Private label suppliers: overview
- Private label suppliers increasingly drive retailer differentiation, margins and innovation
- Consolidation and global manufacturing networks are reshaping private label
- Asian food giants are expanding internationally through acquisitions and investment
- Suppliers increasingly partner retailers to meet evolving shopper demands
- Automation, resilience and value-added products are key competitive advantages
The days when private label was merely a cheaper (some may say inferior) version of branded food and drink are gone. Today, retailers across the world are using own products to differentiate themselves and take greater control of supply chains and margins.
This is prompting seismic changes among suppliers. Rapid consolidation, the expansion of Asia’s biggest food companies into new markets and the establishment of global manufacturing networks have defined recent years in global private label.
But, as we explore below, it’s not just scale and geographic spread that matters. Increasingly, suppliers are reinventing themselves as innovators that work in partnership with retailers to meet shoppers’ needs. Here’s our list of the world’s 15 most influential private label players…
Thai Union: Thailand
Thai Union is probably best known for the John West and Chicken of the Sea canned tuna brands. But it’s also the one of the biggest fishes in global private label, with 56.9% of its $3.9bn revenue coming from private-label contracts in ambient and frozen seafood, ready meals, snacks and petfood. Despite its size, Thai Union has shown remarkably agility in recent years, shifting production to the Seychelles, Ghana and the US in response to tariffs that rose to more than 30% on ambient food exports to the US from Thailand in 2025. More than four fifths (42.6%) of Thai Union’s business is in the US and Canada, 28% is in Europe, 13.5% is at home in Thailand. The company also has significant interests in Japan and the Middle East.
CJ CheilJedang: South Korea
As one of Asia’s largest food manufacturers, CJ CheilJedang is transforming what the world eats. It’s also changing how that food is made and gets on retailers’ shelves. In 2025, CJ’s overseas food sales weighed in at $4.1bn, exceeding domestic sales for the first time as the K-food boom drove demand for Korean specialities such as dumplings (mandu) and seaweed rice rolls (kimbap) across North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. The company’s global network of more than 50 factories – including 20 in the US and what it claims is the world’s first fully-automated frozen kimbap factory, at home in South Korea – allows it to avoid tariffs, reduce transport costs and adapt recipes for local tastes. Although it’s primarily known for its Bibigo brand, CJ also has significant retailer contracts and has helped create new food categories that have since been adopted by private label. It’s now expanding in Europe, with a new plant near Budapest expected to begin production later this year.
Charoen Pokphand Foods: Thailand
Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) generated revenues worth $18.4bn in 2025, making it one of the world’s largest integrated food companies. Producing everything from animal feed and livestock to own-label processed meats, ready meals and seafood, CPF supplies retailers and foodservice operators across Asia and beyond. Around two-thirds of revenue now comes from overseas operations and exports, reflecting its transformation into a global business. Recent investments, including a joint venture with Japan’s NH Foods to produce premium processed meat products for Asian markets including Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong highlight a strategic shift towards higher-value convenience foods. As retailers place greater emphasis on supply-chain resilience and traceability, CPF’s vertically integrated model has become an increasingly powerful competitive advantage.
Nichirei Corporation: Japan
Nichirei is one of Asia’s largest frozen food manufacturers. The company supplies retailer own-label and foodservice customers with frozen meals, poultry, seafood and prepared foods, while operating one of the world’s largest temperature-controlled logistics networks. Under its “Compass × Growth 2027″ strategy, Nichirei is accelerating expansion in Europe, and North America, supported by acquisitions and investment in cold-chain infrastructure. As demand for premium convenience foods grows, the company is focusing on higher-value frozen products and integrated logistics, illustrating how manufacturers are increasingly competing on supply-chain capability as well as product innovation.
