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PLMA Show to Focus on Innovation

The Private Label Manufacturer Association’s Private Label Trade Show, to be held Nov. 15-17 in Chicago, will feature a new Innovation Hall, a “show-within-a-show” featuring products and services for private label that go beyond product development.

NEW YORK — The Private Label Manufacturer Association’s Private Label Trade Show, to be held Nov. 15-17 in Chicago, will feature a new Innovation Hall, a “show-within-a-show” featuring products and services for private label that go beyond product development. Innovation Hall will open the day before the regular show floor starts so that exhibitors and attendees can participate.


“The Innovation Hall represents the next logical step in the evolution of store brands,” PLMA president Brian Sharoff said in a statement. “Over the past decade, store brands have expanded to annual sales of $80 billion. This has been driven by remarkable gains in product quality and assortment. But as business gets larger, more complex and demanding, there is a strategic need by both retailers and manufacturers for more than just products.”


The Innovation Hall will address services and ideas that are necessary for growth to continue, including:

• Laboratory testing and certification, to ensure product quality, consistency and safety.


• Market research, marketing services and business consulting — sophisticated data and expertise to manage store brands as brands.

• Software and technology — information systems that can be applied to all aspects of sales, marketing and supply chain operations. 


• Packaging design and graphics, to reflect the greater importance of premium products and expansion into new categories.



“If store brands are going to sustain their success in the decade ahead, retailers and manufacturers will have to commit themselves to innovation in products and services,” Sharoff said.

In addition to company exhibits, Innovation Hall will include demonstrations and classes.

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