On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 23:34:46 -0500, Sqwertz >
wrote:

>On Mon, 05 Oct 2015 11:54:55 -0700, JRStern wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 11:01:22 -0500, Sqwertz >
>> wrote:
>>
>>>I know that Kettle brand makes Trader Joes Horseradish-Cheddar chips,
>>>but since the Ghost Pepper is lattice cut, they're probably not made
>>>by Kettle. But you can always tell by the bag material if they're
>>>Kettle or not.
>>
>> Is it even Kettle makes them, or the same company that makes them for
>> Kettle? ... Diamond Foods (the nut company!) owns Kettle.
>
>Looking at my empty bag of Kettle chips wedged between the monitor and
>the CPU tower, it does say "Distributed By KETTLE FOODS", so yes,
>Kettle probably doesn't make these themselves - technically.
>
>What they probably have is a separate company set up to do their
>manufacturing. Companies do this for financial, liability, marketing,
>and co-branding reasons. But under the hood of that "separate"
>company is really Kettle Foods brands. The history of the company
>indicates they have been very in control of all their worldwide
>manufacturing facilities from the get-go.
>
>> I've always assumed that Doritos (Frito-Lay) made the TJ's taco chips,
>> or whatever the exact name is. TJ's chips have far fewer chemical
>> names on the ingredients but taste great. So maybe it's someone else
>> after all?
>
>There are hundreds of food manufacturing, bottling, and co-packaging
>companies that only exists to make other brands. They actually have
>no brand of their own and package their foods not just for store
>brands, but for lots of name brands, too. You just never hear of
>these companies because they're never mentioned on any labels.
>
>Frito-Lay of course does most of their own manufacturing, and probably
>does co-branding as well. All large food manufacturers do this
>because it lessens the competition.
>
>-sw

Plus it's been pretty much the TJ's model that they don't actually
make anything at all ... though I don't know if that's 100% true even
today, they're big enough that they could start.

J.