Umios: Japan
Maruha Nichiro’s March 2026 name change to Umios is another example of a traditional processor and supplier of food commodities – in this case, seafood – attempting to reinvent itself as a global provider of higher value “solutions” for retailers. Umios produces own-label frozen seafood, ready meals and convenience foods for retailers across Japan, Europe and North America. Its 2025 acquisition of Dutch processor Van der Lee Seafish Beheer strengthened its European private-label capabilities, while its long-term strategy centres on expanding overseas manufacturing, with the aim of half its income coming from outside Japan by the end of 2028, rising to 70% by 2035.
Treehouse Foods: USA
UK private equity house Investindustrial’s £2.9bn acquisition of Treehouse Foods in February 2026 signals growing confidence in US private label, which has been buoyed by shoppers reappraising supermarket own brands in response to inflation. It’s also a sure sign that Treehouse’s new owner expects significant returns by driving efficiencies and developing closer strategic partnerships with retailers at the largest pure-play private-label manufacturer in the US. Treehouse supplies everything from snacks and cereals to coffee and tea to most of the major US supermarkets but has seen revenues decline in recent years as it has pruned unprofitable contracts and focused on higher-margin lines. Analysts expect further consolidation in US private label manufacturing.
Westfalia Fruit: UK
Self-styled “Avocado Expert” Westfalia Fruit has undergone a reinvention in recent years. Today, the privately-owned company bills itself as more than a mere global supplier of commodity fruit with operations in 17 countries and five continents – instead, it leverages its vertical integration as a fruit grower and packer to develop value-added convenience products, as well as supplying fresh, frozen, smashed and ready-to-eat avocado and other fruit-based products to retail and foodservice clients around the world. It’s been on a buying spree to cement its reputation as a value-added business, acquiring Belgian own-label and branded avocado supplier Syros in January 2025 and following up with the purchase of Dutch foodservice avocado products supplier Greenpoint in July 2025. Westfalia’s approach demonstrates how retailers are demanding more of private-label suppliers, as well as the growing pressure fresh produce suppliers are coming under from climate change. The company says it follows a “whole tree” approach to farming – converting lower-grade avocados into guacamole, oils and frozen products and using skins and stones to produce natural pigments, cosmetic ingredients and fibres for sustainable packaging – to maximise returns.
Greencore: Ireland
Sandwich giant Greencore’s £1.2bn acquisition of baked goods supplier Bakkavor in January 2026 transformed the company into a private-label powerhouse with annual sales of around £4.2bn and a portfolio spanning chilled food to go, ready meals, pizza, desserts, bread and more. In other words, Greencore is now a one-stop shop for chilled supermarket own label. The deal has global significance for several reasons. Firstly, retailers across the world are increasingly demanding greater simplicity (and therefore efficiency) from their supply chains, as well as suppliers that can take the lead on innovation. Greencore and Bakkavor also have a history of investment in automation and robotics to mitigate labour shortages. Greencore opened its first “zero-touch” sandwich line in 2025. The newly merged company is following a five-year automation roadmap that’s designed to deliver at least 10% in direct labour savings.
Maker’s Pride: USA
Maker’s Pride emerged from the ashes of bankruptcy and scandal with a new name, a fresh loan facility and $1.9bn less debt in March 2025. Months earlier, the company’s previous incarnation Hearthside Food Solutions filed for bankruptcy to restructure debt that had become unmanageable following successive interest rate hikes. Although the bankruptcy was not directly linked to a 2023 New York Times investigation that found Hearthside had employed migrant children at factories across the US through third-party agencies, the re-brand undoubtedly was. Maker’s Pride says that with its debt burden dramatically reduced, it’s in a better position to invest in innovation, automation and producing snacks, cookies, breakfast cereals and frozen and chilled lines for supermarket own labels and branded food companies including General Mills and PepsiCo. Hearthside says it never knowingly employed underage workers.
