Worldwide, brands are feeling the increasing headwinds coming from grocery retailers working zealously on launching, extending and improving their house brands. Some retailers make no secret of the fact that the balance between manufacturers and themselves has often favoured the latter, allowing them to play hardball with brand manufacturers. At the same time, some private label-focused retailers’ readiness to cherish brands has resurfaced: Rebalancing the equation between manufacturers’ and retailers’ brands has become a key topic for the likes of Walmart, Carrefour or Aldi.

Obviously, there is no predefined limit for ‘ideal’ private label penetration. The changing retail landscape requires flexible responses. Smaller stores and broader acceptance for retailers’ own brands, as well as growing shopper demands but smaller budgets – all these various developments require customised approaches to private label.

This report shows how retailers are creating opportunities to grow sales in the global grocery sector.

1. Introduction: Private label growth continues
2. Rebalancing the Equation: How can retailers find the right balance between manufacturer and retailer brands?
3. When Less is More: Big opportunities for smaller pack sizes
4. Collaborating for Mutual Growth: Finding partners for development and distribution
5. Democratisation of Quality: Taking ‘Good-Better-Best’ to a new level
6. Conclusions

This report will help you to:

• Discover key trends that will shape private label development in the coming years;
• Ascertain the future of tiering in grocery private label retailing;
• Take inspiration from best practice examples; and
• Identify key findings and implications.

Denise Klug
Associate Analyst

Denise Klug is an Associate Analyst in grocery based in Frankfurt. Denise specialises in the Dutch and German grocery markets and is responsible for building and maintaining Planet Retail's database. She writes articles and contributes to reports that deliver insight. Prior to joining Planet Retail, Denise worked as a freelance journalist for local newspaper Frankfurter Neue Presse. She graduated as a foreign language correspondence clerk in French and English, focusing on economics, and also studied cognitive linguistics in Frankfurt.

Matthias Queck
Research Director

Matthias Queck is the Research Director for European grocery based in Frankfurt. Matthias' expertise lies in the German and Dutch retail markets and he is responsible for the coverage of developments in discounting and private labels. He has spoken at retail conferences in Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, London and at the University of Oxford. Matthias is also a regular commentator on retail issues in the German-speaking media. Before joining Planet Retail, he was a journalist for Lebensmittel Zeitung - Germany’s specialist newspaper on food retail - for five years where he was responsible for Aldi, Lidl and retailers' own labels, among others.