PLMA News

PLMA's 2023 Trade Show to Hail 'The Store Brands Phenomenon'

The largest event for store brands in North America is set for November 12-14 in Chicago

NEW YORK (April 24, 2023) - At a time when store brands have grown to become a $230 billion industry in the U.S., PLMA has announced a fitting theme for its 2023 Private Label Trade Show: “The Store Brands Phenomenon.”

The show will be held November 12-14 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago.

"'The Store Brands Phenomenon' theme is appropriate in many ways," said PLMA President Peggy Davies. "Hailed as dynamic, innovative and pervasive, store brands offer boundless opportunities for retailers, manufacturers and trade suppliers."

The growth of store brands has been strong and steady. By the end of 2022, PLMA calculates that annual store brand sales had increased by 40% over a five-year period. Last year's double-digit gains continued through the first quarter of 2023, according to Circana. Sales and dollar and unit market shares are at all-time highs.

They are the shopper’s best friend, offering innovation, performance and quality. Store brands accounted for nearly one-third of all new sales flowing into U.S. retailing last year.

And there's more to come. Every day, store brand products are moving into new categories, new chains, new channels, and new platforms.

“Store brands are a powerful retailer component that provides important points of differentiation, competitive advantage and builds consumer loyalty," added Davies.

The 2023 Private Label Trade Show will reflect this expansion. PLMA expects that over 1,500 companies will be exhibiting and 5,000 individuals attending.

"For more than 40 years, PLMA has provided supermarkets, supercenters, drug chains, wholesale clubs, dollar and specialty stores, mass merchandisers, importers and exporters, and e-commerce retailers an exclusive venue to discover the latest food and non-food products, ingredients, flavors, fragrances, and packaging,” Davies said.

For more information on "The Store Brands Phenomenon" trade show, contact PLMA at +1 212 972-3131, email info@plma.com or click here for more information.

About PLMA

The Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) is a non-profit trade organization founded in 1979 to promote the store brands industry. With executive offices in New York and International Council offices in Amsterdam, PLMA represents more than 4,000 member companies worldwide. In addition to the Annual Private Label Trade Show in Chicago and its World of Private Label Trade Show in Amsterdam, PLMA provides annual conferences, executive education and professional development opportunities. Follow PLMA on plma.com, plmainternational.com, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Store Brand Beverage Numbers Deserve a Toast!

Featured in PLMA’s e-Scanner March 25, 2023 newsletter, created by Tom Prendergast, Director, Research Services

Throughout store brands' steady double-digit gains of 2022, which has continued through the first two months of this year, fully 16 of the 17 departments tracked by IRI showed store brand improvement.

One department demonstrated particularly strong sales performance -- Beverages -- a section once considered impenetrable for store brands due to the powerhouse national brands that inhabit it.

But that dominance may be changing. In this extremely competitive department, store brands have been growing at a faster pace than brands for the past 4, 12 and 52 weeks, reported IRI Unify exclusively to PLMA.

The numbers deserve a toast. Total private label beverage sales in 2022 were $12 billion and dollar sales grew by 19.3%. Double digit growth continued into the new year as dollar sales over the past four weeks totaled 18.6%, only a slight dip from the 20% sales growth in the past three months.

The Beverages department is the third largest of the 17 tracked by IRI when it comes to national brand and store brand dollar sales ($130B) and second largest in unit sales with over 40 billion in sales.

The largest category in beverages is bottled water. The category has sales of $6.8 billion in 2022 and dollar sales growth of 23.1%. While dollar sales did slow, from 21.3% over 12 weeks to 20.3% in the past four weeks, it remains the largest dollar sales category in the department.

Water is not the only growth category in this department. When you take a closer look at other areas you see while not everyone is showing growth but the ones gaining sales are especially strong.

For instance, carbonated beverages have increased from 15.8%-dollar sales growth last year to 32.4% in February and 28.9% over the past three months. This growth is also reflected in unit sales, as sales for carbonated beverages grew 4% in the past 4 weeks and 1.2% over the past 12 weeks. While unit sales did dip 2.5% last year, like dollar sales, sales of units of carbonated beverages continued to advance.

Two other growing categories over this period were refrigerated tea/coffee and tea bags. Refrigerated tea/coffee grew from 8.2% in dollar sales last year to 10.7% in the past four weeks. Tea bags had even more dramatic results, as dollar sales went from 5% in 2022 to 12.3% in the past three months to 17.5% in the past four weeks.

