Attention to Retail with My Private Brand's Creator
BRANDPACKAGING sits down with branding cohort Christopher Durham to discuss the lay of the retail brand land.
BRANDPACKAGING (BP): Chris, give us a little history: How did you get into private labels, and where have they taken you?
Christopher Durham (CD): In early 2004, I became the brand manager/creative services manager with Delhaize Group-owned grocer, Food Lion. I worked on everything from TV commercials to in-store signage to private brand. One project focused on the consolidation and optimization of the private brand portfolio from 60-plus labels to 12 brands, something that would serve me well when I moved to Lowe’s Home Improvement. We relaunched a streamlined portfolio with a new Food Lion brand, Home 360, and repositioned On the Go Bistro, the home meal solutions brand. After close to five years, I left Food Lion and moved to Lowe’s, where I worked as a brand manager focused on private brand strategy and, over five years, created, managed or repositioned many of its private brands including Blue Hawk, Style Selections, Harbor Breeze, Utilitech and allen + roth.