Private brand sales continue to strengthen, showing strong growth in the first half of 2022. According to IRI, store brands gained 8.7% in dollar sales while national brands increased 5.2% vs the same period a year ago.
The half-year numbers were powered in part by the most recent monthly performance. Store brand dollar sales grew by 10.9% in June, more than double the national brand increase of 5%. The figures were as of June 12.
In June, 15 of 17 departments showed store brand dollar growth, with only beauty and tobacco showing declines. Liquor and beverages showed the strongest growth with 28.3% and 20.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, refrigerated (18.3%), produce (10.2%) and the frozen department (9.0%) all showed solid growth.
This is the sixth straight monthly 2022 report from IRI that indicate dollar gains for private brands, but growth in the past 4 months is especially impressive. In March store brand dollar growth was 9.1%, followed by 9.8% growth in both April and May, and concluding with plus 10.9% in June. That is an average of 9.9% over four months and 10.2% in the past 3 months.
On average, overall dollar share for the first six months of 2022 came in at 18.1%, a strong increase over the 17.7% share in 2021 for store brands in all the major channels, according to IRI. Overall unit sales were an average of 20% for the first half of 2022, an increase over the 19.6% share in 2021.
While unit sales continue to decline for both national and store brands, both in June and for the first half of the year, store brands are showing better sales than their branded rivals. In June, national brands suffered a 5% decrease from a year ago, while private brands came in at minus 1.7%. For the first half of 2022, private brands averaged -2% unit decline while national brands had a -4% drop.
The most recent statistics are available for members at plma.com through the IRI Unify section. Members will find information on 317 categories and 967 subcategories, as well as statistics from 17 departments.