Other categories also stood out. These include bottled juices (10%), coffee (15.4%) and ready to drink tea/coffee (15.8%); all had double digit growth in 2022. In the past four weeks, while growth has slowed, it remains positive, ranging from 66.8% for ready to drink tea and coffee to 13.9% for coffee and 10.2% for bottled juices.

Unit sales improvements were also striking. Ready to drink tea/coffee saw units rise from 10.4% in 2022 to 84% over the past 3 months and 75.7% in the past 4 weeks. Coffee unit sales were up 2.8% last year but kept most of that growth in the past four weeks with a 2.5%-unit sales growth.

After decades of being a bottom shelf afterthought in a strong national branded department, store brands are evolving to become a presence if not a player in many parts of the huge Beverages sector.

To find out more IRI Unify data is available to all PLMA members and can be found at plma.com where these statistics and sales of 317 categories and 967 subcategories can be found.

PLMA Announces 2023 Private Label Hall of Fame Inductees

NEW YORK (March 23, 2023) - The Private Label Hall of Fame Class of 2023 was inducted last night during PLMA’s Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference in Orlando.

Presented by PLMA and Store Brands magazine, the Private Label Hall of Fame was created in 2006 to recognize the men and women who have made significant contributions to the growth and development of the global private brand industry.

This year, the Hall of Fame honors 16 individuals in four categories: Next Gen Private Label Leader, Private Brand Innovator, Private Brand Champion, and Lifetime Achievement.

“We proudly celebrate the outstanding achievements of these proven leaders and innovators,” said PLMA President Peggy Davies. “Their hard work and dedication are instrumental to the success of the store brands business.”

Private Label Hall of Fame Class of 2023

Next Gen Private Label Leader:

Anthony Cera III, Own Brands Manager, Perishables, SpartanNash
Colleen Kangas, President, Purcell International
Angela LePore, Senior Manager, Private Brands Product Development, Simmons Pet Food, Inc.
Kristin Provost, Senior Manager, Category Insights, Topco Associates, LLC

Private Brand Innovator:
Alicia Cook, Category Director, Save A Lot
Casey Creegan, Manager of Merchandising, Love’s Travel Stops
Roger Scommegna, CEO, Flying Blue Imports
Guido Tremolini, President/Co-Owner, G.S. Gelato

Private Brand Champion:

Shane Brown, Director, Own Brand Sourcing, Giant Eagle, Inc.
Jill Clark, VP, Sales and Marketing, Dutch Gold Honey, Inc.
Andrea Collaro, Senior Director, Owned Brands, Brand Management/Product Development, Walgreens Co.
Kristie Nicolosi, CEO, The Kingswood Company

Lifetime Achievement:

Brenda Lord, Vice President, Private Brands, CVS Health
Nancy Ragozzino, President, Ragozzino Foods, Inc.
Andy Russick, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Pacific Coast Producers
Jill Sando, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer, Target

“The 16 honorees represent the best of the best from across the world of private label and showcase the depth of talent the industry has to offer,” said Store Brands magazine Executive Editor & Associate Publisher Greg Sleter. “This august group of retailers and suppliers have had a major impact on the private label business and will continue to do so in the years ahead.”

Profiles on all inductees will be featured in the May/June issue of Store Brands magazine, featured on StoreBrands.com, and posted in a special section of plma.com.

About PLMA

The Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) is a non-profit trade organization founded in 1979 to promote the store brands industry. With executive offices in New York and International Council offices in Amsterdam, PLMA represents more than 4,000 member companies worldwide. In addition to the Annual Private Label Trade Show in Chicago and its World of Private Label Trade Show in Amsterdam, PLMA provides annual conferences, executive education and professional development opportunities. Follow PLMA on plma.com, plmainternational.com, Twitter and LinkedIn.

"How Private Label Packaging Strategies Influence Shoppers Intent to Purchase"

PLMA's 2023 Show Dubbed 'The Store Brands Phenomenon'

With store brands continuing to show unprecedented growth in the first quarter of 2023, and economic concerns of consumers not abating, the private label market continues to be a phenomenon.

To capitalize on this, PLMA is preparing for its annual U.S. trade show, which is the largest event for store brands in North America. The show, with the theme ‘The Store Brands Phenomenon' will be held November 12-14 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago.

The growth of store brands has been strong and steady. By the end of 2022, PLMA calculates that annual store brand sales had increased by 40% over a five-year period. Last year's double-digit gains continued through the first quarter of 2023 with 10.3%-dollar sales growth, according to Circana.

