Private label drives profit and differentiation—so why do new product development projects keep getting delayed?
A common culprit is bottlenecks in the retailer home office.
Category Managers are often responsible for managing local and overseas supply as part of holistic range management (a good practice).
Actioning private label new product development (NPD) tasks is important but not as urgent as other day-to-day tasks facing a Category Manager.
Result: Projects drag on far longer than necessary.
But here’s the good news: This represents a massive opportunity to accelerate NPD and unlock higher profits, innovation, and differentiation.
Potential Quick wins:
✅ Streamline processes to make NPD tasks easier to action
✅ Add dedicated Project Managers to drive execution
✅ Improve visibility and set critical deadlines to create appropriate urgency
This is a "low hanging fruit" opportunity for retailers. Fine tuning the private label new product development process will accelerate private label speed-to-market and deliver significant improvements in competitiveness and profitability.