Responding to American consumers' increasing appetite for food products featuring ethnic and international ingredients and flavors, PLMA will present retailers with a record 900 suppliers from more than 60 countries at its 2024 Private Label Trade Show, November 17-19, Chicago.

The Show floor will offer 52 country and regional pavilions, another record, from North and South America, Europe and Asia, to enable buyers to source new and innovative products for today’s more discerning shoppers. New pavilions include Morocco, Poland, Vietnam, Portugal and Costa Rica. There are also expanded groups from Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Peru, Spain, and Ukraine.

European private label manufacturers and retailers can expect to be very busy over the next few years, judging by preliminary findings of a new multinational survey of more than 1,000 industry executives conducted by PLMA which found that a majority of respondents see good times ahead for both private label and their own companies.

PLMA's 2024 study, “European Retailers & Manufacturers Talk About the Future: What will the private label landscape look like over the next five years?,”  consisted of about 30 multi-part questions. The comprehensive online survey was made available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It was fielded for PLMA International by Surveylab in June-August.
 

On May 28 and 29, the Amsterdam RAI welcomed more than 18.000 visitors from over 125 countries who were all keen to meet the best of the world’s private label manufacturers.

PLMA’s International World of Private Label Trade Show was, as it always is, a meeting place for retailers, buyers, and other visitors who walked the 43,500 m2 trade show floor to browse what the almost 3,000 exhibiting companies from 73 countries offered. A challenging task, given the show floor space and the abundance of food and non-food exhibitors which was 10% larger compared to last year. 

More than just a trade show, the PLMA event is the place to identify food and non-food trends, like improved vegan offerings, high-protein items, and other preventive health products, as well as a variety of self-care solutions that tap into an increasing demand from consumers for functional and versatile products.

More than 2,950 exhibitors from more than 73 countries will fill over 43,500 m2 of exhibit space at PLMA’s 2024 World of Private Label International Trade Show, May 28 and 29 at the RAI in Amsterdam.

The show floor will span 14 halls, including nine for food and five for non-food. It will feature 67 national and regional pavilions.

“Our high-impact global event provides a dynamic two-day platform for more than 28,000 private label professionals from 120 countries to connect, source and grow,” said PLMA President Peggy Davies. “The innovation unveiled for food and non-food products and packaging on the show floor and in Idea Supermarket will strengthen the already booming private label industry.”

This year’s tasting and testing days for PLMA’s International Salute to Excellence Awards have taken place. Spoiler alert: yes, there were some very innovative products. In two days, more than 500 food and non-food products were evaluated by two international panels of professional judges on several criteria, including taste, product concept, packaging, and value for money.  Submissions came from over 70 retailers from 23 countries around the world and included food, beverages, home and household, health and beauty and pet categories.

The private label wine category had its own separate tasting sessions. Under guidance of Master of Wine Cees van Casteren, two panels of wine experts tasted some 130 wines divided in about twenty categories. From sparkling whites and roses through classic wines to organic, judges rolled the wine, smelled it, looked at it, tasted, and scored it on concentration, complexity, length and balance.

It is February when we write this, and some of you will wonder why you haven’t heard from us regarding the annual PLMA Roundtable Conference, which would always take place in this month, rotating between European cities.

Well, don’t worry, we’ve just made some changes, including the timing. We moved the conference to an annual late October event, still moving between European cities and Milan will be our next destination. Also, we changed the name of the conference to “Private Label Summit”, which is a better reflection of what the event is about (and we actually never used a table that was round). So mark your calendars and keep an eye out for our updates on "The Future of Private Label as a Brand" at PLMA's 2024 Annual Private Label Summit on 29-30 October in Milan. 
 

How will branded companies be attempting to regain lost ground and how may incremental innovation help private label to consolidate its wins?

Cyrille Filott and Sebastiaan Schreijen of Rabobank may not have a crystal ball, but they will take you along in their thoughts on current market dynamics and the opportunities for the right type of innovation during PLMA's upcoming Lunch & Learn series.

This one-hour online Lunch and Learn session entitled "Enhancing Resilience through Incremental Innovation in Private Label" will be led by Rabobank on 27 March 2024 from 12:30-13:30 CET.

It’s free for PLMA member and retailers. A link to register can be requested here.

PLMA is making its annual Executive Education programme available for everyone, wherever they are, by organizing it online this year. On the mornings of 28 and 29 February, there will be teaching sessions, panel discussions, interactive lectures on current topics that concern the private label industry.

The curriculum covers retail trends, product and packaging innovation, successful private label strategies in today’s challenging market, neuro marketing and best practices in the retailer-supplier relationship. For more information click here.