TreeHouse Foods and other private label companies face big COVID challenges

If you’ve been paying attention to any branded consumer goods company’s COVID-era financial returns, you’ll notice a familiar refrain: Things are crazy, but overall, business is going great. Private label companies? Not so much.

Nowhere is this more apparent than TreeHouse Food’s recent investor call.

Before discussing the company’s financial results, CEO Steven Oakland led with a bombshell. The $4.3 billion private label product juggernaut, which makes store brands for…