A new report by New York-based Nielsen shows that store brand sales jumped by nearly 10% in 2017 in mass merchandisers, club stores and dollar stores, while the mass channel came closer than ever before to overtaking traditional supermarkets as the place where consumers buy their groceries. Total sales in the mass channel reached $305 billion versus $324 billion in supermarkets, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), New York.
Sales of store brands in the mass channel increased sharply in both dollars and units, while national brands grappled with fractional declines, Nielsen data show. Private label dollar sales were up 9.3%, while unit sales were up 9.1%. In contrast, national brands slipped 0.3% in dollar volume and fell back a full 1% in unit volume, PLMA said.