The main players in Italian distribution analyzed how to build more innovative, sustainable and competitive private brands through new models of cooperation with the industry.
At a time when the Distributor Brand (MDD) records some of the most relevant growths in its history in numerous international markets, Italy has brought together in a single scenario the main protagonists of this phenomenon: the largest distribution sectors, the industry specialized in manufacturing for brands private individuals and experts who analyze the evolution of the sector.
The conference “MDD: Models of collaboration and development steps between Distribution and Industry”, celebrated in the marco de Tuttofood 2026, it was not a succession of commercial presentations. It was a space of reflection where he attempted to respond to a question that worries all operators today: What makes a retailer's brand truly competitive and what are the factors that still need to evolve to support its growth?
The result was a much stronger vision of MDD. A vision that definitively surpasses the idea of a private brand based solely on offering a lower price than the industrial brand.
The MDD is not a product: it is a business model
The main message that arose during the conference was clear: the distributor brand said it was a simple economical alternative.
When a retailer places its own brand in the container, it assumes responsibilities that for a few years have belonged exclusively to the manufacturer. Quality, food safety, traceability, sustainability, continuity of governance, reputation and management of risk all form part of the identity of the school.
This profoundly modifies the paper of all the implicated actors.
The distributor must be solely a buyer to convert himself into an authentic owner of the brand. The industry, for its part, cannot limit itself to manufacturing in compliance with a set of conditions. It must bring knowledge, innovation, development capacity, inversions in I+D, mastery of international legislation and a shared vision of the evolution of the categories.
The price continues to be important, but it is not enough
For many years the conversation about the MDD revolved exclusively around the price.
Today this paradigm is found to be insufficient.
The competitiveness of a private brand comes from a much more complete combination: industrial efficiency, transparency at the costs, stability of relationships, knowledge of primary materials and the ability to innovate to generate a complexity that the consumer was not willing to pay for.
Price continues to be an essential element to preserve accessibility, but it must be the only criterion for building a large-scale strategy.
True innovation is in the form of collaboration
One of the most interesting aspects that emerged in Tuttofood was that the distributor's best brand experiences do not correspond to the traditional model in which the distributor defines a product and the manufacturer simply executes it.
The most advanced companies are building joint work teams in which buyers, quality specialists, marketing departments, innovation managers, industrial experts and product development professionals participate.
Innovation must therefore be the result of a commercial negotiation to convert into a shared process.
This change is not yet completely encoded within the sector. Many companies work in this way, but few have transformed these practices into a true organizational model.
Precisely for this reason, the Italian conference acquired a special value: it allowed us to put a name and structure to dynamics that have existed since a few years ago, but rarely have they been analyzed in such an open way among all the protagonists of the chain of value.
A mensaje especially relevant for Latin America
Although this event took place in Italy, many of the conclusions posed an enormous significance for Latin America.
The region is experiencing an accelerated expansion of the distributor brand. Markets in Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and other markets are increasing year after year in the weight of their brands within the country.
In this growth phase, Italian experience represents an especially useful laboratory.
Europe has been on a path for decades that many Latin American retailers are starting to travel through. Understanding what the most effective collaboration models are, where the main difficulties appear and what mistakes should be avoided can significantly accelerate the evolution of the sector in the region.
Collaboration must not be converted into convenience
Another of the most interesting suggestions during the meeting was the need to continually review the relationships between distributors and manufacturers.
The allies of Largo Plaza generate confidence, favor the inversion and allow the development of much more solid industrial projects.
However, when these relationships eliminate the incentive to innovate or reduce competitive pressure, they dejan to bring value.
Stability is only positive when it coexists with the permanent ability to discuss products, processes, categories and positions.
Innovation requires confidence, but it also requires a healthy competitive tension.
The next checkout from the distributor's brand
The distributor's brand has shown you that it can compete with the big industrial brands.
The following step will demonstrate that it can also be consolidated as an industrial model capable of balancing objectives that in just a few years have seemed difficult to reconcile: protecting the consumer's purchasing power without deteriorating the profitability of the government cycle; innovate without losing accessibility; build stable relationships without giving up on competence.
This was probably the real link of the conference celebrated in Tuttofood.
In addition to the growth figures of the MDD, the context allowed us to identify which principles work, which need to be consolidated and which elements must be transformed into methodologies shared by the entire industry.
For any management that works in the development of private brands — whether in distribution, in the food industry or in service companies — the conclusions of this context represent a reference of great value.
Because the future of the distributor's brand will not depend solely on the price of the market. It will depend, above all, on the ability to build a new model of collaboration between industry and distribution, more transparent, more innovative and prepared to respond to the needs of the consumer of the coming years.
