DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

It’s very difficult being a consumer brand manufacturer in the Dominican Republic. Outside of the labor and tax obligations, local industry that focuses on the consumer market has been impacted by the decision of large supermarket chains in the past decade to embrace the white labeling model. The contracts, depending on the supermarket chain, may even impede the brands from selling to other supermarkets, or selling their own brand in the same store.

The argument behind the white label model is that it enables the supermarket to offer consumers lower prices. But the question is whether it is sustainable for the manufacturer, that in the short and medium term seems to be the biggest loser despite being the one that has risked the most.

There you have the white labels of Lider (Nacional), Wala (Grupo Ramos – La Sirena), Bravo (Bravo) as the leaders in...