What private label is in Australia
A private label product is sold under a brand the retailer owns and controls. The retailer decides the product, the specification, the price and the pack; a supplier manufactures it, often alongside its own branded equivalent. Australia's grocery market is one of the most private-label-heavy in the world: Aldi's range is almost entirely own brand, and Coles and Woolworths have built tiered programs over two decades that now cover most categories. The specialist retailers followed: Chemist Warehouse with its health and beauty house brands, Petbarn with premium exclusives such as Providore, Petstock with its own ranges, and Dan Murphy's and BWS with exclusive drinks brands.
| Retailer | Tiers and examples | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Coles | Coles (standard), Coles Finest (premium), Coles Simply (value), plus specialist brands (Coles Nature's Kitchen, Coles Kitchen, Coles Liquor exclusives) | Clean, systemised, heavy use of the Coles red; premium tier uses photography and dark grounds |
| Woolworths | Woolworths Essentials (value), Woolworths (standard), Macro (natural and organic), Woolworths Gold (premium), plus exclusive brands by category | Green-led, warm; Macro as a distinct natural identity; Gold as a premium black-and-gold system |
| Aldi | Hundreds of exclusive brands designed to resemble national brand categories (Westcliff, Remano, Dairy Dream, Lacura and so on) | Category-mimic: each brand looks like the category leader it replaces; almost no Aldi branding on pack |
| Chemist Warehouse | House brands in vitamins, skincare, personal care and OTC, and exclusive distribution brands | Value-led, clinical cues, designed for the wall |
| Petbarn (Greencross) | Premium and super-premium exclusives such as Providore for Dogs, Leaps & Bounds, plus accessories brands | Designed to look like the best national brand on the shelf, not like a house brand |
| Petstock | Own premium ranges and exclusives | Similar logic; moving towards Woolworths-grade compliance since 2023 |
| Dan Murphy's, BWS (Endeavour) | Exclusive wine, beer and spirits brands under Pinnacle Drinks | Presented as independent brands; the retailer connection is rarely on pack |
Why retailers do it and what it means for the shelf
- Margin. The retailer captures the brand margin as well as the retail margin.
- Negotiating power. A credible own brand in a category caps what a national brand can charge the retailer.
- Loyalty. A product only available at Woolworths is a reason to shop at Woolworths.
- Range control. The retailer can fill a gap, match a trend or hit a price point without waiting for a supplier.
- Shelf position. Own brand gets the facings and the eye-level position the retailer chooses to give it.
For a national brand, the consequence is that in most categories the pack sits beside a retailer-owned pack designed to the same shelf, at a lower price, with more facings. The buyer who ranges the national brand also manages the own brand, and the range review compares them. The own brand is the benchmark.
How a private label project runs
The process differs by retailer and tier but the shape is consistent.
- Brief. The retailer's own brand team issues a product brief (specification, target cost, tier, pack format, launch date) and a design brief within the brand's existing system. Suppliers are usually selected by tender.
- Design system. The retailer's own brand design is set by its in-house team or a retained agency. A new product is designed inside that system: tier template, colour logic, photography style, type. For premium exclusives (Providore), the retailer commissions a new brand to its own brief, which is where an external studio comes in.
- Artwork. The supplier is often responsible for producing print-ready artwork to the retailer's artwork guidelines, using the retailer's templates and approved assets, with the retailer approving every round. Some retailers produce artwork centrally and charge the supplier.
- Compliance. The retailer's technical and regulatory team checks every claim, every ingredient declaration and every mandatory element; the supplier provides the data and the evidence. Own Brand food suppliers to Coles need GFSI certification (SQF, BRCGS); Woolworths applies its own quality standard.
- Approval and print. Final artwork is approved by the retailer, printed by a supplier-nominated or retailer-nominated printer to the retailer's packaging specifications (dimensions, materials, sustainability requirements, barcodes), and verified.
- Launch and review. The product launches in the retailer's calendar; performance is reviewed against the tier's expectations, and underperformers are reformulated, repackaged or delisted quickly.
