Have we had an "items where own brand is better" Thread?
Discussion
A very good friend of mine is production director of one of the biggest food processors in the country. The only supermarket own brands he is enthusiastic about is stuff from Waitrose , and to a certain extent M&S. The rest he just shakes his head about when mentioned. Has to be assumed he knows his game.
As for me personally, I'm very dubious about supermarket own brands, owing basically, to having endured some right crap in the past. Have to say though, that IMHO Aldi Mayo and their pickled whole beets are the best I've ever had, by a country mile. Very reasonably priced to boot!
Aldi Dijon mustard is pretty good , it actually has some bite, other than that , I usually stik to Colman's powdered English mustard.
As for me personally, I'm very dubious about supermarket own brands, owing basically, to having endured some right crap in the past. Have to say though, that IMHO Aldi Mayo and their pickled whole beets are the best I've ever had, by a country mile. Very reasonably priced to boot!
Aldi Dijon mustard is pretty good , it actually has some bite, other than that , I usually stik to Colman's powdered English mustard.
Hosenbugler said:
A very good friend of mine is production director of one of the biggest food processors in the country. The only supermarket own brands he is enthusiastic about is stuff from Waitrose , and to a certain extent M&S. The rest he just shakes his head about when mentioned. Has to be assumed he knows his game.
As for me personally, I'm very dubious about supermarket own brands, owing basically, to having endured some right crap in the past. Have to say though, that IMHO Aldi Mayo and their pickled whole beets are the best I've ever had, by a country mile. Very reasonably priced to boot!
Aldi Dijon mustard is pretty good , it actually has some bite, other than that , I usually stik to Colman's powdered English mustard.
I kind of agree with your friend's assessment & I further think there may be some reasonable, if you think about it, mixing up of products with provenance. In my career, I've spent a fair bit of time in factories seeing stuff being made, food for the most part. I know there are plenty of factories out there manufacturing a mix of proprietary & own brand products on the same machinery lines. For example, I know for a fact that the el cheapo Bombay mix you buy in Happy Shopper is made on the same line as Tesco's finest sea salt & vinegar crisps. It's all just input & output to a specification.As for me personally, I'm very dubious about supermarket own brands, owing basically, to having endured some right crap in the past. Have to say though, that IMHO Aldi Mayo and their pickled whole beets are the best I've ever had, by a country mile. Very reasonably priced to boot!
Aldi Dijon mustard is pretty good , it actually has some bite, other than that , I usually stik to Colman's powdered English mustard.
I suspect whilst some own brand stuff may just be a cynical matter of swapping labels over, the majority of it will be quite heavily specified & policed product manufacturing with compliance & audit teams crawling all over the process for the simple reasons that the supermarkets simply cannot afford to stick high oleic sunflower oil on the label only for Esther Rantzen or whoever to discover it is in fact Bulgarian engine oil.
Further, there are only so many factories around that will be capable of manufacturing say, Silcon sealant for example. So it's plain business sense that if you are Unibond, you max out your asset by manufacturing B&Q sealant or whatever for the good of your bottom line when it's not busy doing your own thing. Looking on casually, it's easy to link the two & say it's the exact same product, but I'd be willing to wager it isn't quite up to the same standard. The old rule in life that you get what you pay for is usually right.
Eddie Strohacker said:
I kind of agree with your friend's assessment & I further think there may be some reasonable, if you think about it, mixing up of products with provenance. In my career, I've spent a fair bit of time in factories seeing stuff being made, food for the most part. I know there are plenty of factories out there manufacturing a mix of proprietary & own brand products on the same machinery lines. For example, I know for a fact that the el cheapo Bombay mix you buy in Happy Shopper is made on the same line as Tesco's finest sea salt & vinegar crisps. It's all just input & output to a specification.