Sales and dollar and unit market shares are at all-time highs and the market could grow by nearly $10 billion in 2023 if sales continue their strong sales.

“This year’s PLMA Show will be unlike any other,” PLMA’s Vice President Anthony Aloia said about the show. “Private label continues to thrive and is expanding into more categories, chains and channels and bringing more companies and businesses into the industry.”

“First, there’s a resurgence of non-food suppliers, including experienced international PLMA Member manufacturers, representing all home, health, and wellness product categories. Next to be found at the Show will be products with desirable attributes consumers are seeking, such as healthy lifestyle foods and beverages or products using sustainable packaging,” Aloia explained.

“Burgeoning PL trends in ethnic foods, wine and spirits, plant-based and hemp-based foods, children’s snacks, foodservice, beauty and cosmetics, and kitchenware, will be highlights of the Show,” he added.

The 2023 Private Label Trade Show will also reflect this expansion as PLMA expects over 1,500 companies will be exhibiting and 5,000 individuals attending this year’s show.

For more information on "The Store Brands Phenomenon" trade show, contact PLMA at +1 212 972-3131, email info@plma.com or visit www.plma.com.

Unify+ is the Ultimate Source of Store Brand Sales Data for PLMA Members

This column usually focuses on sales in specific categories, subcategories, or trends. But something far more noteworthy happened this week.

In partnership with PLMA, Circana launched Unify+, an expanded database for monthly statistics. While it contains some of the same information as the previous version, Unify+ gives a more in-depth look at store brand sales from several key angles. Members are advised to log in and tour the new database for themselves.

For instance, the Channel Summary portal appears as the first choice on the platform. Here you can instantly see the top 10 selling store brand categories and subcategories not only in total outlets but in multi-outlet, supermarkets, drug stores, and convenience stores. In addition, you can see not only the top 10 but which products were driving growth that month aka which had the largest sale increases.

Say you want to know the top five best-selling categories in convenience stores. A quick look shows bottled water, milk, cups and plates, fresh eggs, and natural cheese. What products were driving growth in the first four months in dollar sales from YA%? Cups & Plates (140%), Fresh Eggs (25%), Toilet Tissue (+41%), and meat (+114%). Members also discover convenience store private label sales rose 18.5% compared to a year ago.

In the POS Drivers section, members can see the big picture of how store brands have changed in the past 52-weeks- an increase of $20.3B in dollar sales since April of 2022. In Panel Drivers members see a detailed look into households and per shopping trip data. Users will see sales in the frozen food department is up 8.7% per buyer while dollars spent on frozen food per trip have increased 8.8%.

The demographics portal displays the behavior of specific groups including pet owners and 12 other demographic categories and what their spending habits are in total store. Unify+ gives the user a look into dollars spent per trip, per household, and product trips per buyer.

In the departments and PLMA Rank Reports for food and non-food, the statistics are the same as monthly updates offered by Circana in the past. Now they are presented in a new format making it easier to see the entire picture.

In the PLMA Rank Report you can view dollar and unit sales for 317 categories and 967 categories for both store brands, national brands and all brands combined.

The best way for members to appreciate the advantages of the new system is to try it. Find the category or subcategory that matches your business and discover insights into multiple layers of data from the hundreds of categories and subcategories available.

Tom’s Data Dive is a monthly column written by Editor-in-Chief Tom Prendergast, taking a deeper look at statistics and trends in the industry. This story will be featured in PLMA’s e-Scanner May 20, 2023, e-Scanner newsletter.

PLMA Annual 'World of Private Label' Show Begins May 23

In less than three weeks, on May 23-24, PLMA’s “World of Private Label” International Trade Show at the RAI Exhibition Centre, in Amsterdam will begin.

The global private brand industry will once again meet to see the international products on display, which will include dozens of foods as well as non-food categories. They will be presented by more than 2,500 exhibiting companies including 50 national and regional pavilions.

PLMA also offers a special seminar program prior to the show on May 22. Admission to the seminars is complimentary to all registered visitors and exhibitors in possession of a valid "World of Private Label" entrance badge.

The seminars will be presented in the Forum room at the RAI Exhibition Centre and Walmart’s Senior Vice President Food Sourcing Arjan Both will deliver the keynote on how to work with the mega-chain. Other seminars will include a look at the latest private label trends in Europe and how FMCG shopper behavior is changing and how it can help businesses.

To help attendees find the products they are looking for from a field of 2,500 exhibitors, features such as Show Navigator will be available to help during the show. On PLMA’s website, prospective attendees can explore the products exhibitors might want to see.

