The Brands Behind 10 Popular Great Value Products At Walmart

It's no secret that private labels at bargain chains are often powered by bigger brands. Walmart's private label brand, Great Value, can be found throughout its grocery section. Since Walmart doesn't have meat processing or produce packaging plants in the back of each store, all of those groceries have to come from suppliers, who were already manufacturing those products anyway. What that means for you, the customer, is that you can often buy name-brand quality at lower prices.

We're big fans of private-label products here at Daily Meal. There are so many excellent Great Value foods for less than five bucks, because private label products are great for shoppers on a budget, and the quality is generally pretty solid, too. You may want to check out our ranking of 21 Great Value products to get the scoop on the tastiest stuff Walmart has to offer. If anyone you know is skeptical of Walmart's private label quality, just remember that these big-name brands make what you're buying.

Most famous for butter and margarine, Land O'Lakes partnering with Walmart is not information you'll find on either company's website. People began suspecting a connection, however, when one TikTok video showed a sealed Land O'Lakes box containing sticks of butter wrapped in Great Value paper. That's the kind of factory goof that can't really be swept under the rug. While we can't find official confirmation that the two types of butter are the exact same, there aren't many other conclusions to draw here.

Big brands and big chain stores often keep their partnerships under wraps for a few reasons. For one thing, Land O'Lakes still wants you to buy Land O'Lakes butter at Land O'Lakes prices. Another reason is that if a bigger brand, like Land O'Lakes, is known to package cheaper store-brand products, other retailers might demand lower prices. Brands have to walk a bit of a tightrope, and savvy shoppers can reap the benefits by purchasing private-label products.

One of the most visible names in poultry that isn't Tyson, Perdue sells chicken in just about every conceivable form. Whether you want packages of raw chicken thighs to throw on the grill or some pre-made and breaded chicken tenders to throw in the air fryer, chances are good that this is who you're buying from. Since there are pretty involved factory processes that turn chickens into pre-cooked frozen chicken nuggets, it makes sense that Perdue would lend a helping hand to Great Value. The connection was made explicit during a 2010 recall, when Perdue issued a recall on Great Value frozen chicken nuggets.

Recall announcements are often the most reliable way to spot a partnership between a big brand and a private label. The 2010 recall was due to small pieces of blue plastic being found in the packaging of the Great Value chicken nuggets. No injuries were reported at the time of the recall, but that's a recall that Perdue definitely had to make. Obviously, both Perdue and Great Value recovered. Still, these events give shoppers knowledge beyond whatever that specific recall is about, and can help customers make more informed decisions.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a grocery chain that doesn't carry Tyson chicken products. That includes Walmart, but does that necessarily mean that Tyson is making Great Value products? As with other big brands on this list, Tyson and Walmart do not advertise a partnership. Still, there is plenty of reasonable speculation that Tyson makes some Great Value chicken products. While we can't find official confirmation, the rumors point strongly toward Tyson's involvement with GV.

One Reddit commenter, claiming to be a former Tyson employee, said that their job involved packaging chicken breasts for the company. They explained that, "Once I filled a pallet of about 100 [Tyson] bags I would begin to fill 5 pound bags of Great Value boneless skinless chicken breasts." In other words, they're essentially the same meat. There's also a rumor from inside a Walmart store, with people claiming to be employees also saying that the chicken comes from Tyson, even if it has a Great Value label.

With no direct confirmation, this is still just rumour. Informed rumour, but rumour nonetheless. Don't let these shadows and secrecy make you cynical, though. Some customers have said that they like the Great Value chicken better than Tyson products.

It may seem like an odd name for a big-time baking company, but Bimbo Bakeries is the company behind brands like Sara Lee, Arnold, and Ballpark, and Bimbo's role in making Great Value bread came to light during a 2015 product recall. After a factory light bulb broke, its fragments potentially could have fallen into the bread packaging for several brands. Sara Lee and Nature's Harvest both faced recalls, as did Great Value, Aldi's L'Oven Fresh, and Kroger brand bread. That's right, Walmart is not the only store with a private label benefiting from Bimbo Bakery's manufacturing infrastructure. Bimbo is also one of the brands behind popular Aldi items, making this company a rock star when it comes to producing lower-priced private-label items.

The difference between recipes in Sara Lee and Great Value bread is reportedly minuscule, according to a Reddit comment from someone claiming to be a former Sara Lee employee, who explained, "It would cost too much to change too much between the different brands to be profitable." Still, some may contend that Sara Lee and Great Value bread taste different from one another. What's undeniable, though, is that when you buy a Great Value loaf, you're getting the same amount of bread for considerably less cash. More bread for your bread, as it were.

Krusteaz's flagship product is pancake and waffle mixes, but it also boasts the innovation of the first just-add-water pie crust, way back in 1932. The company advertises itself as being "by makers, for makers," and if you're a maker on a budget? You can probably get away with buying Great Value pancake mix at about seven cents per ounce, as opposed to the Krusteaz stuff at nine cents per ounce, because they're both made by Krusteaz.