I suspect whilst some own brand stuff may just be a cynical matter of swapping labels over, the majority of it will be quite heavily specified & policed product manufacturing with compliance & audit teams crawling all over the process for the simple reasons that the supermarkets simply cannot afford to stick high oleic sunflower oil on the label only for Esther Rantzen or whoever to discover it is in fact Bulgarian engine oil.
Further, there are only so many factories around that will be capable of manufacturing say, Silcon sealant for example. So it's plain business sense that if you are Unibond, you max out your asset by manufacturing B&Q sealant or whatever for the good of your bottom line when it's not busy doing your own thing. Looking on casually, it's easy to link the two & say it's the exact same product, but I'd be willing to wager it isn't quite up to the same standard. The old rule in life that you get what you pay for is usually right.
Yes, basically, thats how it is. My mate has said in the past that its by no means unusual that a similar product can be changed 4 or 5 times, or even more in the same shift depending on who's it for and the price point that its aimed at. Obviously , the more expensive ingredients are reduced, or even missed out altogether in the cheaper lines. Typical examples of being produced down to a price as against up to a standard. I suspect whilst some own brand stuff may just be a cynical matter of swapping labels over, the majority of it will be quite heavily specified & policed product manufacturing with compliance & audit teams crawling all over the process for the simple reasons that the supermarkets simply cannot afford to stick high oleic sunflower oil on the label only for Esther Rantzen or whoever to discover it is in fact Bulgarian engine oil.
Further, there are only so many factories around that will be capable of manufacturing say, Silcon sealant for example. So it's plain business sense that if you are Unibond, you max out your asset by manufacturing B&Q sealant or whatever for the good of your bottom line when it's not busy doing your own thing. Looking on casually, it's easy to link the two & say it's the exact same product, but I'd be willing to wager it isn't quite up to the same standard. The old rule in life that you get what you pay for is usually right.
As for non food production, yes, the tooling and operating costs are virtually the same for products at all price ranges , so the only real give is in cheaper formula in making the end product , hence why in my experience BQ own brand stuff is crap, a bit like a Tesco "Value" ready meal. Its very true, you tend to get what you pay for.
To me it all means avoiding processed food as much as possible, after all, irrespective of looking at ready meals as just varying standards of gloop, its easier to ponder that Tuna is an oily fish , but canned Tuna is not, the canning process having destroyed the nutrients , just how much of the origianl nutrients remain in the constituents of the average ready meal is a moot point.
I've worked in product development of own label food products for 20 odd years, including products for just about all the major retailers, I've never known the same product going into different retailers, although it may well happen sometimes, but the belief seems to be that if 2 products are made in the same factory, or on the same production line they're the same product, which isn't true at all.
Hosenbugler said:
mp3manager said:
talksthetorque said:
Branston Beans is where it's at.
Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
I do like Branston's but I wish they'd use ring-pull cans. Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
talksthetorque said:
Hosenbugler said:
mp3manager said:
talksthetorque said:
Branston Beans is where it's at.
Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
I do like Branston's but I wish they'd use ring-pull cans. Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
talksthetorque said:
I'm calling snowflake on the pair of you. Ring pulls indeed.
Well that's a dick move. As part of the chemo I'm currently undergoing, one of the side effects makes my fingers split around the nails making simple tasks such as using tin-openers very painful, which is why I like ring-pulls.
mp3manager said:
talksthetorque said:
I'm calling snowflake on the pair of you. Ring pulls indeed.
Well that's a dick move. As part of the chemo I'm currently undergoing, one of the side effects makes my fingers split around the nails making simple tasks such as using tin-openers very painful, which is why I like ring-pulls.
To be fair to you though, I never tried to open tins with my toes.
talksthetorque said:
Hosenbugler said:
mp3manager said:
talksthetorque said:
Branston Beans is where it's at.
Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
I do like Branston's but I wish they'd use ring-pull cans. Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
Kermit power said:
Good Lord!!! You're one of the last people I'd expect to be buying such a thing!
There's logic in it.Costs £1 for 900 grams. 'Fresh' potatoes cost about the same plus there's the time and energy usage of peeling, boiling and mashing.
