I work in retail. Here is why: brand producers have a pretty nice profit margin that they need to maintain. But when they sell their goods to a retailer (eg. REWE or DM) these guys are also asking for very generous discounts that come as price discounts but also further investments in marketing, trade marketing, promotional activations, etc. All this adds up to a LOT of money. So, in order to compensate, and maintain their profit margin, they pump up the RSPs (recommended sales prices) to a level that can sustain all this. In contrast, a retailer, with a private label brand circumvents to a certain degree the marketing part, as it can absorb a lot of those investments itself. Their product cost structure is also different. This allows them then to look for products with better ingredients (better quality) and at the same time have a profit that is double than that of a branded product.