the same factory, with pretty much the same recipe - just the latter is marketed as the 'luxury' brand of the two.

[Koldov]

Apparently sometimes it's about the standard or quality of the ingredients (for a single product like fruit, as @Jawloms says in his post, the product quality itself), sometimes it's even about where the ingredients/product is sourced.

 

Quotes from a Mirror article on the subject (in particular @Dos_Box note the one about Morrisons butter):

 

Sainsbury’s said: “There are many factors which inform product specification. This will dictate the range it is in.”

 

Asda said the products had the “same overall ingredients” but “gradings differ.”

 

Morrisons said: “Savers butter is sourced from inside and outside the UK. Standard butter will always be British.”

 

Because obviously it costs more to drive it up the road from Devon, than it does to ship it in from $diety knows where!

 

I picked up packaged BBQ flavoured chicken once from Asda for my salad... until I casually read the back of the package... Product of Thailand. My mind couldn't even comprehend why this was even a thing, but various articles put it at somewhere in the region of it being 28% cheaper than U.K. produced. I suppose even with the cost of shipping it half way round the world they can produce it cheaper, but I dread to think of the animal welfare and worker conditions (many news articles on that).

 

So yes, cost of living crisis and all that and chicken is chicken, right?! But also I guess looking at the origin of your food may explain why sometimes you have to pay more to get a higher quality, U.K. sourced product...

[synaesthesia]

What's the matter, McFly? Chicken?

 

Hey Biff. Are we talking free range or battery, British or Thai?

[Norphy]

It absolutely blows my mind that when you buy something like Garlic from a supermarket, it's from China. Garlic is something which grows, quite literally, anywhere yet it's more economical to sell those stupid tiny little bulbs than it is to sell a local product.

[MartinT]

BMW make Minis but that doesnt mean if you buy a Mini you are a BMW owner/driver!

 

You kinda are. It's even built like a BMW (good and bad).

 

Just as if you buy a Skoda, you're really a VW owner.

[E_G_R2]

Blueberrys from Peru

[sigma]

As far as meat is concerned, I buy it from a local butcher from where it is mostly sourced locally. It cost more per Kg, but there is no waste. A pack of stewing steak is 100% good compared to the supermarket packet where it looks nice on top but is rubbish underneath. Ditto with the greengrocer where the quality and choice are better at lower prices. The supermarket tends to chill produce to within an inch of its life so that it goes to mush a day or so later. The greengrocer, much less so. Edited June 25, 2024 by sigma

[Dos_Box]

As far as meat is concerned, I buy it from a local butcher from where it is mostly sourced locally. It cost more per Kg, but there is no waste. A pack of stewing steak is 100% good compared to the supermarket packet where it looks nice on top but is rubbish underneath. Ditto with the greengrocer where the quality and choice are better at lower prices. The supermarket tends to chill produce to within an inch of its life so that it goes to much a day or so later. The greengrocer, much less so.

 

I try and get my meat from the butchers on the market in Preston, and I find them far better quality than the supermarkets. My last shop was £17 and had me walking with a lean there was that much in the bag.

I may have got too much dry cured bacon

[MatthewL]

Fish products made in the factories here are on the same line for M&S, Waitrose, Tesco and other supermarkets, just get put into different boxes. All come from the same place.