Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

MrsBartolozzi

The_Miser wrote: »

I used to deal with shipping documents for the agents who import on behalf of the major brand names.
I remember one set of documents for tinned salmon on which so many cartons were labelled for this brand, so many for another brand - 6 different competitor brands including at least one own label.
The imprints on the cans themselves are codes for the canner, time of canning, type of product etc etc etc; all the cans for all the brands had identical imprints indicating that they were all processed at the same time by the same canner from the same raw materials treated in the same way. Ergo the contents should have been identical but the price range was substantial

The same goes for tins of corned beef.
I've seen T Value and T "normal" tins with exactly the same code on them and comparing their codes with the bottoms of brand names' tins show the same style of coding from the same origin and the label says the ingredients, nutritional value and country of origin are identical.

missbargain

I am not sure what is the exact point of this thread, apart from the curiosity value. The supermarket products have to be made somewhere and who else to make them but someone with the capacity of already established company.

I know for the fact through a friend of mine, that even though the "upmarket" companies do make some supermarket own ranges, they don't use the same quality and quantity of ingredients for them. It would be totally counterproductive for them to do so as they would work against themselves. So they use the lesser quality or fewer ingredients, but sell them cheaper. Ever bought a can of own brand beans that were mostly water and all mushy and small? Toilet paper that tears before even used? etc, etc.
Ocassionally, it happens that the own brand product is just fine, but it does not mean that the quality is exactly the same. Perhaps the quality of so called "extra special" or "taste the difference" ranges is close to the branded one, but in no way is the cheapest, unbranded item the same quality of the branded stuff, otherwise, the brand companies would go bust. Of course, unbranded item is usually much cheaper, so the price corresponds to the quality.
Of course, often these branded products are overpriced, but, through trial and error, I still haven't found many own brand products that are better than branded ones, with the notable exception of Marks&Spencer's own food (but that's a bit different) and some "extra special" ranges which are close in price to branded products anyway.

gozaimasu

missbargain wrote: »

I /....

I find this last post very interesting. Not so long ago there was a TV program with that food critic Jay someone, and he did a comparison between ready meals and sausages, looking at basic, standard and "finest" ranges. He asked the main 4 supermarkets about the source of the meat in each product and they pretty much said it all came from the same source, but obviously the meat percentage increased across each step up. This "same source" analogy was used to demonstrate that the meat was all the same quality, but I disagree. They did a taste test and quite a few of the panel agreed that the meat in the basic range was full of gristle and not nice to chew. So although the meat may come from the same source, same cow, the "lower quality" cuts of meat may have gone into the basic.

Certain things are worth buying "premium" ranges and I think the point of this thread is to find out which are not so that we can all save a bit of money by buying the cheapo ranges.

DCFC79

gozaimasu wrote: »

I find this last post very interesting. Not so long ago there was a TV program with that food critic Jay someone, and he did a comparison between ready meals and sausages, looking at basic, standard and "finest" ranges. He asked the main 4 supermarkets about the source of the meat in each product and they pretty much said it all came from the same source, but obviously the meat percentage increased across each step up. This "same source" analogy was used to demonstrate that the meat was all the same quality, but I disagree. They did a taste test and quite a few of the panel agreed that the meat in the basic range was full of gristle and not nice to chew. So although the meat may come from the same source, same cow, the "lower quality" cuts of meat may have gone into the basic.

Certain things are worth buying "premium" ranges and I think the point of this thread is to find out which are not so that we can all save a bit of money by buying the cheapo ranges.

yes i think i remember that same program, was that the program where he pumped um some chicken with water using a syringe

i cant picture the chef

noapron

My DH works for Bosch. Hence we get discount on Bosch domestic appliances as well as on an other products by companies they own. We can get discount on Bosch, Neff, Siemens, and others. Bosch don't of course own all Siemens, but they do have the white goods side. As for Neff, the specs for Neff and Bosch ovens when I bought mine were identical. I think where white goods are concerned, there has always been a lot of rebadging.

The_Miser

Missbargain.
I think that there is a general opinion that "Value" or similar cheap ranges have to be worse than the better ranges for the same product.
Would you accept a major supermarket's best (?) brand being found to be far worse than its own value brand? You don't believe me? look for 2 Morrissons entries in the table half way down this article (the lower the %age the better):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1350926/Supermarket-bacon-pumped-water.html

This thread appears to be about showing that public perceptions can be wrong and giving examples. If you want to pay twice as much for a Neff as for an identical Bosch item that is your choice but don't say you were not warned

lion_girl

I used to work at a factory in Shrewsbury making chilled desserts for all the big supermarkets. Cheesecakes, mousse, trifles etc. The only difference between the value range and supermarkets own brand was the weight of the product and the ratio of the product. eg value cheesecakes had more biscuit whereas the supermarket's own had more soft cheese and fruit topping. The ingredients themselves were ALWAYS THE SAME!!! Marks & Spencers were the only exeption, using slightly better ingredients.

Beatrix_Kiddo

window_cleaner wrote: »

I was reading the first page of this thread when i realised that there were 90-odd pages, so I have skipped to here!

Anyway, i remeber about 15 years ago I was obessed with a chicken Kiev product made by a company in Hereford called Sun Valley. At the time they made the most succulent chicken Kievs INTHE WORLD! IMO, of course...........................................

..................I haven't had a succulent chicken Kiev ever since the late 1980s. And I don't trust own brands anymore, and taken a lot of convincing.

Sorry for the rant. It's been playing on my mind for a long time.

:rotfl: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

A._Badger

Rainy-Days wrote: »

Just to add my tuppence worth and this is correct information as of todays date.



Alba, Goodmans, JVC, Grundig are under one roof.

.

Are you absolutely certain about JVC? JVC is a large, Japanese owned corporation (the Victor Co. of Japan) and I suspect they might be nothing to do with the other brands you've mentioned.

If you've evidence to the contrary it would be very useful to see it.

Middy

Rainy-Days wrote: »

Walkers who make the shortbread supply Lidl with their own branded shortbread, but it's still Walkers at heart.

Walkers make Sainsbury's shortbread as well.