But, the biggest factor for me is flavour. You know that manufacturers use the oldest potatoes to make frozen mash, but these are the best for mash. Supermarket potatoes are sweetish and slimy due to cold storage. Horrible.
mp3manager said:
talksthetorque said:
Branston Beans is where it's at.
Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
I do like Branston's but I wish they'd use ring-pull cans. Don't judge own brand beans until you have tried Branston Beans.
Hosenbugler said:
Eddie Strohacker said:
I kind of agree with your friend's assessment & I further think there may be some reasonable, if you think about it, mixing up of products with provenance. In my career, I've spent a fair bit of time in factories seeing stuff being made, food for the most part. I know there are plenty of factories out there manufacturing a mix of proprietary & own brand products on the same machinery lines. For example, I know for a fact that the el cheapo Bombay mix you buy in Happy Shopper is made on the same line as Tesco's finest sea salt & vinegar crisps. It's all just input & output to a specification.
I suspect whilst some own brand stuff may just be a cynical matter of swapping labels over, the majority of it will be quite heavily specified & policed product manufacturing with compliance & audit teams crawling all over the process for the simple reasons that the supermarkets simply cannot afford to stick high oleic sunflower oil on the label only for Esther Rantzen or whoever to discover it is in fact Bulgarian engine oil.
Further, there are only so many factories around that will be capable of manufacturing say, Silcon sealant for example. So it's plain business sense that if you are Unibond, you max out your asset by manufacturing B&Q sealant or whatever for the good of your bottom line when it's not busy doing your own thing. Looking on casually, it's easy to link the two & say it's the exact same product, but I'd be willing to wager it isn't quite up to the same standard. The old rule in life that you get what you pay for is usually right.
Yes, basically, thats how it is. My mate has said in the past that its by no means unusual that a similar product can be changed 4 or 5 times, or even more in the same shift depending on who's it for and the price point that its aimed at. Obviously , the more expensive ingredients are reduced, or even missed out altogether in the cheaper lines. Typical examples of being produced down to a price as against up to a standard. I suspect whilst some own brand stuff may just be a cynical matter of swapping labels over, the majority of it will be quite heavily specified & policed product manufacturing with compliance & audit teams crawling all over the process for the simple reasons that the supermarkets simply cannot afford to stick high oleic sunflower oil on the label only for Esther Rantzen or whoever to discover it is in fact Bulgarian engine oil.
Further, there are only so many factories around that will be capable of manufacturing say, Silcon sealant for example. So it's plain business sense that if you are Unibond, you max out your asset by manufacturing B&Q sealant or whatever for the good of your bottom line when it's not busy doing your own thing. Looking on casually, it's easy to link the two & say it's the exact same product, but I'd be willing to wager it isn't quite up to the same standard. The old rule in life that you get what you pay for is usually right.
As for non food production, yes, the tooling and operating costs are virtually the same for products at all price ranges , so the only real give is in cheaper formula in making the end product , hence why in my experience BQ own brand stuff is crap, a bit like a Tesco "Value" ready meal. Its very true, you tend to get what you pay for.
To me it all means avoiding processed food as much as possible, after all, irrespective of looking at ready meals as just varying standards of gloop, its easier to ponder that Tuna is an oily fish , but canned Tuna is not, the canning process having destroyed the nutrients , just how much of the origianl nutrients remain in the constituents of the average ready meal is a moot point.
It's a big customer thing, and quite clever really. Someone gets sold a specific model, knows they can't go and get it anywhere else, just not told they could do so near as damn it.
mp3manager said:
I do like Branston's but I wish they'd use ring-pull cans.
I don't like ring-pull cans. They never come off in one smooth movement. When I've pulled it all the way back the last bit doesn't come off so I end up wiggling it about to get it off, resulting in tomato juice splashing on me when it does eventually give. I'd much rather open it with a tin opener.Gassing Station | Food, Drink & Restaurants | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff