PLMA 2017 is in the books and we can confidently say we had a successful show! We modified out booth design this year, adding a couple more pieces of swag, and got to meet some great new people in the industry! It was great to have so many retailers and manufacturers come by the booth who were curious about design, private brand program management, or our sister company Workflow By Design.

The three-day show features a day of education and two days of on-floor action for retailers, suppliers, and miscellaneous industry partners to learn about new products, process, or services all focused on enhancing the private brand world. This year’s seminars and break-out sessions helped solidify the changes happening in the market place.  A few familiar themes were present this year, one, being a shift to please the digital consumer, two, understanding the buying perceptions of Millennials and the younger buyers in the market, and three, a concerted effort to converting products to a clean label process.

• Digital - Most consumers have first hand experience shopping online for clothing, books, movies, and electronics. But the demand for food brands to be online has spiked over the last few years.  Traditional retailers are slowly making the shift towards offering products online and extending their brands reach.
• Audience - Millennials and Gen Xers are driving market place innovation. We see brands reinventing themselves to better communicate to this audience for today and for the long-term, as that’s where the buying power will stay for the next few decades.
• Transparency - Clean label has grown from a consumer demand for transparency on labels as lifestyle trends are changing for an overall healthier outlook. Consumers are looking for real food and ingredients they understand.

  

We had two days on the show floor filled with interesting conversations about the current state of Private Brand and where the industry is going. We enjoyed having our clients and many new faces stop by our booth this year.
Thank you to everyone who made this year’s PLMA fun, informative, and successful! We’re already looking forward to next year’s show and what great things are to come!