Designing private label: the tiers
| Tier | Design logic |
|---|---|
| Value | Cost-first. Minimal colours, standard formats, no finishes, shared dielines across the range. The brand is a lockup and a colour; the product is named plainly. Legibility and price per unit are the design. |
| Standard | Category-matched. Looks like a credible version of the category's national brands, with the retailer brand carried consistently. Photography or illustration to the retailer's house style; tight hierarchy. |
| Premium | Brand-like. Dark or textured grounds, photography, finishes, a name that is not the retailer's (Coles Finest, Woolworths Gold, or a separate exclusive brand). Designed to win on shelf against the premium national brands and to justify its price. |
| Specialist and exclusive | A new brand built to a retailer brief, with its own identity and range architecture, sold only by that retailer. Providore for Dogs is this: a premium pet food brand for Petbarn, designed to be the best pack on the shelf, with the retailer connection in the ranging rather than on the front. |
The constraint that defines private label design is scale: a system has to work across hundreds or thousands of SKUs, be executed by many suppliers' artwork teams, and survive years of additions. That forces decisions national brands often avoid: one hierarchy, one colour logic, one photography style, templated dielines. It is why own brand so often looks more coherent than the brands beside it.
What a national brand should learn from it
- Design the range, not the pack. The own brand beside you is a system; a single beautiful SKU with no range logic loses to it.
- Know the price gap you are defending. A pack has to justify its premium in the first second: a reason (provenance, format, ingredient, specialist positioning) the retailer cannot or will not copy.
- Match the compliance rigour. Own brand packs are checked by the retailer's own technical team; a national brand that fails the compliance gate hands the shelf to the own brand.
- Use format where the retailer uses templates. Private label runs on shared dielines for cost; a distinctive format is a differentiator the own brand will not match quickly.
- Do not imitate. A national brand that mimics the own brand's look confirms it is interchangeable. Aldi mimics national brands; the reverse does not work.
- Expect the buyer to compare. Bring the own brand pack to the design review and put the concept beside it.
For suppliers considering private label
Manufacturing a retailer's own brand is a volume business with thin margins and the retailer's terms. It can fill capacity and build a relationship with the buyer, and it can crowd out the supplier's own brand on the same shelf. On the packaging side, budget for the retailer's artwork process (more rounds, more stakeholders, strict templates), for the compliance documentation, and for packaging specifications (materials, recyclability, barcode verification, shelf-ready formats) that are more prescriptive than a national brand's. The retailer guides on this site cover the logistics and barcode rules that apply to own brand as much as to brands.
Questions people ask
Packaging for a product sold under a retailer's own brand (Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Chemist Warehouse, Petbarn and others), designed inside the retailer's brand system and approved by the retailer, and made by a supplier to the retailer's specification.
The retailer's in-house own brand team or its retained agency sets the system; suppliers often produce artwork within it; and for premium exclusives the retailer commissions a studio to create a new brand to its brief, as Petbarn did with Providore for Dogs.
With a range system at least as coherent as the retailer's, a visible reason for the price gap the retailer cannot copy (provenance, format, ingredient, specialist positioning), compliance rigour that matches the retailer's own, and a design that does not imitate the own brand.
Coles requires all Own Brand food suppliers, from grower to processor, to hold current GFSI certification such as SQF or BRCGS. Woolworths applies its Woolworths Quality Assurance standard. Both apply their packaging, barcode and logistics specifications to own brand.
Almost. Aldi's range is overwhelmingly exclusive brands designed to resemble the national brand in each category, with few recognisable national brands and little Aldi branding on pack.
Typically value (Coles Simply, Woolworths Essentials), standard (Coles, Woolworths), premium (Coles Finest, Woolworths Gold) and specialist or natural (Macro, Coles Nature's Kitchen), plus exclusive brands by category. Names and tiers change periodically.
Sources
- Supplier Onboarding Step 1: retail readiness checklist (GFSI requirement for Own Brand), Coles Supplier Central
- How to become a Supplier, Woolworths Partner Hub
- Providore for Dogs case study, Morice&Co.
- Private label vs national brand packaging (Morice&Co. note)
Published . Last reviewed . Next scheduled review . Regulatory content is re-checked against the primary sources above at each review. See our editorial standards.
