Innovation holds spotlight at 'World of Private Label'

Innovation holds spotlight at ‘World of Private Label’

More than 12,000 trade professionals from 115 countries attended this year’s event, held at the RAI Exhibition Centre. On the trade show floor they had the opportunity to visit more than 2,400 exhibiting companies, including 56 national and regional pavilions

Innovative retailers and products were the stars of the show from the very beginning of PLMA’s 2015 ‘World of Private Label’ International Trade Show, held in Amsterdam this month. The opening seminar session began with the announcement of the winners of PLMA’s second annual International Salute to Excellence Awards. The Award winning products in 49 food and non-food categories were selected earlier this year by an international panel of industry experts. They judged more than 350 retailer brand products introduced in the past year.

The first seminar speaker, Edgar Elzerman, a former Ahold executive who now has his own consulting company, identified five retailers that are making strong competitive moves in Europe: Lidl, Mercadona, Carrefour, Biedronka, and Jumbo. Each of the retailers has a strong private label programme that is contributing to its success. The second speaker was Jim Hertel of the US consulting firm Willard Bishop. He examined five trends that are changing the US marketplace: upscale retailing, extreme value retailing, e-commerce, healthy products and niche retailing. Each of these trends are creating opportunities and challenges for US retailers.