From East to West. Our travel agenda has been very intense in 2019. After attending the Gulfood trade show in Dubai and participating in trade delegations to Japan and the United States, our latest trip was to the Private Label Manufacturers Association in Amsterdam, more commonly known as PLMA.
From 21- 22 May we were present at the RAI Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam to attend one of the most important events of the year – the meeting with the European Grand Distribution. The show has been running for over three decades and attracts over 15,000 visitors from 120 countries. We were delighted to welcome so many people to the Aceitunas Torrent stand, including many familiar faces.
Torrent, Torrent 1898, Olivalife, Samaoliva, Bostoliva, Privilege Al-Andalus – the excellent reputation of our brands in the multiple countries where they are sold meant that there was huge interest in our ‘hojiblanca’ olives. Commercial Director Inmaculada López, who was present in Amsterdam, reported a growing interest from a new profile of buyer in search of products with greater added value and with a particular interest in higher quality healthy products, a need to which Aceitunas Torrent is well-placed to respond, after developing competitiveness in these areas over many years.
Participating at PLMA allows Aceitunas Torrent to strengthen its growth strategy, not only as a manufacturer of its own branded products, but also as a main reference for olive distributor brands.
Distributor brands are gaining momentum throughout Europe
The white label market is growing very strongly in all European countries according to the 2018 PLMA International Yearbook. Two representative cases are Spain and Switzerland, where own brand products represent half of the products sold. In Germany, the largest retail market in Europe, the trend is similar, with own brand products representing over 45% of the market share.
Evidence of the health of private label products can be found in the strength of the PLMA event itself, which this year beat all records with over 2,700 companies from 70 countries taking part, and organized into 60 national and regional pavilions, including new participants for 2019 from Dubai, Israel, Latvia, Canada and South Africa.
If you were unable to attend PLMA, don’t worry! We look forward to seeing you in Anuga (Colonia) from 5 to 9 October where we will be launching something very, very … special. Don’t miss it!