Store brand or major brand: the score battle

Do you pay for a brand, or for nutrition? Between a major brand product and its store-brand equivalent, the price gap often reaches 40%. We compared their PawScores.

The result, straightforward

Companino outranks five heavily advertised national brands, including Whiskas and Pedigree. Its best product reaches 81/100 — the highest score in this entire panel.

Why it's not all that surprising

Store brands don't manufacture their own food: they have it produced by the same factories as national brands, often on the same lines. What they don't fund is television advertising and sales force.

The PawScore sees none of that. It reads a composition, analytical levels, and an additive list. A marketing budget appears nowhere in the calculation.

The limits of this reading

The store-brand sample is smaller. 16 products against 51 for Pedigree: the Companino average is more sensitive to a few good products. We're continuously expanding the catalog.

Consistency matters too. Store-brand specification sheets are renegotiated more often, and a composition can change from batch to batch without visible packaging change. Scanning the package you actually have in hand remains the only reliable verification.

Availability is not guaranteed. A store product can disappear from shelves, and switching an animal's diet abruptly requires a seven- to ten-day transition.

What to take from this

Price is not an indicator of nutritional quality, and the name on the box even less. The gap within a brand often exceeds the gap between brands: at Royal Canin, 27 points separate the lowest-scoring product from the highest.

The useful reflex isn't therefore "which brand to buy" but "which product". Compare two products, explore by brand, or scan the barcode in the aisle.

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SokoScan Labs analysis. No partnership influences the scores.