Store Brands Squeeze Big Food Firms†

After Profiting From Higher Prices, ConAgra and Other Makers Are Rethinking Strategy as Volume Falls

Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2009 — The slumping economy has begun to squeeze big food makers, forcing them to rethink their pricing strategies.

After a year in which they boosted prices to help offset higher costs for transportation and commodities such as corn, food companies are finding that consumers are increasingly trading down to cheaper "private label," or store-branded, food.

That's making it harder to continue raising prices.