For most shoppers, store brands represent quality and performance as good as or better than national brands, while offering substantial savings. As a result, store brands have never been more popular.
According to the latest industry statistics, one of every five food or non-food grocery products sold across the U.S. carries the retailer’s name or own brand and was supplied by a store brand manufacturer.
In 2022, store brand sales rose 11.3%, nearly twice the growth of national brands, which were ahead 6.1%. Annual store brand dollar volume increased by $23 billon, setting a new record of $229 billion for sales in all channels.
Store brand dollar share came in at 18.9%, up 0.7 points from 18.2% in 2021; unit share was 20.5%, up 0.6 points from 19.9%. Taking a multiyear view, PLMA reports that by the end of last year, annual store brand dollar sales had increased by nearly 40% a five-year period.
Growth has continued in 2023. Over the first nine months, store brand dollar sales grew by 5.9%, outpacing national brands, which were up 4.3%, says Circana. In unit sales, store brands also outperformed national brands as they were all but flat at minus 0.1% while national brands retreated 2.9%.
PLMA projects that total store brand dollar sales for the year will come in at about $233 billion, which would be an increase of $4 billion over 2022.
Among individual departments tracked by Circana, store brand dollar sales are doing well across the board. Over the past 52 weeks, eight of the 10 sections showed increases in store brand dollar sales.
General food led with a 13.8% gain, followed closely by Beverages at 13.1%. Home care, Refrigerated and Beauty were bunched at plus 8.8%, 8.4% and 8.3%, respectively. Rounding out the winning departments were Frozen, ahead 6.4%; General merchandise, up 5.7%; and Health, ahead 3.7%. Declining departments over the past year were Liquor, minus 7.1%, and Tobacco, off 16.9%.