Sales data compiled for the Private Label Manufacturers Association’s 2016 International Private Label Yearbook shows that the market share for retailer brands increased in 13 of the 20 countries tracked by Nielsen.
“The latest Nielsen statistics reveal clearly that 2015 was a good year for retailer brands in Europe,” PLMA President Brian Sharoff said. “There were gains for private label in both large and small retail markets as well as in all geographic regions.”
Volume share climbed to 46 per cent in the UK, reaching its highest level there since 2010. Prospects look good for even more gains as private label plays an increasingly important role in the fierce competition between supermarkets and the discounters.
Private-label share is growing again in France despite the best efforts by the major brands to stop it through costly price promotions. Volume share climbed by more than 35 per cent to its highest level since 2012.
In Germany, where supermarkets have battled discounters for decades, market share for retailer brands stayed above 40 per cent for the eighth consecutive year. Private label now accounts for four of every 10 products sold in Austria, and in Switzerland market share has stayed at more than 50 per cent for more than a decade.
Scandinavian countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden all posted market share gains.
The Nielsen data indicates that retailer brands have made extraordinary progress in central and eastern Europe. Volume share has climbed above 30 per cent in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, while private-label share in Poland is now nearly four times as high as when Nielsen began compiling statistics there in 2003.
There have also been gains among the Mediterranean countries. In Spain, market share stayed above 50 per cent for the fourth consecutive year, while shoppers in Italy, Greece and Turkey keep putting more private-label products in their baskets. In Portugal, market share remains above 40 per cent.