Private labels going national

I posted a couple of weeks ago about some recent cases of movement away from private label. One of the items I cited was that Sears is apparently considering selling some of their private brands through other retailers. Here's another case, with one of India's leading retailers doing something similar:

To create a separate identity and create national brands of its private labels, Pantaloon Retail has transferred some of its private labels to Future Brands. Pantaloon private labels will now move out of Pantaloon stores and probably have their own exclusive shops or will retail through multi-brand outlets.

"We will use in-house labels in the beginning and then launch pan-India brands at a later stage," Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands, said in a statement.

Interesting -- still not a trend, but worth watching.