Store brand market share dominates in Europe

Nielsen, in accordance with the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), reported knockout U.S. private brand sales for the first quarter of 2020, seeing a nearly 15% increase in dollar volume across all retail outlets. The organizations also recently reported massive, annual market share gains for store brands across Europe.

Nielsen’s numbers have been included in the PLMA’s 2020 International Private Label Yearbook, saying private brands gained market share in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed last year, and the market share was more than 30% in every country monitored by Nielsen but one, per PLMA. Some countries saw store brand market shares above 40%, including Europe’s largest markets, the U.K. and Germany. Market share in Belgium was 44%; Portugal saw store brand market share at 43%; Spain and Switzerland private label share registered at about 50%.

Per the PLMA, the large gains in market share can be attributed to Nielsen counting Aldi for the first time.

Other store brand market share numbers as reported in PLMA’s newsletter are: Poland (30%), The Netherlands (37%), Austria (40%), Hungary (30%), Czech Republic (30%), Slovakia (30%), Norway (34%), Sweden (33%), Finland (30%), Turkey (31%) and Greece (31%).