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.

We were thrilled to sponsor the inaugural Velocity: The My Private Brand Conference in Charlotte last week. Conversations were lively and engaging, presentations informative and entertaining. Besides the occasional drilling and late night concerts, a good time was had by all. At least all of us at MBD/WBD!

We recently attended Natural Products Expo East from September 13 – 16 at the Baltimore Convention Center. In a sea of more than 1,500 natural and organic companies all doing their best to be the star, products can all start to blur together. High quality organic ingredients are the norm at this show, so it takes real innovation and creativity to stand out in the crowd.

Here are a few of my personal favorites from the event:

MBD recently attended Velocity: The My Private Brand Conference in Charlotte, NC. During the conference, one of the speakers said when she first described her job in the private brand industry, she would say, “You know when you go to the store and there’s the cheaper brand? I work on those ones!” I have to confess I used to say the same thing.

To say the news of Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods shook the grocery business to its core is an understatement. What it really means has been widely debated, but what is certain is that it will have a major impact on how people shop and how they view and purchase products. The lines between brick and mortar and online shopping experiences will continue to blur and marketers and package designers are going to have to think differently about how their products are presented.

As Platinum Sponsors of VELOCITY, The My Private Brand Conference, MBD & WBD are teaming with Christopher Durham and other packaging industry experts to share tips and tricks for Private Brand design, rollout and workflow to help organize your Private Brand Program to run headache free…well, with reduced headaches at least.

About three years ago, MBD was brought on-board to produce bi-lingual private label packaging solutions to a PriceSmart’s growing private label program.  PriceSmart is a retailer very similar to Costco but operates 40 clubs in 12 countries (Central America, Colombia and the Caribbean).  Since then, and over 400 SKUs later, we’ve learned a thing or two about producing a one-size-fits-all label for different markets. 

Here are 5 common questions I’ve been asked since we started running the program.

Our MBD Team recently was a part of the 17,000 people who attended the Sweets & Snacks Expo held May 23-25 in Chicago.

We browsed the aisles of 800 confectionary and snack exhibitors, which felt like Candyland for business people. The industry continues to grow, as 200 companies were first-time exhibitors this year!

We don't typically blog about a blog but we're pretty proud to have our work featured on mypbrand.com, THE authority for all things Private Brand.  Though mypbrand.com founder, Christopher Durham, undoubtedly noticed WinCo's private label made an appearance in this new campaign, it’s the custom soundtrack created exclusively from sounds within a WinCo store that really caught his attention.

I’m Alison, and I’m addicted to quotes (I’m also a project manager at the Somerville office, but the next few paragraphs are mostly about me being addicted to quotes).

When I was asked to write this month’s blog post and was given the go-ahead to share some inspirational quotes with you all, I had two thoughts: a) Have I died and gone to heaven? And b) How am I ever going to keep this word count down to what I’m allowed?