At the 2026 China FMCG Conference, Guan Xue, General Manager of Jiuan Gaosheng Group, shared deep insights on private labels under the theme "Channel Private Label: Build Private Brands Like a Brand Owner."
Currently, private labels have become a hot topic in the industry, with many channels listing them as a core strategic direction. The real core issue is not whether to enter but how to implement scientifically. In practice, most companies do not lack opportunities but deviate from the correct path from the start.
Gaosheng Wine has long served mainstream channels such as Hema, Aldi, and Waima Songjiu, accumulating extensive frontline experience in wine supply chain construction, product innovation, and channel-specific development.
Based on deep practical experience, Guan Xue gave a core judgment: private labels hold huge opportunities, but they are by no means simple OEM, repackaging, or following trends to replicate bestsellers. The success of a project depends on whether the channel clearly defines its development path and whether manufacturers operate with a brand-building mindset.
Entering Private Labels: Avoid Three Core Misconceptions First
From industry data, the private label market outlook is very promising. Forecasts show that by 2030, China's private label market size is expected to exceed 1.2 trillion yuan, with leading companies' private label penetration reaching 40%, and consumer acceptance rising to 45%.
The impressive data is highly attractive, and many channel operators and tray suppliers have quickly formed private label teams, adjusted procurement structures, and rushed to enter.
But reality is far more brutal than imagined. Last year, Gaosheng Wine launched over 300 SKUs, but less than one-third achieved healthy sell-through and repeat purchases.
Industry enthusiasm is high, and many entrants, but few truly run a successful model and achieve results. Seeing the trend is easy; running the loop is extremely difficult.
The root cause of most failures lies in organizational structure and product selection logic, falling into three typical misconceptions:
- Follow-the-trend type: Blind replication, ignoring channel adaptability Blindly following industry leading cases, Aldi's product model and Hema's packaging design become templates. But the success of leading brands does not come from a single packaging or concept, but from a complete underlying channel logic.
For example, Aldi's product design is highly compatible with its overall VI system and shelf scenarios. Copying "simple packaging" without its channel environment neither fits its own channel characteristics nor gains recognition from target consumers.
- Rebranding type: Shallow OEM, lacking brand core This is the most common superficial operation: targeting hot-selling products, directly using the original formula, bottle shape, and packaging design, only changing the brand name, and defining it as a private label.
This model only completes a "name change," without building exclusive brand power, nor considering product-channel-customer fit. It essentially tests the waters with mature products, rather than creating exclusive, differentiated private products based on channel attributes, consumer groups, and usage scenarios.
- Laissez-faire type: Loose organization, lacking systematic operations This is the most easily overlooked core issue.
Companies do not treat private labels as a systematic project, often having one buyer manage multiple categories like wine, beverages, and snacks.
This seems to streamline manpower and improve efficiency, but in reality, different categories have vastly different shelf lives, turnover patterns, production logic, and operational tactics. The operational logic for wine and beverages, or food and wine, is completely contradictory. Loose organizational structure and vague development logic will only lead to projects being launched arbitrarily and ending hastily, with high failure rates.
The three misconceptions have different appearances, but the core problem is the same: companies have too lightweight a perception of private labels, equating them to a simple process of "finding a factory, making packaging, and putting on shelves."
Private labels are by no means a "skin-changing game," not a short-term project that can be done casually, nor a speculative move that succeeds by chasing trends. If direction is unclear, organization incomplete, and logic unsound, the faster you advance, the further you deviate from the track.
Channel Differences Are Significant: Private Label Opportunities Vary
After avoiding misconceptions, it is crucial to precisely grasp opportunities. There is no one-size-fits-all answer for private labels. Hard discount, new retail, instant retail, local supermarkets, and snack chains have vastly different operational logics.
- Hard discount channels (represented by Aldi) Gaosheng Wine has customized about 16 products for Aldi, where private labels already account for 70% of its assortment, with further growth expected in 2026. Its shelves are centered on private labels, and even non-private-label products carry strong channel-led attributes.
Core logic: Elevate private labels to a core corporate strategy, not a supplementary category. Establish clear authorization rules and admission standards for partner manufacturers, and systematically advance private label layout.
- Membership-based new retail channels (Hema, Sam's Club, Costco) The underlying logic is similar to Aldi, but customer positioning and consumption concepts differ significantly.
Aldi focuses on individual daily consumption, while Sam's Club and Costco focus on family one-stop shopping, so product planning, customer positioning, and product design need targeted adjustments. The same model cannot be copied; the core is to clarify the channel's target audience and solve core consumption needs.
- Instant retail channels (core opportunity for distributors and tray suppliers) Channels like Aldi and Hema focus on direct supply from manufacturers, strictly controlling gross margin structures and greatly compressing the space for intermediate links, making it difficult for distributors and tray suppliers to enter.
Instant retail is different. Its warehousing and distribution system is complex, involving multiple levels such as central warehouses, front warehouses, and sub-warehouses, requiring professional entities to handle goods allocation, service docking, warehousing and distribution, and resource integration. Manufacturers cannot cover everything, which is the core value of the middle layer.
The core needs of instant retail are efficient response, refined service, and scenario-based product support. The middle layer is not without profit; instead, it has exclusive development space.
