What Brands Are Behind Aldi's Famous Mama Cozzi's Pizza?

As you walk down an aisle in an Aldi, you'll probably notice that the vast majority of products aren't name brands, but private, store-brand labels. In the frozen foods department, you might spot Mama Cozzi's pizzas, Aldi's exclusive pizza brand. Mama Cozzi's name appears on dozens of items, but Aldi doesn't actually manufacture all of those pizzas. That's the responsibility of two Illinois-based factories: Nation Pizza & Foods and Richelieu Foods.  

Although Nation Pizza and Richelieu are both companies hiding behind Aldi's own-brand products, neither is a household name in its own right. The bulk of business for both companies is producing branded items for others. Richelieu specializes in producing private-label goods, while Nation Pizza has manufactured products for food giant Nestlé since 2003. Nestlé actually acquired Nation in 2020.

Aldi, like most grocers, is fairly secretive about the identities of its private-label manufacturers, but one way to tell which companies make certain products is when a recall hits. In 2015, the USDA announced that Nation Pizza had recalled more than 59,000 pounds of Mama Cozzi's pepperoni pizza due to the presence of soy, an undeclared allergen. Another Mama Cozzi's recall affected Richelieu-made pizzas in 2026, over concerns that the dry milk powder in its crust was potentially contaminated with Salmonella.

A closer examination of the business operations of Aldi's pizza suppliers reveals why grocery chains prefer to keep their manufacturers' names on the down-low. Several competing frozen pizza brands sell pies that come from the exact same factory. Nation Pizza & Foods' Schaumburg, Illinois, plant manufactures Mama Cozzi pizzas alongside ones for DiGiorno, while Richelieu makes store-brand pizzas for Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Albertsons, among others. 

Nation Pizza and Richelieu aren't alone — both tell the story of private label manufacturing across the country. Generally, there are two ways store-brand items are made: either by the same producers as name-brand items (that's how Nation works) or by producers that specialize in store-brand products (like Richelieu). Most food retailers lack production facilities, so they rarely manufacture their own items. One exception to this standard is Costco, which sources its rotisserie chickens from a company-owned poultry plant.

A 2023 study in the Journal of Marketing found that more than 70% of private-label suppliers also produced name-brand items. That study took place in Spain, but involved many multinational food producers. Manufacturing store-brand items alongside name brands can help producers like Nestlé-owned Nation Pizza get more of its products in stores. For stores like Aldi that don't typically sell name brands, partnering with store-brand specialists like Richelieu can give the company's goods space on the shelf they wouldn't otherwise have.