The Major Brands Behind Sam's Club's Member's Mark Products

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Sam's Wholesale Club, as it was called at the time, first opened in 1983, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Only four years later there were almost 50 locations and 1 million members pledged to the Walmart wholesaler. It was in 1998 that Sam's Club debuted its private-label brand Member's Mark. Not the first nor only private-label at the retail chain when it emerged, Member's Mark has become its most prominent — particularly due to a 2017 consolidation that saw 20 other propriety Sam's Club brands get swallowed up under the Member's Mark label.

The folks at Sam's Club have been committing to the invigoration, refreshment, and revision of Member's Mark since 2020, initiating and reworking over 1,200 products under its exclusive line. This led to a relaunch in 2022 for the brand, one that has proved fruitful: Member's Mark constitutes about one-third of Sam's Club's revenue, to the tune of almost $30 billion in annual sales.

And like many private-labels there are not-so-secret, secret brands — some big-time — behind the actual items boasting the Member's Mark sticker. Costco does it, Aldi does it, Sam's Club's parent company Walmart does it too. But in Member's Mark's case, who are these companies doing Sam's Club's uncredited work? Let's take a deeper dive into some of the products — from vodka to baby formula, grated cheese to pet food — and the major names behind their making. Here are nine of the companies behind the Member's Mark label.

Nearly 95 million American homes contain a pet of some kind. Many of those households contain dogs or cats or both and, as such, require a hardy supply of food. And when any "hardy supply" is involved, a wholesale retail chain is the perfect supplier. Enter Sam's Club and its Member's Mark pet food inventory. We're talking huge bags of sustenance for Fido or Felix, and Mid America Pet Food is the one actually manufacturing some of it.

We know this because of a 2024 voluntary recall by the company — which was a follow-up to two other recalls from the previous year — regarding salmonella contamination. People who had bought particular Member's Mark varieties of pet food were advised to securely throw certain batches of food away.

Founded back in 2007, Mid America Pet Food is based in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, where it manufactures its own pet food, most notably for the Victor brand in its portfolio. But the company also specializes in supplying private-labels, hence the Member's Mark partnership. We can't say that all the pet food sold under the label is made by Mid America, but a quick perusal of Victor brands can allow one to extrapolate which Sam's Club offering it's behind.

Hey, babies need sustenance too, not just dogs and cats. And with child care costs of all kinds being what they are, discount infant formula is the least that can be offered to the American parent. Thankfully, Sam's Club and other big retail chains often have bulk, affordable options in this regard — and the Member's Mark infant formula has an established name behind it.

That name is Perrigo, and thankfully such intelligence has nothing to do with a recall. Rather, Perrigo sponsored a blog entry on the Farmer's Wife Rambles website where it plainly stated that the international company is the one who makes Member's Mark Infant Formula. The partnership has helped to make the formula an affordable necessity for many parents.

Perrigo itself goes back a long time, founded by a Michigan general-store owner (and apple-dryer, of course) named Luther Perrigo in 1887. In fact, he was probably one of the first purveyors to embrace the notion of private labels, putting his store's name on health products from elsewhere. Today it is Perrigo doing the same for Sam's Club. And to this date, there's been no need for a recall by the producer – unlike some other baby food manufacturers.

Kentucky has what you would call a reputation, for producing some of the most defining booze in America. And in Louisville, there's a specific alcohol-barn that Sam's Club calls upon to deliver the libationary goods. The Member's Mark vodka isn't just any old vodka from any old distiller. No, it's I.W.A. Distilling that takes care of grandpa's old cough medicine for the warehouse chain.

Turns out I.W.A. Distilling has found time to make Member's Mark vodka (according to the product label). Now, I.W.A. Distilling can be easily confused with IWA, which is International Wine Associates. Or, for that matter, another IWA in the alcohol industry: the Irish Whiskey Association.

But, maybe I.W.A. Distilling prefers to be lost in the shuffle. Hey, some companies just like to do business without people getting all up in its business. And as long as you have a client like lucrative Walmart, who really cares who knows it (even those complaining about shopping at Sam's Club).

The cost of coffee adds up. Not just when you're stopping at your local coffee house en route to work (realizing at the end of the month that you spent the equivalent of five gym memberships on a daily cold brew). But retail coffee — whole beans and ground – have spiked in price. For those better than the rest of us, who don't need coffee to enact their lives, this won't matter one bit. All good. This isn't for you.

But for cup of Joe-ers who get their coffee via Member's Mark (even if it's not always considered a Sam's Club purchase that's worth it), it helps to know that it seems Westrock Coffee Company is behind the caffeine– along with Walmart's Great Value brand, among others. Based in Arkansas, Westrock is known as "the brand behind the brands." Due to the company's long-standing clientele and long-reaching sources (over a million smallholder farms in 35 countries), it's estimated that Westrock is responsible for 20 million cups of coffee per day in the world.

It should probably come as no surprise that Walmart would enlist the services of Westrock, being that both are headquartered in The Razorback State (the former in Bentonville, the latter in North Little Rock). It's the billion-dollar, retailer-supplier equivalent of asking your neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar.

