David Wenner, president and chief executive of B&G Foods Inc, said that retailers' focus on private label is hurting specialty products such as his company's Ortega and Cream of Wheat brands.
"The room available for our specialty products has shrunk," Mr. Wenner said last week at the ICRXchange conference.
According to Mr. Wenner, companies such as his are also being hurt as retailers push back on price increases. According to a Reuters report, B&G sought a price increase as it saw the cost of beans and materials used to make cans go up over the past year.
"We are definitely getting resistance from grocery customers on grocery price increases," he said.
Discussion Questions: Do you see specialty items losing significant shelf space to private label and/or national brands? What are the implications, if any, in terms of the customer shopping experience and retailers' ability to differentiate from competitors?