Great 'disguised Own Brand' Hunt.

WLM21

On a similar note ..

Many years ago I visited the Mother's Pride factory in Staines ... bread was being produced and every 5th loaf would go to the MP wrapping station. The other 4 lines got various wrappings, for the various supermarkets.

Same loaves... different wrapping and very different prices

Kittycat1981

I worked part time (while at college) in a well known cake factory many years ago icing wedding and christmas cakes- same again- same product, different packaging. M&$ same as A$DA value.

Deejohnson131

I use to work for a company called symbols biscuits and they made biscuits for a lot of stores. Tesco, markies, sainsburys etc. you're right. They are made on the same machines in the same factory but they had different recipes for different supermarkets.

gayleygoo

My OH used to work in a potato (and other veg) packing factory. Many brands of potatoes would be produced from the same lot of potatoes - just change the bag every so often. Some went into Tesco packaging, some into M&S or wherever. It was around 10 years ago so naming specific brands might not be relevant now, it likely still happens though.

Sometimes his job was to throw handfuls of dirt (peat, I think) into the bags, as some people prefer to buy them, thinking they must be fresher than the "clean" ones. They all get cleaned in the same way, and dirtied again for sale!

I might be more cautious with meat though. I know a few people who've worked in meat factories and it seems that you get what you pay for when you buy sausages, meat pies and chicken kievs...

Dr._Shoe

My OH used to work for United Biscuits (McVities) and he used to deliver own brand digestives and rich tea biscuits as well as own brand crisps (made by KP) and cakes. Even the Waitrose crisps were the KP ones. They also made the McCoys, Brannigans and Roysters crisps too.

He worked for Cadbury's for a while too and they most certainly did not make chocolate for Thorntons. My taste buds would confirm that too.

I have also noticed that if you buy a supermarket "value" (or smart price or essentials) appliance it will be identical to the Argos budget one too.

Blueyez

funcomp40 wrote: »

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.

I swear by ASDAs cheap green conditioner, its about 20 odd pence a bottle and have been using it for years. I have thick oily hair that caused me a lot grief when I was a kid, It got to the point were my mum paid a very unwilling hairdresser to cut most of it off (it used to go past my behind-by the time she'd finished it was just below my ears and thinner as she'd cut the back out) but the drastic cut didn't solve the oily hair and scalp sores-all the expensive shampoos and conditioners that people and doctors recommended were useless or made it worse(polytar was ok every now and again but it stank).Since I was about 14 My hair is washed in Timotei and then the cheap ASDA conditioner (with cold and lukewarm water not hot) and its long and shiny again with a nice pain free scalp. Wonder if this is made from left overs from a different brand? I swear by the stuff, tried L'Oreal Elvive a few months ago because all my cheapo stuff had run out and it was painful.

janeybaby35

I used to work in the factory that makes jaffa Cakes and can tell you that tesco value and mcvitie brands are made at the same place on the same production line however product ingredients are altered etc with a more superior ingredient being used for the mcvitie. same goes with Maryland cookies and smart price cookies and Jacobs crackers and own brand etc etc there are plenty of own brand products made in the same factories on the same processing lines as premium brands. They just use different variety (quality) of ingredients aa well as regent's being ground up and used often in the low brands

welshHeadhunter

I worked for loreal.Many years ago and it wasn't new York ,Paris ,London . but llantrisant Wales . we made most products ,including hairdye hairspray, lancome, anasanas etc . we stopped the machines changed boxes and labels to Boots own make hair dye.

welshHeadhunter

LittleMissMoneySaver wrote: »

As a few others have said, Thorntons make most of M&S chocolates and sweets (I used to work for Thorntons).

I did hear a rumour that Clarins produced the M&S Formula skincare range and some of their cosmetics but I don't think there has been any proof of this.

I also read that Bourjois cosmetics are made by Chanel (as some others have said) and L'Oreal are made by Lancome but again I have never had any confirmation of this.

It true made in llantrisant Wales ,I worked there . loreal hairdye. Same as boots

MascaraMinx

Not quite the same, but the online grocery shopping service provided by Ocado is exactly the same as Morrisons - Morrisons subcontract from Ocado so the website, carrier bags, delivery vans etc are all the same. I am told (but can't verify!) that all the non-branded groceries (fruit, veg etc) are the same when ordered through Ocado or Morrisons online....