First Quarter Was a Good One for Private Label/Store Brands

May 2, 2023

Most categories grew in dollar sales and volume.

Private label/store brands had a good first quarter of 2023, continuing the momentum from the record sales of 2022.

Of the 317 categories that Circana tracks for the Private Label Manufacturers Assn. (PLMA), 71%, or 224 sections, saw gains in dollar sales and 45%, or 144, had private label dollar sales increase by 10% or more. 75 of the categories grew 20% or more in dollar sales in the first three months of 2023 while another 69 had growth between 10-19%.

The largest gains were in Women’s Fragrances (174%), Drinkware (101%) and RTD Tea/Coffee (68%). Pet products continued to grow, with Pet Food up 36%, Pet Treats up 18% and Cat/Dog Litter up 16%. Combined, the pet categories had more than $620 million in store brand sales in Q1 alone.

Growth came not just in dollar figures. In unit sales, 38% of the categories showed growth – a strong showing considering the poor performance of unit sales by both store brands and national brands over the past few years, PLMA analyzed. Of these 121 categories, 6% had unit growth above 20% while 7% had unit growth between 10-19% and 26% had unit sales growth between 1-9%.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.