Windoria: UK
The story of this transatlantic powerhouse is one of consolidation, globalisation and the growing influence of private equity in global private label. Windora didn’t even exist until September 2025, when UK private equity investor Investindustrial (see Treehouse Foods) merged Italian own-label manufacturer La Doria with US group Winland Foods, itself formed in 2022 through the merger of several US companies, including Treehouse Foods’ meal preparation business and sauce maker Atlantic Foods. The formation of Windoria – which supplies retailers across North America, Europe and the Middle East with ambient pasta, sauces, canned tomatoes, pulses and beans, juices, jams and syrups – reflects growing demand from supermarkets for fewer but larger manufacturing partners capable of supplying multiple categories across international markets.
Finsbury Food Group: UK
Scale isn’t the only route to success in private label. Finsbury Food Group generates £445m in annual revenue as a specialist manufacturing and innovation partner, supplying own-label bread, cakes and other baked goods to retailers across the UK and Europe, as well as baking products under licence for brands including Disney, Thorntons and Mars. Finsbury reports strong growth in demand for artisan sourdough and premium, clean-label products, demonstrating how own-label manufacturing has moved beyond simply supplying products at the lowest price. Increasingly, retailers are looking for innovation-led partnerships. The acquisition of a 70% stake in UK bakery chain Lola’s Cupcakes in August 2025 marked the group’s first foray into the direct-to-consumer market.
Zentis: Germany
The German giant most shoppers have probably never heard of. Family-owned Zentis generates an estimated €1bn a year by supplying own-label jams, preserves and spreads and fruit preparations for use in dairy and baked products from its facilities in Germany, Poland, Hungary and the US. The company’s inclusion in this list demonstrates how retailers’ demands of manufacturers are changing: they don’t just expect jars to be filled for them – they’re looking for innovation partners to help them foresee and respond to consumers’ ever-changing demands. Zentis has stepped up by focusing on cutting sugar, increasing fruit content and creating clean-label formulations.
Hochland: Germany
Global expansion is all good and well, but not at any cost. Just ask Hochland – one of Europe’s largest family-owned cheese manufacturers – which made the “difficult” decision to withdraw from the US in 2025 to allow it to focus on its key European markets. The move has helped the company fund investments in digitalisation, lower-carbon cheese formulations and modernisation of its production facilities across Europe. The company says its diversified model – comprising a substantial private-label business, supplying foodservice and food manufacturers, as well as the Hochland, Patros and Almette brands – has allowed it to negotiate volatile milk prices and changing consumer demand that are reshaping the dairy sector. With shoppers still feeling the pinch across Europe, Hochland cites private label as a key source of its resilience.
Agrana: Austria
Ingredients suppliers play an increasingly important role in the success (or failure) of private-label innovation. That’s why Agrana claims to develop bespoke “field to formula” solutions – as opposed to simple fruit, sugar and starch-based ingredients – for its clients across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. This focus on higher value solutions makes sense as climate-related crop variability, rising energy costs and volatile sugar prices continue to disrupt key food commodity markets. The company’s recent reorganisation into dedicated Food & Beverage Solutions and Agricultural Commodities & Specialities divisions reflects its strategy of moving beyond commodity processing. Agrana says the move allows it to provide customised ingredients that help retailers and manufacturers develop differentiated own-label yoghurts, desserts, drinks and plant-based products.
Refresco: Netherlands
No roundup of the world’s most influential private-label players would be complete without reference to Refresco, the world’s largest independent beverage company. The company employs almost 15,000 people at 76 facilities across North America, Europe and Australia and turns over more than €6.1bn a year by manufacturing own-label soft drinks, juices, bottled water and energy drinks. It’s not just its size that’s significant: Refresco’s strategy neatly encapsulates many of the approaches we’ve already discussed. Its global manufacturing network allows it to manage tariffs and supply chain risks while developing drinks to suit local tastes. And Refresco has expanded through a series of acquisitions, including Frías Nutrición in Spain in 2024 and Telemark Kildevann in Norway in 2025. In 2026, it completed the acquisition of plant-based milk alternatives player SunOpta’s North American supply-chain solutions business. Refresco has evolved from a contract bottler into a global beverage solutions partner, offering product formulation, manufacturing, packaging and logistics.
