BECOMING A PRIVATE LABEL SUPPLIER: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES. DOI: 10.15600/1679-5350/rau.v12n3p23-46

The private label strategy has been adopted by Brazilian retailers and has created new demands for suppliers, who need to reevaluate their manufacturing structure in order to decide whether they should manufacture such products. The main purpose of this paper is to understand the challenges that manufacturers face when deciding to become a private label supplier. Besides, we investigate the benefits created through this initiative. We conducted a qualitative research under the case study method and we contribute to the literature since there is a lack of previous studies from the perspective of manufacturers. As main findings, we observed that the studied companies stand in different stages of evolution since they adopt different strategies to profit from opportunities created by Brazilian retailers. In general, we can state that the adoption of private label strategy improves the suppliers’ manufacturing abilities and brings new demands for service and innovation.