PRIVATE LABEL: A DEPENDABLE ADJUNCT

Candy is no blockbuster when it comes to private label in supermarkets, but retail brands are a fixture in a few categories.

logged $32.3 million in sales and held 5.3% of the category for the 52 weeks ended March 12, 1994, according to data from Nielsen North America, Chicago.

Other categories in which store brands hold a stake include marshmallows, with 35.5% of dollar volume in the category, and lollipops, with an 8% share.

The presence of private-label candy in mass merchandise chains and drug chains is also worth noting, especially given its prominence among other store-brand grocery items in those two trades.

The Private Label Manufacturers Association, in its 1994 Private Label Yearbook, reports that in mass merchandise outlets the category of candy/mints sold its way last year into the top 20 private-label categories by dollar volume and unit volume in mass merchants, with $28 million in sales. That's the top 20 of all categories, food and nonfood.

n drug chains, candy/mints ranked sixth among all private-label categories in unit volume. The category did not make either of the top 20 lists for supermarkets, on the other hand.

The dominance of super-strong brands, as well as the increasingly close working relationships between traditional branded candy suppliers and the supermarket chains they supply, may help explain the relatively weak position of private label in many candy categories.