Italian consumers saved €1.8 billion last year by opting for private label products over big brands, according to a report by Adem Lab based on IRI data.
Among those who purchase private label brands, 49 per cent do so with high frequency and 40 per cent with medium frequency. Furthermore, 35 per cent of those who buy private label do so almost exclusively, and 11 per cent only buy from own brand ranges.
Nearly three quarters of those surveyed (74 per cent) said they choose private label goods for their perceived good quality-to-price ratio, while 72 per cent choose them for convenience.
However, private label sales in Italian grocery stores have been falling for the past three years, reaching 18.2 per cent in September 2015, down from 18.4 per cent in the previous year.
Private label sales dropped in both hypermarkets and small retailers in 2015 by 3.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively, but grew in supermarkets by 1.5 per cent.
In Italian discount stores, where private label sales have been steadily increasing since 2011, the own brand market share grew to 53.9 per cent.
On the other hand, PL’s share in discount stores has been constantly rising since 2011, arriving to 53.9 per cent in September 2015 (51.5% in 2014).
The categories that experienced the most significant growth in private label were Premium, which rose by 13.1 per cent and Organic, which saw a sales increase of 10.8 per cent.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