Unless Sam's Club workers are raiding local tap water under the cover of darkness, somebody has to supply the retailer with this foundational liquid. For the Member's Mark brand, that's a company that takes its name from one of the most famous water places in the world (not to mention a setting for brave, daredevil barrel-jumpers).

That company is Niagara Bottling, LLC. And, despite its name, the company was neither founded, nor is it based anywhere near, the famous namesake falls on the border of Canada and New York. Irvine, California is where the entity originated back in 1963 and its current headquarters is in Diamond Bar, California.

And it's not only plain water that Niagara provides for Member's Mark and others (including Kirkland, Good & Gather, Wellesley Farms, and Walgreens' Nice! brand). It's also the sparkling stuff and sports drinks as well. These relationships made Niagara, as of 2017, the largest private-label water supplier in the U.S.

Spices are one of those shopping list items that a customer either ponders on very deliberately or barely pays any mind to as they snatch the basic names from the shelves: salt, pepper, oregano, powdered garlic, maybe cardamom, perhaps a rosemary. And that type of shopper would ideally like to grab large containers so that they don't have to think about replacing them for months or years. That's where a warehouser like Sam's Club comes in clutch. And that's where a company like B&G Foods comes in clutch for Sam's Club.

B&G Foods started out life in 1889 New York City, as Bloch & Guggenheimer. It made pickles, relishes, and condiments, selling product to local grocers. The company saw steady growth and success over the course of the 20th century, but it was in 2013 and 2015 that things went to another level. B&G first purchased Pirate Brands. Then Green Giant and Le Sueur was the follow-up buy (for a cool $765 million). By 2024 the brand was bringing in around $2 billion a year in profits, thanks to a portfolio that also included Cream of Wheat, Ortega, Crisco, Dash, and Maple Grove Farms.

Originally, B&G seasoning was being sold as Tones in Sam's Club. Eventually the Member's Mark label was thrown on instead even though nothing else about the formulation ostensibly changed. This was probably part of the overall purging of non-Member's Mark labels for Member's Mark products. The aggrandizement of the house brand has been a big focus for Sam's Club, especially as it's set to increase membership prices.

Buffalo-based Rich Products Corporation is one of those mega national food companies with its hands in a lot of what we put in our mouths (which sounds way grosser than initially intended). The Western New York entity stewards formidable brands like SeaPak and Carvel, among others. But it's also been entrusted by Sam's Club to manufacture frozen dinner products under the Member's Mark label.

That trust has been tested, not once, but twice. There was a 2018 recall of meatball products due to listeria, which included Member's Mark Casa Di Bertacchi Italian-style beef meatballs. Then again in 2023, Rich's forgot to declare egg and soy as ingredients in Member's Mark breaded mozzarella sticks — leaving those with allergies vulnerable.

It's unclear what other items Rich's makes for Member's Mark, but the fact that those two recalled offerings happened several years apart certainly means there are others in the Sam's Club inventory. Hopefully those products fall in line with the wholesaler's renewed commitment to cleaner private-label ingredients in 2026.

The Ambriola Company is a major American cheese distributor and importer of Italian cheese products, bought by Italian producer Auricchio in 2015. And so it reasons that the likes of Sam's Club would contract the corporation to fill out its Member's Mark cheese offerings, specifically the grated kind. Yet, it was an ugly recall that revealed this symbiotic business relationship.

And once again it was listeria at the root of the recall. This 2025 recall effected not only 1.5-pound bags of Member's Mark grated cheese, but Ambriola, Locatelli, Pinna, and Boar's Head versions of the stuff as well — since these brands are all owned by the same parent entity.

Ambriola has been importing cheese from The Boot since 1921, long before the company was bought by the even-older Auricchio (established in 1877). It's probably more than a lucky guess to say that any imported Italian cheese you find under the Member's Mark label is provided by the West Caldwell, New Jersey-based importer.

Germany has its hands all over American grocery shopping habits, from Aldi to Lidl to, um, Lidl and Aldi. Still, those are two big ones (and it's not as if Spain or Luxembourg has any big stateside grocers to their name). But this Teutonic touch extends to one of the companies that concocts products for the Member's Mark cadre. Doehler Dry Ingredient Solutions, LLC – aka Dӧhler in its European motherland — is a major supplier for the Sam's Club private labels, specifically in the realm of dried fruit.

We have listeria to again thank for this information (which is about all we can thank it for). A recall by Doehler in 2025 saw Member's Mark freeze-dried fruit variety packs get taken off Sam's Club shelves and tossed into Sam's Club members' trash cans due to the potential for foodborne illness. The recall from the Cartersville, Georgia-based wing of the multinational was for 42 states and Puerto Rico, making it a pretty wide-ranging problem.

The freeze-dried fruit packs are still being sold, so it's safe to assume things have worked out between Doehler and Sam's Club. Which is good, because parents know how crucial those snacks are for the little ones — not to mention what great ingredients they are for pancakes, as per Alex Guarnaschelli.