Who Makes Walmart's Great Value Butter? Rumor Has It This Familiar Brand Does

A shopper's pre-dinner surprise highlighted online speculations about manufacturing products and brand packaging. As one TikTok creator opened packages of Land O' Lakes butter, the buyer was faced with butter sticks wrapped in Walmart's Great Value brand labels. On TikTok, several shoppers are convinced that the butter is in fact the same and that brands and packaging simply drives price differences. "I'm sure Land 'O Lakes makes the Great Value butter and they mixed up the wrappers on the line," wrote a TikTokker. "The amount of people that don't know it all comes from the same factories is INSANE," added another. One commenter on Facebook recalled being informed by a worker that machines would be stopped for labels to be switched and packaging to continue.

Walmart customers appreciate the price point of Great Value products. "Everything is made by some other company and just branded Great Value Sam's choice, etc.," wrote a Redditor. "Never had a problem with Great Value honestly. Especially given the fact that most, if not all Great Value products are made and packaged by their name brand counterparts." Sara Lee has been linked to Great Value White Bread, and Peter Pan has been associated with Great Value Peanut Butter, for example, but it can take some detective work to determine concrete answers.

On Quora, industry insiders revealed that dairy production can change from region to region and which suppliers are available. "Two companies that I know for sure on the East Coast are Land 'O Lakes and Blue Bonnet," the user revealed before adding that brand names would be changed on packaging labels during manufacturing processes. "Great Value is Walmart's private‑label brand; the butter sold under the Great Value name is produced for Walmart by multiple co‑packers rather than a single manufacturer," the user explained. One Facebooker explained that Walmart contracts brands to package Great Value products. "Land 'O Lakes and Great Value are the exact same butter, made in the same factory on the same line, they just switch the labels and packaging," added another. "I worked in a name brand place that also made a generic product. But we would stop to change labels, while the machine operator changed the recipe," chimed in a TikTokker.

To locate details about a specific manufacturer on a package, the names of makers and co-packers are often listed somewhere near the ingredient and nutrition profile. Product codes can also indicate information about particular facilities. Additionally, customer service departments may provide supplier information that correspond to recorded codes. Since Walmart's supplier network changes, however, information may only refer to a specific code and date of product, making sweeping statements difficult to provide — and contributing to the rumors that continue to swirl online.