In 2022, Continental Foods — which would later change its name to The Krusteaz Co. — issued a recall on Great Value buttermilk pancake and waffle mix. A single lot of the stuff was recalled because of potential contamination with "foreign material," revealing the partnership between Krusteaz and Walmart. Further evidence of the connection between Krusteaz and Great Value pancake mixes came in 2024, when a recall due to possible listeria contamination included both Krusteaz and Great Value products.

Even if you've never heard of Conagra before, you've definitely tasted Conagra products. This is the company behind brands like Slim Jim, Vlasic, Pam, and — as you might've guessed — Great Value. The link between Conagra and Great Value first became apparent during a peanut butter recall in 2007. Salmonella-tainted peanuts somehow got into a factory, and both Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butters were recalled. Whatever mistakes you might be making with peanut butter, your kitchen habits probably never triggered a multi-brand recall. Now, though, you know that you can swap Peter Pan peanut butter for Great Value peanut butter and save a few bucks.

Comparing prices on those two items, a 40-ounce jar of Peter Pan peanut butter sells for just under $6, or around 15 cents per ounce. The same size jar with Great Value labeling is slightly over $4, or about 10 cents per ounce. Those savings add up, and all that changes is the label of the peanut butter in your pantry.

Usually, big brands and private labels are hush-hush about partnerships. Not so with Walmart and Wells Dairy — the question of who makes Great Value ice cream at Walmart is pretty unambiguous. The decades-long partnership between the two is proudly trumpeted from Walmart's website, where Wells Dairy boasts that its ice cream is made in Le Mars, Iowa, lauded as the Ice Cream Capital of the World. If you know Blue Ribbon, Halo Top, Bomb Pop, or Blue Bunny ice cream, then you're familiar with Wells Dairy products, even if you didn't know that the same company is behind every carton of Great Value ice cream.

At the Walmart store we checked, a 48-ounce carton of Blue Bunny vanilla bean ice cream costs $3.87, or around eight cents per ounce, while a 48-ounce carton of Great Value vanilla bean ice cream is $2.97, or about six cents per ounce. According to various people who've tried them, both products taste just fine for how much they cost. Reliable, tasty ice cream at a lower price? Sounds pretty good to us.

The connection between Fisher and Great Value was made clear in 2024, when the parent company of both brands, John B. Sanfilippo & Son, issued a recall for Great Value honey roasted cashews. Great Value is not a brand listed on John B. Sanfilippo & Son's website, but the ubiquitous and popular Fisher is. It seems this was another case of a big company trying to keep its private label partnership secret. Given how expensive nuts can get, it's understandable that John B. Sanfilippo & Son wanted anonymity with regard to Great Value nuts.

There are some really delicious and creative ways to use nuts, but it's easy to forget that they can often be more expensive than chips. If you're shopping for peanuts and pecans and get sticker shock, consider that Fisher and Great Value are likely coming from the exact same place. Fisher dry-roasted sea salt peanuts cost about 23 cents per ounce at Walmart, whereas the same product from Great Value is just 17 cents per ounce, and it comes in a larger container, too.

Another partnership generally kept under wraps, but revealed to the public thanks to legal proceedings, this one wasn't a recall but a lawsuit. In 2023, certain Hefty and Great Value bags were fallaciously marketed as recyclable, and there was a class action lawsuit in response. The parent company of both brands, Reynolds Consumer Products, settled without admitting fault.

Every household needs trash bags, and the only real reason to shell out for a big-name brand is if you're afraid a lower price means lower quality. The price difference for a 40-count pack of these trash bags, though, is not insignificant. Hefty 13-gallon trash bags go for around 22 cents per count, whereas the comparable product from Great Value is around 19 cents per count. The good news is that Great Value trash bags seem to be on par with the name brand, in terms of how well they function. When directly comparing different trash bags, Great Value reportedly outperforms Hefty bags when it comes to preventing leakage and tearing. Maybe there's some shady advertising in this company's past, but at least the less expensive, private-label trash bags work.

Chances are good that you've probably tasted JBS Foods' products, even if you're not familiar with the name. It's the conglomerate behind Black Angus Beef, Country Pride, and Blue Ribbon Beef — and also, it turns out, some Great Value meats. In 2022, JBS issued a recall for Great Value black forest ham, confirming its connection with Walmart.

Recall woes haven't been the worst of JBS's PR problems. A far more scandalous story surfaced in 2021, when an investigation revealed that Walmart was selling JBS-produced beef that had been linked to deforestation in Brazil. Walmart and JBS Foods appear to be only strengthening their place in the U.S. beef market, while still selling products whose sourcing is somewhat mysterious. Here, we have an example of the darker side of private label goods. Since Great Value meat is likely to be supplied by JBS Foods, and JBS Foods' products cannot be guaranteed to be ethically sourced, that puts conscious shoppers in something of a bind. Anyone concerned about sustainably sourced meats should think twice before buying Walmart Great Value.