T. Ozbun
Research expert covering food retail and all food topics for Italy and Brazil
Get in touch with us nowRetail landscape
While sales of private label food and beverage have been growing for some time, both the pandemic and now the ensuing inflation have caused a marked increase in sales. As of the beginning of October 2022, sales had reached 111.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 24 percent from 2019. The share of private label in food and beverage sales has remained relatively flat throughout this period indicating that rather than consumers abandoning branded products to any great extent, private label products have kept pace and not escaped price inflation. Refrigerated foods account for not only the largest edible private label category in supermarkets, but the largest private label supermarket segment overall, totaling over 40 billion U.S. dollars in sales in 2021.Consumer behavior
When consumers have made the switch from branded products to private label, pantry items were the most common category where shoppers were interested in investigating alternatives. This also happens to be the category that most consumers have already purchased private label goods from, with about 67 percent of shoppers indicating they had done so. Unsurprisingly, the most common reason consumers gave for switching to private label brands was better value. Perhaps more surprisingly, many consumers also indicated that private label goods represented a better assortment of options than branded products, showing that retailers have more than discounts as a tool to entice shoppers to choose their brand off the shelf.
