Private-label Products

Take pet-supply cataloger Doctors Foster & Smith. Schmid says: “They were a $5 million business in the 1980s. One of the things that was a significant breakthrough for them was the private-label program, which helped them add 10 to 20 points of margin to their product lines. It was so successful, that the line grew and grew. They even have their own [pet] pharmacy now. Today, that company does more than $100 million in sales.”