Coop, Consilia and Conad have been named as the Italian retailers offering the best quality private label products, a study has found.
The findings are from Italian consumer magazine Il Salvagente, and follow a four-year testing period that commenced in May 2015.
Hundreds of tests were performed on oil, pasta, tomato puree, breakfast products, meat, cold cuts, cheeses, confectionery and dozens of other food types, as part of the study.
Testing Process
Using a yardstick ranging from poor (1) to excellent (6), the magazine judged the average quality (excluding price) of the private label products of three discounter chains (Todis, Eurospin and Lidl) and eight of the large-scale retail banners (Coop, Simply, Consilia – Gruppo SUN, Pam, Conad, Esselunga, Auchan and Carrefour).
The study found varying degrees of quality across all banners, regardless of their position in the market.
Quality And Convenience
Elsewhere, according to a Nomisma study for the Osservatorio Marca 2019, 55% of Italian consumers buy private label products as they believe store brands guarantee "convenience for the same quality", while one third point to a “traced, certified and controlled supply chain”.
Last year, turnover from private label sales in the large-scale retail trade in Italy amounted to €10.3 billion, accounting for 19.3% of total sales; 2.5% more than in 2017.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
