Store Brands on course for another record year

First and second quarter market shares are historic highs for U.S. supermarkets

NEW YORK - The latest industry sales data suggest that store brands are charting another year of record growth for 2002.

Private label sales in supermarkets grew by 4.3% for the 52-week period ending July 14, 2002 (versus 1.7% for national brands) and accounted for a third of all new dollars flowing into the channel, according to Information Resources, Inc. Private label market share in US supermarkets reached 20.7% in terms of units at the end of the second quarter, up from 20.5% a year ago., while private label dollar market share was 16.3%, up from 15.9%. Both figures are the highest on record for store brands.

Private label sales grew 4.3% on an annual basis, versus 2.1% dollar growth for the supermarket channel as a whole. Total private label sales were up $1.7 billion to $41.6 billion, accounting for 32.1%, or nearly a third of all new dollars flowing into the channel. While the supermarket channel as a whole saw a sales decline in terms of units, private label’s loss was only -0.8% vs. -2.3% for brands.

The new data updates statistics in PLMA’s 2002 Private Label Yearbook, based on IRI InfoScan® reports for the 52 weeks ending December 30, 2001.

Source: www.plma.com