The increased penetration of the retail chains' own branded goods in the Swedish food market has led to a disrupted balance of power at the market, and worse conditions for the suppliers. Further, this has forced the suppliers to overlook their strategies in order to be able to respond to the fierce competition, which is crucial in order to survive in today's market. Several studies in this field have identified various defence strategies that companies behind suppliers' branded goods can use to protect themselves against the retail chains' own branded goods. Furthermore, the research indicates that the strategy "more value for money" is the most suitable strategy for this purpose. However, statements regarding added value in both academic research and in practice give a very unclear and vague picture of what added value really means. Despite the extensive research on the competitive situation, few studies focus on researching how companies behind the suppliers' branded goods can create added value or which activities are the most effective for this purpose.

With background to the authors observations and the collected knowledge regarding the competitive situation, the authors have chosen to study how the suppliers work with adding value to their products, which leads to the study's research question: How do companies behind the suppliers' branded goods work to add value to their products in order to strengthen their brands in the Swedish food market? 

The study was conducted with a qualitative method, in which an abductive research approach was used. The survey's structure has been of an intensive nature and the empirical result is based on telephone interviews with five different food companies, active in Sweden where they sell food products to grocery stores with competing private label goods. The companies that participated in the interviews for this study were: Löfbergs, Oatly, Loka, Pungpinan and Saltå Kvarn.

The studys' findings confirm the theory that added value is something that must be perceived by consumers rather than being objectively determined by a company. The study also shows that the added value that companies work with is: the brand, design,packaging, making it easier for the consumer, values and perceived quality. The authors summarize how these added values relate to each other in a model presentedin the result.