Private label market on a high level

Private label products maintained their positive trend in Europe in 2011 and increased their share of the pet food and care market in most European states once again compared with the previous year. This information comes from the annual report of the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), which contains figures relating exclusively to PL products in the grocery trade. According to the association’s yearbook, containing figures supplied by the Nielsen market research company, retailers’ brands increased in terms of volume in nine of the thirteen European countries studied. A decline in the PL sector was only observed in the Czech Republic, Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Netherlands and Norway only suffered a slight deficit with regard to tonnage, with both countries experiencing a decline of 0.4 per cent compared with the previous year to 27.8 per cent for tonnage in the Netherlands in 2011 and 33.1 per cent in Norway. Switzerland suffered a bigger loss in the volume share of pet food and care with a decline of 1.6 per cent to 54 per cent for tonnage in 2011. The decline in tonnage in the Czech Republic compared with the previous year was 1.1 per cent to 50.3 per cent. While a large number of the remaining European countries studied recorded slight gains of between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent in PL products, the published statistics, which do not include the key markets of Great Britain and France, revealed three undisputed leaders in this market segment. Portugal, with 71.4 per cent for tonnage and growth of 1.4 per cent compared with 2010, had the highest share of retailers’ brands in the PLMA’s statistics. In second place was Spain, where the market share of PL products increased from 68 per cent for tonnage in 2010 to 68.2 per cent in 2011. Germany came third. Here the share of private label rose by 3.9 per cent to 67.3 per cent for tonnage. Sales volume increases The mostly small changes in private label volume share are largely reflected in the sales figures of the European countries, although there are a few exceptions here too. The Czech Republic’s loss of volume share was balanced out by an improvement in the volume of sales. Sales figures for PL products here increased by 1.7 per cent to 34.6 per cent. Spain also saw an improvement, with a rise in sales from 47.6 per cent in 2010 to 49.5 per cent in 2011. An upturn was observed in the Netherlands and Germany too, where the sales figures increased by 1.8 per cent in each case. A…