If you take two photos of the same supermarket shelf, one in 2018 and the other in 2023, and then compare them, you’ll find a few notable differences. The most obvious one is the prices. Within five years, the quantities printed on their labels increased. And according to the latest OCU survey, it’s quite a lot, closer to 40%.

But there’s another equally interesting change that may have been overlooked: In the second photo, in 2023, there will likely be a lot more white-label products and fewer (much less) outside brands.

The reason is that big chains throw foreign brands off their shelves. Or at least that’s what several recent studies have concluded.

White label is stronger. This was the first conclusion from the report prepared by the consultancy firm Kantar. Presented by PromarcaEven though he is the interested party in the debate (representing the manufacturers) he leaves some valuable ideas. Their research shows that private label products in major supermarkets will increase by 13% in just five years, between 2018 and 2023. The data acquires special value when compared to products sold under the manufacturer’s brand. In this case, the trend is the opposite, with a decrease of 23%.

In other words, while today there are many more products on supermarket shelves with the distribution chains’ own labels, products identified with third-party brands have lost their place at a noticeable pace. Within five years, one in five products of this last type had disappeared.

The study, which analyzed six major chains over five years, concludes that 3,666 products sold by third-party manufacturers disappeared from shelves (the number increased from 15,821 to 12,185), while 1,818 food and hygiene products were sold directly with dealer seals.

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Differences according to chains. Although this is the general trend among major supermarket chains, the study shows significant differences between them. The palm in the white labeling effort goes to Mercadona. The report shows that the supply of manufacturer brands in Juan Roig’s company’s facilities has decreased by 45% in just five years, almost twice the average. Moreover, the white label value share there has now reached 74.5%.

This drop is also surprising with a 42% drop in Dia or a 31% drop in Eroski. This rate was recorded as 23% in Alcampo, 20% in Carrefour and 14% in Lidl. It did not take long for these losses of brands outside the chains to be transferred to the shopping cart. A few months ago, Kantar pointed out that private brands managed to capture about 44% of consumer spending last year.

There is no place to choose. This is the impression César Valencoso from Kantar leaves about Cadena SER: “There are many categories in which even producer brands are not present. The problem is not less, it is not there any more. For example: in Mercadona, almost half of the categories do not have a brand name. We use data from private labels shows that it accounts for 65% of products offered in almost all supermarket categories.

points to price. Not only do yoghurts, pastas, cookies, cereals and fruit juices bearing distributor labels take up more and more space in supermarkets; The truth is that the chains also favor them on one important aspect: price. That’s at least another of the conclusions revealed by an analysis conducted by Kantar and The Battle Group that focuses on exactly that: the impact of the battle between private and third-party brands on final rates.

The Promarca association says there is negative “discrimination” in the margins applied by supermarket chains to third-party goods.

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Up to 160% extra. Analysis collected by Five dayssuggests that distribution chains penalize third-party products and force them to be sold at prices 5% to 160% higher than private label products.

If these additions were not made to the final labels, the authors of the study believe that the price of these goods could be significantly reduced. And to show you a button: José Antonio García, one of the people responsible for the analysis, explains that there are products that enter the supermarket with a selling price of 1.79 euros and are eventually marketed at a price of 3.50 euros, indicating an increase of 95%.+

If in this particular case the same margin used for white label products had been applied, the final rate would have been 2.37 euros. The difference is quite large and Promarca’s director, Ignacio Larracoechea, insists that the issue of additional expenses or investments in the store cannot be justified. In his view, this merely responds to “commercial policy of inter-shelf competition”.

beyond the shelves. With these data in the table, the Promarca association does not hesitate to talk about a “brands being thrown off the shelves” dating back to 2007, when they began to observe the trend. The group brings together leading brand manufacturers, so it is the relevant side of the debate, but its implications are illuminating nonetheless. “The question is whether the competition is meritocratic. That is, are the results and trends based on the merits of each competitor, or is there unfair competition?” They comment.

The study’s authors warn that the implications could extend beyond supermarkets and also impact innovation and the speed at which new products are brought to market. On the other hand, from the perspective of supermarkets, they recall that almost 70% of the main food industries in the country combine own-brand production with white-label products, and distributors play with prices and margins to compete.

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