Store Brands Marketplace
Retailers Today Are Brand Builders
Store brands have moved from just another item on the shelf to whole lines competing head to head with national brands and even setting the pace in some categories. Retailers today are brand builders and PLMA's 2026 Private Label Show will provide convenient, one stop shopping for all players in the industry.
There is trend-forward innovation happening in areas such as high protein and performance driven products, better-for-you, clean-label, and globally inspired flavors and ingredients. Retailers are creating unique offerings that are presented as exclusive to them and meet and, in many cases, exceed chains' goals for enhanced competitive differentiation. Look for these and other emerging products on the Show floor.
Store Brands Reach Unprecedented Levels of Penetration
Store brands in 2025 increased nearly three times the rate of national brands, surging 3.3% vs a gain of 1.2% for national brands. In unit sales, the head to head difference was comparable. Store brands advanced 0.6% while national brands declined -0.6%. That performance set all-time highs of 21.3% in dollar share and 23.5% in unit share. In all U.S. outlets, store brand annual revenue was a record $282.8 billion, an increase of more than $9 billion over 2024. Store brand unit volume was up 434.3 million to 68.7 billion, another record.
Gains Occurred Across Multiple Product Departments
Store Brands Are Ubiquitous
Drilling down, store brand expansion occurred in a majority of categories. The products racked up unit sales gains in 55% of the 165 food categories in which they were sold in 2025 and enjoyed dollar sales improvement in 59% of them. Among the 165 nonfood categories that offered store brands, unit sales growth was recorded in 41% and there were dollar sales increases in 47%. Store brands are ubiquitous. In 2025 they were available in 97% of the 342 food and nonfood categories that Circana tracks monthly for PLMA.