Private label in Europe - statistics & facts

Market overview

The European private label grocery market is quite diverse. While Western Europe registers private label sales’ shares above 40 percent, the quotas recorded by private labels amount to 30 percent in most of Central and Eastern Europe. The United Kingdom has one of the highest penetration rates of private labels in terms of sales value and volume. Data from Italy and Germany show that most private label offerings were mid-range, leaving low-priced and high-tier products a residual portion of the market. However, since 2016, the premium range of private label products gained six percent of total turnover in Italy, at the expense of the core standard market. Likewise, the premium segment reported the highest yearly increase of sales in France, surpassed only by organic products’ sales value growth in 2020.

Consumer preferences

In terms of product categories, European consumers were mostly attracted by retailers’ fresh and processed food products brands, as confirmed by the private label turnover breakdown in Scandinavian countries. Market data from Germany indicated that paper products outranked all other categories of consumer goods, while survey results from Poland showed that beauty products were also popular. In general, the presence of good quality private labels was an important driver of supermarket shopping in the Netherlands. Store brands could benefit from the general surge of grocery shopping due to lockdown restrictions. The shortage of products’ supply in stores induced consumers to buy store brands’ products, too. A poll conducted during the first phase of the pandemic in 2020 revealed that over 60 percent of UK consumers were willing to purchase private-labeled food and other household products. Indeed, the highest percentage growth in private label sales was registered during the first wave of COVID-19 in Europe, with Italy reaching an over two-year peak of monthly sales share in March 2020.

This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.