New research details skyrocketing acceptance of value lines, private label products
- 59% of dealer and aftermarket operations and 58% of suppliers report increased value line sales volumes over the past 12 months.
- Nearly half of those responders experienced growth exceeding 10% year-over-year, far outpacing broader aftermarket growth.
- Post-COVID supply chain crisis and freight recession surged acceptance rates, but value lines and private label brands have been slowly gaining market share for years.
Customer preferences are everchanging, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t trends. And today, aftermarket customers are trending toward value lines.
According to a summer 2026 survey of Trucks, Parts, Service readers, 59% of dealer and aftermarket operations and 58% of OEM and component suppliers that support value lines, private labels and/or non-branded aftermarket parts have experienced a rise in sales volumes of those products over the past 12 months.
For nearly half of these responders, volumes on these lines are up more than 10% year over year, far outpacing volume reductions among other responders and the unremarkable yet positive growth of the aftermarket at large.
Yet value lines and private labels aren’t new.
Supporting diverse product portfolios to meet all customer quality and price point expectations have defined aftermarket success for decades, and private labels have existed across the auto and truck sectors for nearly a century.
Today’s continued shift toward various value lines across the medium- and heavy-duty aftermarket has less to do with new entrants than it does changing perceptions among truck owners of these lines, and ROI opportunities they present.
Being a first-fit, factory installed brand remains an advantage, but one of diminishing returns.
In this three-part research series, backed by custom industry research and more than a dozen in-depth interviews, TPS will investigate the market dynamics strengthening value line acceptance, the categories where these components thrive and the impact value line adoption is having on brand perceptions across the parts business.
What market pressures are driving value line acceptance?
The supply chain disruption of 2021 is one culprit. As the freight market recovered from the pandemic, demand outpaced supply chain deliverability across the market. Dealers and distributors were forced to add vendors to keep products on shelves.
“What we stock has changed since COVID. We were kind of set with our manufacturers before that,” remembers Don Kelley, president at Lake Charles Truck Equipment.
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Kelley says when the supply chain crunch first hit, he worked with his vendors and other distributors to source product. But as it progressed adding vendors became required.
Lake Charles wasn’t willing to accept lower quality products, Kelley says, but as he considered other vendors he found some that met his standards.
David Dabasinskas, parts general manager at Southport Truck Group, had a similar experience. Pre-pandemic, Southport rarely required more than two vendor tiers for a product line. But when the supply chain broke down “I was into Tier 6 vendors,” he says.
Dabasinskas returned most of his purchasing to Southport’s top vendors as they clawed back to normal operations. But he says some vendors that gained a foothold during the crisis proved valuable and have remained.
The multi-year freight recession helped too. As carrier revenues fell beginning amid shrinking freight volumes, customers became more open to price-conscious parts. And with more of these products suddenly available, they had more options to test and adopt.
“I think during COVID [fleets] were more broadly willing to try private label lines, and once they realized the performance was where they expected it to be, they gained confidence,” says T.J. O’Hanlon, product marketing director at International Trucks.
International's Fleetrite private label brand has more than 10,000 active SKUs and features an 18-month parts and labor warranty.International Trucks
International’s private label brand Fleetrite was created in 1969 and has long been marketed as a value solution for second and third owners, or customers of other brands. O’Hanlon says that remains the case, but believes the exposure the line received post-pandemic has strengthened its reputation among other buyers too.
Paccar’s TRP has experienced a similar boost.
“During the pandemic, strong TRP parts availability helped customers navigate supply chain challenges and keep vehicles on the road,” Paccar Parts tells TPS. “Acceptance of TRP as a private label is built on the importance of having a trusted parts partner and, post COVID, customers increasingly recognize the true cost of a part extends beyond its purchase price to its impact on uptime and operations.”
[RELATED: Fleets prioritize uptime over brand-name parts sourcing]
Dave Cannon, vice president, Aftermarket, at Fort Garry Industries, agrees private label and value line adoption is on the rise. But Cannon stops short of attributing the market shift solely to the pandemic and its aftershocks.
“This goes back before COVID,” he says.
Cannon says there’s always been a segment of the vehicle owner base that is motivated solely by price. That’s why good-better-best product offerings were created in the first place. Pre-pandemic, Cannon says the percentage of customers operating that way was smaller but still growing. COVID increased the pace; it didn’t originate the change. Value lines were already widely available.
That assessment is confirmed by TPS survey data.
Among vendor survey responders who reported producing private label or non-branded products, 89% of them stated they have offered the lines for six years or more, and 60% for 11 years or more.
Please click here to read ‘Where value lines are gaining market share,’ Part II of our industry report on the growing accepting and proliferation of value line and private label brands.