By clicking here, you can see more information on what types of products they can find at the show.

A popular section of the show is the New Product Expo, which displays the latest innovations submitted by exhibitors. In addition, PLMA’s Idea Supermarket features own label products from around the globe. The displayed products show innovations in package design and trends retailers have been following with releases of new product lines.

Some 25,000 professionals from more than 120 countries are expected to participate in Amsterdam. Exhibitors will be joined by retailers, wholesalers, importers, and others, to examine products, strengthen partnerships, identify innovation in business practices and plan for profitable store brand growth.

For more information, click here.

PLMA Unveils ‘The Store Brands Phenomenon’

At a time when store brands have become a $230 billion industry in the United States, PLMA has announced a fitting theme for its 2023 Private Label Trade Show: “The Store Brands Phenomenon.”

The show, which is the largest event for store brands in North America, will be held November 12-14 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago.

“Store brands are a powerful retailer component that provides important points of differentiation, competitive advantage and builds consumer loyalty," added Davies.

The 2023 Private Label Trade Show will reflect this expansion as PLMA expects over 1,500 companies will be exhibiting and 5,000 individuals attending this year’s show.

"For more than 40 years, PLMA has provided supermarkets, supercenters, drug chains, wholesale clubs, dollar and specialty stores, mass merchandisers, importers and exporters and e-commerce retailers an exclusive venue to discover the latest food and non-food products, ingredients, flavors, fragrances, and packaging,” Davies said.

For more information on "The Store Brands Phenomenon" trade show, contact PLMA at +1 212 972-3131, email info@plma.com or click here.

Circana to Add Functions to PLMA Unify Data Program

Circana will soon be unveiling a new look and added features to its Unify statistics platform, which members can find as "Exclusive Market Data From PLMA" in 'Member Services' at plma.com.

To explain the details of the new and enhanced visualization features of the association's unique data portal, PLMA will offer a special session of its popular online Lunch and Learn program on May 11 at 12:30 p.m. EDT. Called "IRI to Circana: Relaunching the PLMA Member Insights Program."

It will be a comprehensive, 45-minute tutorial conducted by Jim Carlson of Circana.

Unify has monthly data on 317 categories and over 950 subcategories as well as data on departments and the overall dollar and unit sales going back 24 months.

For more information on the session, contact info@plma.com or click here to register.

Store Brand Sales Grow in 71% of All Categories in Q1

Tom’s Data Dive is a monthly column written by Editor-in-Chief of PLMA’s e-Scanner newsletter, Tom Prendergast. This story is featured in PLMA’s April 22, 2023, e-Scanner newsletter.

As shown in our lead story, the private label sales numbers for the 1st quarter of 2023 had good news for store brands, continuing the record sales from 2022.

A deeper look at category data sheds light on how impressive this growth is. Of the 317 categories that Circana tracks for PLMA, 71%, or 224 sections, saw gains in dollar sales and 45%, or 144, had private label dollar sales increase by 10% or more. Seventy-five 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%). Store brand cosmetic products showed excellent growth with Facial Cosmetics (33%), Lip (31%), Eye (20%) and Cosmetic Accessories such as makeup remover, false eyelashes etc. growing by nearly 10%.

Pet products show no signs of slowing down when it comes to store brands. Pet Food (36%), Pet Treats (18%) and Cat/Dog Litter (16%) all grew in dollar sales and combined had over $620 million in store brand sales in Q1 alone.

Unit sales movement in Q1 also confirmed store brand strength. Among the 317 categories, 121, or 38%, showed growth – a strong showing considering the poor performance of unit sales by both store brands and national brands over the past few years. 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%.

Not surprisingly, many of the largest Q1 unit sales growth categories matched the dollar sales categories with Drinkware (117%), RTD Tea/Coffee (78%) and Women’s Fragrances (78%) topping the list.

Other gains were in Hair Appliances (36%), Pet Food (21%), and Cold Cereal (20%). Products in the cosmetics category showed unit growth as well with Eye (17%), Facial (15%) and Lip (15%) leading the way.

Category size can vary widely – with some sales in dollars and units in the millions while others could have sales in the thousands. However, when you look at Q1's overall picture, store brands continue to gain in food and non-food categories and in many which have traditionally been dominated by national brands.

To find out more IRI Unify data is available to all PLMA members and can be found at plma.com where these statistics and sales of the 317 categories and 967 subcategories can be found.