Private brands among top three drivers of growing food and beverage sales

2018 is forecast to be a profitable year for store brands in food and beverage. So says a new study released by New York-based accounting, tax and consulting firm Mazars USA LLP, which reports store brands are one of the top three elements driving sales growth in food and beverage.

Healthy/nutritious foods and organic foods are the other two top sales drivers.

Survey respondents were identified those with experience in food and beverage manufacturing, distribution, retail merchandising and marketing in large firms with more than $50 million in annual revenue or small companies with less than $50 million in annual revenue, Mazars says. 

Nine out of 10 of the respondents said they expect sales to grow this year. Participants added that their biggest internal concern was increasing sales in food and beverage, while the greatest external concerns were rising commodity costs (28 percent), food safety (14 percent) and quality assurance (14 percent).

Though Mazars said it analyzed the company outlook of both groups separately, there was no appreciable difference between the large and small firms in their 2018 outlooks.

Most food and beverage professionals expect sales to increase substantially with “relatively modest” cost increases,the study revealed. Process improvement activities and capital expenditure plans will also take center stage for the rest of the year.