TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (THS)

We all need food but will not pay a premium for fancy labels -- strong balance sheet and will acquire some more brands soon

I work in one of the largest grocery store chains in the northeast. Right now the company I work for is trying very hard to push the store brand items. I know that they have all been trying for years, but the company is pushing even harder now. The company wants us to go from appx. 15% of total sales being store brand to 25%. I don't know that they can make that kind of an improvement, but it should still be quite large. They make a significantly larger profit off of these items. So even if they sell fewer items, they can still make more money. If the company that I work for is doing this, you can bet our competition is as well. TreeHouse Foods makes a lot of store brand items, and as such will profit from this new initiative that I'm sure most of the major grocery chains are doing as well.
Also with the economy in the dumps right now, a lot more people are going to be buying store brand in order to make their money go farther. I believe that this current economy is going to have a lasting effect on people's spending habits, similar to the Great Depression. As long as store brands are comparable, and they are getting better all the time, people will try to save a little money. That's great news for THS.