Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

miss-tified

Several years ago I worked for the the wholesaler that produced the range "Happy Shopper" (aka Crappy Shopper). I worked closely with their Quality Control department and I know that at that time the factories that made Happy Shopper label also made most of the supermarket own label equivalents. I had regular factory tours too and saw all their production facilities. The products were usually identical, just the labels were different. I doubt much has changed. What was different was the "budget" lines - they were generally poor quality, for example, the really cheap teabags were made mostly from the dust and filterings left over from the cheap teabgs production, and the baked beans were made from very cheap white beans and not the beans used for most baked beans. Anyway, the standard supermarket own-brands tend to be very good quality, the low budget own label brands tend to be low quality. Personally, I buy at Lidl since European brands, while little known in UK, have always been better quality and better value than most UK brands, big brands and supermarket own labels. UK supermarkets are a rip-off, in my opinion and experience.
Happy Shopping!

tux900

Doc_N wrote: »

Check out the little code that has to be shown on all butter sold in packs in the UK and you'll find that Aldi Greenvale salted butter has the same FP046 code as Country Life (Gower View Foods creamery in Wales).

Aldi - 89p
Country Life - £1.25+

Not a difficult decision for the same butter.

Do you know it is the same butter? The codes indicate only what plant it was processed in. Identical codes do not necessarily imply identical products.

Doc_N

tux900 wrote: »

Do you know it is the same butter? The codes indicate only what plant it was processed in. Identical codes do not necessarily imply identical products.

Given that the code signifies a particular dairy, and that the only possible ingredients are milk (cream) and salt, I think it's a fair assumption.

The only possible variation would be in the salt content, and that's identical (2%) in each.

There's no way that the company would run a separate production line for an identical product, so it's a pretty safe bet that all you're paying for with Country Life is the name, the wrapper - and the cost of all the advertising!

tux900

Doc_N wrote: »

Given that the code signifies a particular dairy [...]

No it doesn't. The code signifies a 'milk and dairy product establishment' and if you check the full lists here you can see that FP046 (Gower Foods) is listed as a 'processing plant'.

Moreover, a few Google searches for 'Gower Foods' indicate that they they are actually a food packaging company who package a variety of product types for a variety of manufacturers. They are not a dairy.

Note I am not saying that the butters are necessarily different, merely pointing out that handling approval codes do not in any way imply that they are the same.

Doc_N

tux900 wrote: »

No it doesn't. The code signifies a 'milk and dairy product establishment' and if you check the full lists here you can see that FP046 (Gower Foods) is listed as a 'processing plant'.

Moreover, a few Google searches for 'Gower Foods' indicate that they they are actually a food packaging company who package a variety of product types for a variety of manufacturers. They are not a dairy.

Note I am not saying that the butters are necessarily different, merely pointing out that handling approval codes do not in any way imply that they are the same.

I suppose it depends on your view of the modern usage of the word 'dairy'. Gower View Foods is indeed a processor, packing large quantities of butter, but it also churns butter and supplies speciality butters for the export market.

I would be amazed if the two 'brands' were in any way different.

tux900

You might well be right; I'm just suggesting exercising caution as to what evidence we draw conclusions from.

asdesigned

Some (if not all?) Bush TVS have all Samsung components, having just fixed a bush TV I found the internal boards, panel and even the ribbon wires were all stamped as Samsung

confused-dot

Uncle_Cuddles wrote: »

Is it me, or is all Corned Beef canned in Brazil and just labelled in the UK? My wife insists on buying Princes branded, when the ASDA own brand has the same stamp on the base of the can!!

I used to go into canning factories as part of my job and, as I understand it, many canned goods are ‘traded as commodities’ and international buyers buy job lots as they become available.

In the case of Corned Beef, The main stamp number on the bottom of the tin is the government inspection stamp of the particular factory where the product was produced - and there are always other markings to trace batch, date etc. If you look in somewhere like ASDA you will often find identical stamps on several different brands, including their ‘own brand’ – usually the main stamp number is all you need to get the identical quality product. I love corned beef and have been buying it like that for years – I usually get an inquisitive crowd of female shoppers asking why I’m comparing different tins – who needs Match.com?:rotfl:

funcomp40

I used to work for a packaging firm we supplied the jar for Asda baby cream was sent to the same factory as the Boots one, I believe they just went on the end of run .....this was a number of years ago now.

In fact a large number of supermarket products own brand are filled on the end of specific named brand runs, is left over product. Means the manufacturer has very little wastage.

Lots of shampoo and bath products are filled exactly the same way...own brand every time for me.

trevjl

it was some years ago, but I was doing some work in a fresh pasta factory in sussex and the companies own brand expensive pasta was being produced on a line when, as I watched, the operator stopped the machine, changed the plastic film that was printed with their logos to the Tesco own brand film and started the machine again. Same product, different film.