so, each store now has a range of these "discount brands." Brands such as "Mermaid Bay" frozen foods, "Country Barn" cereals, "packers choice" teabags and, my particular favourite, "wheatfield" bread.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders whether or not this is Tesco's attempt to get a foothold on the other big supermarkets which they cannot afford/would not be allowed to buy out. As production costs rise and rise with Tesco possibly being the only one able to absorb them long term, perhaps they have introduced these de-branded own brand products with the intention that in time they might end up offering to sell them as stock to other supermarkets, coming up (initially at least) with a deal that is better value than buying directly from producers? That gives Tesco a lucrative role as a bulk supplier, and also enables them to price fix, with Tesco maintaining a nice healthy margin on these brands but cutting that of any other chains stocking them down to the bone. It also reduces the possibility of other chains competing for a given producer's product, thus preventing any possible attempts to manuevre them into paying more.
The blurb we've all been given to read at work states basically that these products are of a higher quality and price than our Value range, and a lower quality and price than our regular own-brand range.
So these brands aren't replacing Value, but are another tier added in? So there will be Tesco Value, Fake Brand, Tesco Normal and Tesco Finest? Seems a bit much to me.
What I find particularly interesting about the own brand products is the way the major supermarkets have created different tiers within their own brand range. I will never forget working as a temp in a meat processing factory about 5 years ago. This factory's main business is a lucrative Tesco contract. I spent most of my time working on lines making diced beef and minced beef.
Tesco Value, normal and finest mince all starts with the same primal cuts and initially goes through the same line. After an initial coarse mince, you end up with huge stainless steel bins of minced beef. At this stage, this product goes through a final process which will determine where it will sit in Tesco's range.
The 'finest' product simply goes through a finer mince process, is packaged and ready for despatch. The 'normal' goes through the same fine mince, but with a small amount of fat from other lines added in to bulk the weight up slightly making it slightly cheaper.
But the 'Value' range is the biggest scam of them all - the fine mince isn't quite as fine and the packing machines which seal the celophane top on don't inject as much oxygen in so the meat doesn't look as red. On the shelf the slightly coarser, darker 'value' mince might look a cheaper and inferior product, but it's technically exactly the same as the higher priced 'normal' range, which itself is barely any different to the even higher priced 'finest' range.
It's interesting to note that also that the cheaper ranges require more time, manpower and machinery to make than the expensive one does - and I can't see the slightly increased fat content making up for this.
These 'tiered' ranges (for fresh meat at least) are little more than a masterpiece of marketing where the cheaper products are specially processed to look inferior rather than actually being so.
