More shoppers are purchasing private brand this year compared to last year, according to a recent IRI’s study. Consumers returned to prefer private food items at least of the time, even if not surprisingly, private labels products continue to be popular option for budget-minded shoppers. There is still substantial opportunity for grocery brands to increase wallet share in certain categories. For years the brand of the distributor was the medicine to help the Italian family to fill the chart: the average price of the private label compared to the leading benchmark was lower by 20-30 per cent. This has determinate the success of private label industry to reach a turnover of 10 billion euro. Brand industry paid the price. Now for a year the gap has been turned upside down: the industry brand grows in volume and value as the distributor moves back slowly. In 2014 private label industry has lost from 0.1% to 18% in value. “The slowdown in growth of the private label is to be found in the end of assortments of the brand and it is dated from last quarter 2013” said Gianmaria Marzoli, Head of Commercial of IRI. Indeed the price’s leverage helped particularly private label industry during the overlapping waves of growth. But the record in promotion strategies registered by the brand industry (30,2% of items sold through promotions in 2014) has meant that brand products on the shelf had a lower price than the distributor in promotion. 
