Kroger has a generic branded version of pretty much everything in their store. How do they make all of it? There are different recipes, molds, and entirely different production processes for most of this stuff. Do they buy each product off of someone else and put on their own packaging, or do they really make it all themselves? (And if so, where are all these factories?)
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There are companies called contract manufacturers, who produce whatever product for other companies… these exist for all foods — frozen foods, canning plants, bakeries, etc. These factories might even make products for name brands, or may be name brands’ factories using excess capacity.
Kroger has a development kitchen where they develop a recipe, say for Marinara Sauce. They go to a factory that makes pasta sauces and give them the recipe, cost specs (ingredients must cost no more than 50 cents/jar), specs for jar sizes, etc. The factory then orders the ingredients and makes the sauce to Kroger’s specs, jars it in the two size options Kroger wants, and labels it with Kroger’s labels (for which they provided a design the factories printers print). The next week, the same factory might be churning out pasta sauce for Trader Joe’s with TJ’s recipe, and the week after that they might even be making a new variety of Ragu they want to try out regionally before launching nationwide.
Some products Kroger may develop in-house, other times the contract factories might have an already developed recipe the chain likes enough to use, or maybe they ask for a slight tweak to it. Or they might work with the chain to develop the recipe unique to them.
Just because products are made in the same factory doesn’t mean it’s the same product — a bakery making cookies can very easily make different recipes with the same mixers, ovens, packaging equipment, etc.
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