Even better than the real thing

David McNair is the director of brand marketing for supermarket chain J. Sainsbury PLC with the job of developing its own label products alongside those of suppliers. Sainsbury is reducing the number of its own label products because it has recognised that sales within categories were not being optimised if own label and branded products were in competition. In 1998, 9,200 of the 23,000 products stocked are own label, against 10,000 of the 20,500 products stocked in 1996.
Don't misunderstand -- own label is still the most important weapon in the Sainsbury armoury, as David McNair tells Julian Hunt It's not so long ago that when the boys [...]