Drinkable sea water. How does this compare to drinkable vinegar? What about jelly bread spread made from tea, or medical diapers with allowing for urine sampling for sick babies? These and many more remarkable private label items were shown at the PLMA International Private Label Trade Show in Amsterdam.
“This is the place to be to spot innovation”, PLMA President Peggy Davies comments. “Retailers know shoppers want the very best of quality, innovation, and performance. The exhibitors at PLMA’s Annual World of Private Label Trade Show offer products and packaging to support retailers product development plans.”
On May 28 and 29, the Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre welcomed more than 17.000 visitors from over 125 countries, who were all keen to find out new trends in products and packaging. PLMA’s International World of Private Label Trade Show was, as it always is, a meeting place for retailers, buyers, category managers and other visitors who walked the
43,500 m2 trade show floor to browse what the almost 3,000 exhibiting companies from 73 countries offered. A challenging task, given the show floor space and the abundance of food and non-food exhibitors which was 10% larger compared to last year.
“Retail is a highly competitive market, so it’s key to always stay one step ahead with our retail brand”, a category manager said. “The PLMA Trade Show is THE event for inspiration and doing business.”
To guide visitors to identify innovation on the expansive show floor, PLMA’s Idea Supermarket was an area buzzing with trends through hundreds of innovative and newly developed products from retailers and manufacturers around the world.
“For my company this trade show gains relevance year by year”, a manufacturer comments. “The trade show floor is full of retailers that are truly interested in our products and our way of working.”
Among the product trends spotted on the show floor:
Innovative Beverages
Sea water and vinegar are unlikely to be someone’s favorite beverage. Still, product developers succeeded in creating refreshing drinks based on these ingredients. Functional teas with added zinc to support the immune system, or tea especially for men as it contains herbs to maintain the prostate function. And what about beverage on your bread? Tea is used to create a jelly bread spread, as could be seen in PLMA’s New Product Expo.
Halal and Kosher
A notable number of interesting Halal and Kosher products could be seen, including a Ramadan Calendar for fasting. New items that comply with the requirements of Halal and Kosher are developed to such an extent that they may even allow for special ranges in retailers’ private label architecture.
Functionality in non-food
In non-food private label manufacturers developed functional and surprising unexpected new products, such as a probiotic cleaning cloth, or medical diapers allowing for urine sampling for babies that are sick. The New Product Expo even showed an AI-enabled air fryer that identifies its content and automatically adjusts the cooking time. Similarly remarkable is an aroma therapy product for pets, and in packaging the addition of braille on tampons packaging stands out.
The 2024 International Private Label Trade Show kicked off on Monday May 27 with two workshops addressing the topics of how to build a strategic partnership and the evolution of packaging design in Gen Z era, followed by the seminar programme with presentations from Circana and Euromonitor. Picnic the intriguing and trendsetting online-only retailer gave an insight in its clear vision on the future of retailing in Europe whereas Coop Italia gave a speech on its revolutionary approach to private label.
