Store Brands Continue to Thrive, per IRI
Sales Over the First 11 Months Up 10.6%
Annual Total is Expected to Set a New Record
As 2022 comes to a close, store brand sales in the U.S. continue their steady gains.
Over the first 11 months of the year, dollar sales increased by 10.6%, nearly twice the growth of national brands, which were up 5.8%, according to IRI.
In the month of November alone, store brand sales improved by 12.4% compared to the same period in 2021, while national brands were up 7.4%. So far this year, store brand dollar share is at 18.5%, unit share is 20.1%.
Based on the data, PLMA is projecting full year 2022 sales of store brands to reach $221 billion, which would be a $21 billion increase over 2021 and a new annual record.
The growth is spread across the store.
Looking at the 17 individual food and nonfood departments that IRI tracks for PLMA, over the trailing 52 weeks ending November 27, store brand sales were up in 16 of them, including double digit increases in nine departments: Beverages, Deli prepared, Liquor, Refrigerated, Floral, Bakery, Produce, General food and Deli meat. Only in the Tobacco department were sales off.
In the two largest departments for store brands, Refrigerated with $47 billion in sales, and General Food with $38 billion, the increases over the 52-week period were 15.3% and 12.3%, respectively.
Store brands also outperformed national brands in terms of unit sales for the first 11 months of the year; they were down slightly at minus 1.3% while national brands dropped more than three times as much, off 4.3%. For the month of November, store brands were nominally even at minus 0.8% while national brands gave up 4%. Such disparate results in unit sales are often seen as an indicator of shoppers switching to store brands from national brands.