- Local supermarkets and snack chains These channels have opportunities based on regional characteristics. Taste preferences and consumer acceptance vary significantly by region, such as Sichuan's preference for spicy flavors, while other regions have their own characteristics. If a unified national product logic is used to cover all regions, success is doomed.
In summary, the core opportunity for private labels is not to create homogeneous bestsellers but to precisely match the differentiated needs of different channels, regions, and scenarios. Understanding differences and adapting to needs is the key to finding your own positioning.
Successful Private Labels Share Three Common Foundations
Channels that truly run private labels successfully all rely on three core supports:
Brand power: Willing to invest resources Successful private labels rely on complete marketing layout and resource allocation, not just putting products on shelves and waiting for sell-through. Brand power requires long-term continuous investment to accumulate. Without the awareness of resource investment, there is no foundation for private labels.
Long-termism: Maintaining strategic focus Before product launch, plan the iteration path: the upgrade direction for the first generation, the launch cycle for the next generation, target consumer groups, etc. The strategic focus to accept trial and error and optimize through iteration is the core of long-term brand development. If you immediately delist and give up when sales are poor, you are doomed to fail in private labels.
Supply chain: Linking flexible production partners When laying out private labels, first verify supply chain support capability. Hema and Aldi have completely different product requirements, requiring supply chain systems that match different channels. If you enter with a "produce 200 boxes to test the waters" mentality, you will only waste time and cost.
The core of successful private labels is not just putting the channel name on the product, but having clear brand logic, product definitions that fit the channel, and strong R&D and supply chain capabilities.
The Core of Private Labels: Operate with Brand-Building Logic
After clarifying misconceptions and opportunities, implementation methods become key. The core principle is only one: developing private products must follow the operational logic of professional brand companies.
Private labels are by no means simple OEM. Guan Xue summarized six essential courses before entering private labels, which are interlocking and indispensable:
- Market research: Analyze competitors' private label strategies, study market trends and consumer preferences, evaluate category opportunities and market space;
- Customer analysis: Deeply study target group characteristics, break down consumption scenarios and purchase motivations, uncover unmet consumer pain points;
- Brand positioning: Clarify brand value proposition, create differentiated advantages, build brand story and emotional connection;
- Product planning: Design product portfolio and SKU strategy, set pricing and gross margin plans, polish packaging and visual system;
- Marketing strategy: Plan launch promotion plans, design scenario-based marketing activities, build user operation and repurchase systems;
- Resource investment: Reserve sufficient gross margin space, plan marketing promotion budgets, configure professional operation teams.
Most channel parties can only complete two or three of these, with the source of promotion expenses being the most easily overlooked pain point.
Private labels compete on the same stage as traditional brands, with equal shelf resources. If you only pursue gross margin and do not reserve promotion expenses, you simply cannot compete with traditional brands.
Traditional brand manufacturers usually reserve about 20% of channel promotion expenses. Distributors must clarify with suppliers who bears the promotion expenses before laying out private products; otherwise, products can only become "slow-moving items" on shelves.
Many distributors claim to "understand channels," but understanding procurement is not the same as channel insight. True insight comes from frontline field research.
When Gaosheng Wine customized wine for Aldi, it initially predicted instant delivery as the core consumption method. After field observation, it found that whole-box offline purchases were the mainstream, with consumers specifically visiting the store to buy this product. Such precise insight cannot be obtained through data deduction or subjective judgment.
Take Hema's Goodnight Wine as an example. This product was created by Gaosheng's own brand SWOOSH and topped both the Hema red wine rising list and new product bestseller list after launch.
During R&D, to match female taste preferences, 12 samples were submitted, and design drafts were completely overturned and re-polished multiple times. After launch, it unexpectedly went viral on Xiaohongshu, with consumers spontaneously creating cocktail recipes, generating massive UGC, and achieving word-of-mouth breakout beyond expectations.
Guan Xue thus proposed: The creativity at the terminal always comes from consumers.
The core task for manufacturers and distributors is to polish high-quality, interesting, and memorable products. The remaining dissemination and innovation will be completed by consumers themselves.
In the end, private labels most avoid short-term operations. Only by deeply cultivating with a long-term brand engineering mindset can long-term development be achieved.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the sharing, Guan Xue emphasized: Private labels are not the end; channel brand power is the ultimate goal.
This sentence clarifies the core essence of private labels.
Currently, the industry is hotly discussing private labels. What is truly worth paying attention to is not the number of SKUs on shelves or the speed of brand name changes, but whether products can build channel-specific brand perception, making consumers remember, trust, and repurchase continuously.
For channels, private labels are not a tool to increase gross margin but a carrier to build their own core product capabilities;
For distributors and tray suppliers, it is not about chasing trends but finding niche channels and providing irreplaceable value;
For manufacturers, it is not about completing production but adhering to product bottom lines and creating quality products they dare to drink and recommend to their families.
Private labels have never been a simple "change packaging" operation but a long-term project requiring patience, professional capability, and scientific methods. Avoiding misconceptions, seizing opportunities, and implementing with brand-building logic can turn an ordinary product into a channel-specific brand business card.