Conad posts private label gains

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.