Case Study: Paper Store Brand reinvents product quality with UL Solutions

Reinventing a Paper Store Brand

Paper Store Brand, a leading retailer, was struggling with poor customer feedback on its paper towels and bath tissue price-point products because quality had fallen below equivalent national retail brands. To improve product quality and re-evaluate suppliers, the company partnered with UL Solutions and used its Technically Advanced Quality Assurance (TAQA) Program to benchmark products against national retail brand standards.

UL Solutions conducted side-by-side microbiological, chemical, physical, performance, and sensory testing to score each supplier’s submissions and identify quality gaps. The results showed wide variation, including one bathroom tissue supplier scoring a 10 and the current supplier’s “new” submission scoring only 8.0, proving the reformulation did not improve quality. Using these findings, the retailer could make data-driven supplier decisions, understand acceptable tradeoffs, and establish a golden-sample specification to keep product quality consistent over time.