Changing rules of the game

I've watched and helped a lot of suppliers wrestle with the same question: "They've asked us if we can manufacture their own brand. Do we say yes?" And underneath it, the real fear: if we do, are we handing them the knife they'll use on us later? Are we letting a new competitor into our own landscape? Tough questions, aren’t they?

I understand the challenge. I spent years on the buying side, at Adeo and then Kingfisher, building international tenders and negotiating with suppliers. So let me say it plainly: the private label is not your enemy. But the way many suppliers think about it is stuck about fifteen years in the past.

There was a time when private label meant one thing: a cheaper option, sitting one shelf below the national brand, doing an honest job for the price-conscious shopper. Nobody confused it with innovation.

That era is over. Today, Kingfisher's own exclusive brands account for 43 per cent of group sales across a GBP 12.9bn business. They're designed, positioned, marketed brands with their own identity and their own loyal following. Across European retail, private label has crossed 40 per cent of value share, and in some DIY categories retailers are openly aiming for 70 to 80 per cent.

The change that matters isn't the percentage. It's the intent. Retailers stopped buying products and started building brands. You can actually feel it, the briefs get more ambitious. That's what's happening right now, in 2026 and many suppliers haven't fully registered it yet.

On Hornbach's own website, you can read it in black and white: their product range is their biggest lever, and designing it is a top priority for them as a retailer. A top priority.

Adeo has been building own brands for 20 years and now carries 61,000 products across 15 brands, for comparison, a standard Leroy Merlin store holds around 60,000 references. And they've developed a real ability to adapt their own brands locally, with up to 80 per cent of the offer tailored to the specific needs of each territory.

That last point leads straight into the next one: Europe isn't one big market. Yes, I'm French and European but I shop like a French shopper, just as my neighbours shop like German, British, Italian or Polish ones. We operate with different expectations, and any brand, national or private label, has to adapt to them.

A German customer is a quality-and-reliability seeker: they want technical proof, not too much marketing. The French customer, by contrast and this is my read wants technical content made accessible, a dose of inspiration, and a sharp eye on price. The British shopper is pragmatic: thanks to a powerful logistics model, availability and speed sit at the very top of their expectations, and they trust value for money more than anyone.

Same product. Same retailer group. Completely different pressure on your brand, or theirs, depending on which border you're standing at.

So when a private label proposal lands on your desk, the answer isn't a reflexive yes, a defensive no, or a purely opportunistic grab. It's a series of honest questions, and they all start with the strategic path you want to follow, and your ambition.

• What do I expect from this partnership over the next five years? Private label shouldn't be an opportunistic decision. It should sit clearly inside your strategy, with an ambition, figures and expectations attached to it.
• Am I ready to share insights, open up my sources, adapt my cost structure and my products to co-build the range and meet the expectations? I know this relationship can feel one-sided. It isn't. By being ready to do that and actually doing it, you position yourself as a partner and you co-build the trajectory.
• And last but not least: am I ready to give private label priority over my own brand? Because that's what retailers expect from their supplier-partners. If you believe the two can coexist, I agree with you, but under certain conditions.

My main advice: set your ambition first, for your brand and for private label. In my day-to-day work, I've realised it's not always clear where suppliers want to go, while retailers are perfectly clear on their direction.

Whether you want to maintain or double your turnover, your actions have to follow. I insist on this, because if you enter an international private label tender without preparing yourself to win it, you're just burning cash in your P&L. A lost tender represents, on average, €50k of indirect cost: resources, samples, audits, travel, and the opportunities you didn't pursue during that time. That's why so many suppliers believe private label isn't profitable: in reality, they just didn't change their mindset before trying to make it work.