Private brand sales plummet in Greece

In Greece, where the country’s debt crisis has been ongoing since 2009, the price of private label products has increased up to 25 percent the last few years while prices of brand products have lowered, according to www.ekathimerini.com, a Greek news site.

As a result, the price gap between private label and brand products is shrinking and market share of private label products is decreasing, with the exception of own-brand products sold at Lidl, a German grocery retailer that specializes in private brands.

The website reports that while retailers invested in advertising for store brands, they ended up passing those costs onto consumers when profit margins decreased on the products.

While sales of private label products in the European Union have declined a half percentage point annually since 2013, the drop has been faster in Greece. The website reports that a survey from market research company IRI reveals that private brands have declined 1.1 percent to 10.4 percent in 12 categories from 2014 to 2016.