Phil Fitzell was a veteran of trade publications when he accepted an editorial position for a new monthly magazine called Private Label in 1979. From that moment forward he was tireless in chronicling the industry’s rising fortunes, through two decades as editor of Private Label, then Private Label International – nearly another two decades publishing Exclusive Brands – and as author of, not one, two, or three, but four textbooks on retail brands. No one has more thoroughly researched and recorded the origins, history, success, and challenges of the global private label industry.