Unlocking Growth: The Power of KeHE’s White Label Program Blog
In a fast-changing retail landscape, differentiation is everything. KeHE understands that standing out on the shelf (and to your shoppers) goes beyond offering high-quality, innovative products. It’s about creating a unique experience and lasting connection for your customers, and white label products have emerged as a central driver of that success.
In fact, 2024 saw record-breaking white label sales, reaching $271 billion in the U.S., with store brands now accounting for more than 20% of total dollars spent and 23% of units sold. Over 95% of consumers are buying private label products, with sales reaching a record of $271 billion in 2024. This increase is a result of consumers often preferring products that allow them to save money without compromising quality.
KeHE’s white-label solution is tailored to help all retailers, regardless of their size or scale, setting them up for long-term industry success.
The Power of White Label
KeHE has invested in its roasting, bulk, and cheese cut-and-wrap facilities to ensure retailers receive high-quality, ready-to-label products. These facilities follow best-in-class food safety standards and are equipped with innovative packaging capabilities. That means KeHE can cut, wrap, roast, pack, and ship a wide variety of products directly to its retail partners—all ready for branding and placement on shelves.
Once the product arrives in-store, it’s as simple as unboxing, applying the retailer’s branding, and merchandising on the shelf. This creates a “prepared in-house” appearance that feels fresh, curated, and exclusive to the shopper. This perception of exclusivity not only strengthens the retailer’s brand identity but also builds trust with customers, who will associate the store with high-quality, and unique offerings they can’t find elsewhere. Over time, this fosters deeper customer loyalty, encourages repeat purchases, and helps retailers differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market.
Solving Retailers’ Biggest In-Store Challenges
Many of the traditional challenges of in-store packaging, such as labor costs, food safety risks, and product shrinkage, can be a challenge for retailers. The FMI State of Fresh Foods 2024 report puts some real numbers to shortages in key staff throughout grocery (seafood departments at 8.0% vacancy, dairy at 7.3%, and in-store bakery at 6.2% manager vacancy rates).
The Your Brand Here program helps to combat these shortages by doing the work upfront, allowing for a “done in store” look without having to have cut staff, or allowing the existing staff to turn their efforts towards selling and interacting with the customer.
By handling the complexities of white labeling before the product even makes it to the store, KeHE helps reduce retailers’ labor needs, improve shelf life, and ensure product safety is maintained throughout the entire process. The result? Lower spoilage and higher profit margins, all while freeing up in-store teams to focus on what matters most: providing customers with top-of-the-line products and memorable in-store experiences.
White label strategies play a unique role in both the supply chain and the value chain. For large partners expanding their store brand portfolios, white label programs can scale that effort efficiently. For independent retailers without the infrastructure to create white label products themselves, this solution lays the foundation for them to offer branded exclusives they can call their own.
Build Loyalty While Protecting Margins
Behind every product KeHE packs is an expert team committed to excellence. KeHE’s best-in-class food safety and quality assurance program protects and elevates our customers’ brands. Ensuring high quality mitigates consumer risk, ensures fewer returns, and increases consumer satisfaction, driving repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
From a financial perspective, white label products typically carry fewer marketing and promotional costs than national brands, enabling retailers to offer more competitive prices with higher margin potential. This is a win-win for both customers and retailers—customers receive better value, and retailers have more funds to reinvest in their business.
White label products are category leaders and a primary way for retailers to differentiate themselves in a competitive industry. With the right partner, tools, and streamlined processes, any retailer can benefit from white label success. To learn more about how KeHE supports retailers, visit https://www.kehe.com/retailers/.