Private Label Growth Outshines National Brands

Private label is dramatically beating out national brands in the mass, club and dollar channels and is proving to be a viable way for retailers to compete with the likes of Amazon. 

Dollar volume of private label in the mass retail channel grew 41% over the past five years compared to a gain of only 7.4% for national brands, according to a report from the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) based on Nielsen data. Additionally, store brand volume grew 33.2% over the same time frame, while national brands gained 1%. 

Photograph courtesy of PLMA/Nielsen

In 2018, private label dollar sales increased 9.8% and unit volume gained 10.6%, while national brands lost 1.3% in units. 

However, the mass merchandise channel saw greater private brand growth, with total sales in the mass channel reaching $314 billion vs. $330 billion in supermarkets. 

Store brands dollar market share in all outlets gained half a point, up to 18.5%, while unit share increased 0.6 points to 22.3%.

In 2018, store brands sales across all outlets measured by Nielsen reached $128.6 billion, up from $123.1 billion, while unit sales moved up to $46.2 billion from $44.8 billion in 2017.