Conad posts private label gains

Italian food market shelf with olive oil, taralli crackers, biscotti, and a decorative plate.

Conad, the Italian supermarket retailer, is posting big increases in private label sales. The market share for retailer brands has now climbed to more than 27%, up from 19% in the past decade, according to IRI. In the past year, Conad’s private label sales grew 7% year-on-year in value and by 5% in volume. The retailer’s bio brand did exceptionally, with sales climbing 23%, but growth was across the board. The traditional Conad red logo brand was up +1%, while Conad Percorso Qualità gained +3%.

Fruit and tinned products are the best-performing categories, with double-digit growth. In particular, fruit and vegetables increased by 13% in value and 20% in volume, while preserves grew over 13% in value and 11% in volume. Cheese grew more than 9% in value and cold cuts grew by more than 5% in value and 6% in quantity.

The retailer says its Bassi & Fissi programme, which offers hundreds of basic products at low prices that are fixed throughout the year, made a big contribution to the success of its private label. The Sapori & Dintorni range, which consists of 225 products mostly from Italy, also performed well. Two recently introduced ranges, Conad Kid e Piacersi, and Creazioni d’Italia (created exclusively for foreign markets), have proved popular with consumers.