Private Label Stocks Soar

Seeking Alpha reports that private label food stocks are soaring in this market. Rick Shea writes, Treehouse Foods (THS), Ralcorp and AIPC are the best pure plays in the food manufacturing sector that focus on private label manufacturing. Treehouse continues to add companies and categories (recent Sturm Foods purchase) and is positioned as the top private label focused company. Ralcorp acquired Kraft Foods (KFT) Post cereal division and so far has struggled to deliver positive results.

What sort of new measures will CPGs implement to combat this out-performance by private label manufacturers? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Walmart Turns Trash Into Pizza Boxes

In an effort to reduce waste and to recycle their private brand pizza boxes, Walmart is utilizing a new way to reduce its footprint by recycling the cardboard waste collected in its stores into boxes for it’s private-label, take-and-bake pizza boxes, according to Earth911.com.

“We’ve totally and literally closed the loop using a retailer’s own boxes to go through a paper mill and then to make corrugated boxes out of those same things again,” said Myles Cohen, president of the recycling division for Pratt Industries, the company carrying out the new program. “Quite frankly, the program with Walmart that we’re partnering on is groundbreaking [...] It’s the future.”

Walmart estimates this measure alone will save 8,600 tons of waste from landfills. Additionally, it will reduce the need to consume the equivalent of 40 million gallons of water and 125,000 trees.

Walmart Turns Trash Into Pizza Boxes