PLMA study: private label sales in drug are flat - Private Label Manufacturers Association - Brief Article

NEW YORK -- Despite a small gain in HBC categories and efforts on the parts of several chains to become more aggressive with their own lines, sales of private label products were down slightly in drug stores last year. Private label products represented $3 billion, or 11.2 percent, of total drug store sales in 2000, down 0.2 points from 11.4 percent in the year-ago period, according to the recent Private Label Manufacturers Association's 2001 yearbook.

In the health and beauty care categories, private label share increased 12 basis points to 13.5 percent of sales, compared with 13.4 percent in 1999. The top 10 private label categories by dollar volume in drug chains were vitamins, internal analgesics, cold/allergy/sinus tablets and cough drops, batteries, first aid treatments, laxatives, adult incontinence, feminine needs, miscellaneous health remedies and disposable cameras.

The top 10 dollar volume gains in private label were antismoking products, weight control candy/tablets, shaving cream, cosmetics storage, cosmetics-facial, fresh bread and rolls, pet supplies, bottled juices-single serve, chocolate candy-non-seasonal and tights/socks. Anti-smoking products, No. 1 on the list, saw a huge gain at 844.1 percent, maintaining 17.5 percent of dollar share.

Across all three channels, overall sales of store brand products grew more than $1.2 billion, reaching an all-time high of $47.3 billion.

The most significant gains were seen in the mass merchandiser channel in which sales of private label increased by $737 million, a 12.2 percent gain. The growth rate of private label brands was twice that of national brands in both unit and dollar sales, according to PLMA.

For mass merchandisers, private label has been growing for the past five years, with unit market share climbing to the current 13.1 percent from 10.4 percent in 1996. Supermarkets experienced less significant growth in unit market share, going from 19.2 percent to 20 percent, and the drug channel saw a decline at 12.6 percent, compared with 12.7 percent in 1996.

The PLMA yearbook is a compilation of data from Information Resources Inc., covering 670 individual product category listings. Data for the 2001 yearbook covers the 52-week period ended Dec. 31.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group