Not all food product categories are created equal when it comes to private label product sales. As of 2017, private label frozen food accounted for a third of the frozen food sales in Canada. Private label desserts also controlled about a third of the total dessert market. In the Canadian dairy product market, there is a large degree of heterogeneity in terms of which product categories have high private label shares. For instance, private label butter and margarine accounted for about 23 percent of the total butter and margarine market in Canada, while private label drinking milk had a market share of 2.5 percent in that year.
The Canadian apparel retail market is mostly made up of private label brands, at around 60 percent of the total market. Among the different apparel segments, around 66 percent of women’s clothing sales consist of private label brands, compared to around 53 percent of children’s and men’s clothing.
Canadians seem to have a generally favorable opinion of private label products when comparing them to brand name products. A recent survey found that 53 percent of consumers in Canada believe that private label products are just as good as brand name products, and 66 percent of respondents indicated that they believe that most private label products are made by the same companies that manufacture the brand name goods. However, that same survey found that nearly three quarters of Canadian consumers would prefer to purchase brand name products on sale than private label products.
