Private labels still growing to some extent

The trend towards more private labels for food and care products for pets continued during 2009 in Europe, with a few exceptions. With regard to tonnage, the market share of private labels rose in nearly all countries. In Austria, retailers’ own food and care brands had a market share of 59.8 per cent for tonnage, equivalent to an increase of 1.7 per cent compared with the previous year. The growth of private label for dry dog food accounted for a considerable share of this increase. Growth according to quantity amounted to 10.2 per cent in this line of business, rising from 51.2 per cent to 61.4 per cent. 2009 yielded even better progress for retailers’ brands in Spain, where private label pet food and pet care products achieved a market share by tonnage of 55.8 per cent. This signifies an increase of 3.2 per cent compared with the previous year. Cat food private labels made bigger gains there with regard to the share of overall tonnage, increasing by 3.5 per cent to 52.5 per cent. In Germany, too, consumers followed the trend and opted for lower-cost private label products. The market share of pet food and pet care private label products rose with regard to tonnage by 2.3 per cent from 64.2 per cent in 2008 to 66.5 per cent in 2009. Private labels made the biggest inroads in the fish food segment, where their share of total tonnage increased by 7 per cent (2008) to 23.1 per cent. Private label manufactures only suffered a downturn with regard to bird sand products, where their share of overall tonnage fell by 1.1 per cent to 54 per cent (2008: 55.1 per cent). On the other hand, private labels increased their market share (tonnage) of the cat litter segment from 65.7 per cent in 2008 to 68.7 per cent in 2009. Portugal sells less and earns more Positive developments for private label manufacturers were also to be observed in the Nordic countries. The share of tonnage of private labels in the pet food and pet care segment in Denmark rose from 46 per cent in 2008 to 48.6 per cent in 2009. Growth in Norway was more modest, from 32.3 per cent in 2008 to 33.3 per cent in 2009. The PLMA also published figures for Finland for the first time in the pet food section. Here private label only accounted for 15.9 per cent of tonnage in 2009. The figure was much higher for Belgium, where private labels accounted for a market share (tonnage) of 58.9 per cent in 2009 for pet food and care products. This was 1.1 per cent greater than in the previous year (2008: 57.8 per…