ANALYSIS PL: through thick... and less thick

PL: through thick… and less thick

di Maria Teresa Giannini

In the first 5 months of 2022, the market faced a purchase preference change: as Iri data show, thanks to the surveys made from January to May of this year, also for PL the consumptions are moving towards the Mainstream and First Price segments. However, this is not an absolute truth for all the sub-categories. So let’s go into details.

Upon analyzing the market supply, the segments in which PLs have the largest share are meat (50.9%), frozen foods, which Iri refers to as "refrigerated and frozen," (40.3%) and fresh foods (39.3%). This is reflected in performance, which displays the largest increase in meat (+2.6%), followed by frozen foods (+0.9%) and fresh foods (+0.9%). The same cannot be said of the trend in value, which is up for meats (+13.7%), though down for frozen foods (-0.1%), and displaying a slight increase in fresh foods (+3.6%). Further, in the first half of the year, promotional pressure on PLs dropped in every distribution channel except e-commerce (+0.4% with a market share of 17.3%): compared to a market average of 16% of shelf price. The greatest drops are recorded in home care and toiletries (-4.6%) where promotional pressure is the lowest (12.1%).

The best figures are those of hypermarkets (-1.2% with 21.8% promotional pressure), superstores (-1.2% with 19.4% market share) and LSPs (-0.9% with 13.1% market share). The situation worsened slightly in May, which was individually analyzed, where the decline also involved e-commerce (13.5% promotional pressure, -2.1% market share) and in which promotional pressure fell even more in drugstores and superstores. As for demand in individual segments, in Prime Price, the brand industry lost sales in all modern distribution channels (-7.4%) except in discount stores, where it increased in value (10.5%).

PLs are growing, albeit to different degrees depending on the channel: again, the increase in value is higher in discount stores than in the rest of modern distribution (+6.2% and +3.3%, respec-

tively). The Mainstream segment displays a real polarization: while here "medium" industrial brands lose "discount" (-1.9%), industrial brands show double-digit growth (+12.6%). On the other hand, PLs (other brands and organized distribution brands) increase (+6.8%), unlike the private labels of store brands and ‘kid’ brands which display a lower increase (+1.6%). More moderate, compared to the aforementioned PLs, is the growth of PLs dealing with functional foods (+3%).

Finally, in the Premium range segment, which displays a decrease (-3.5% on average), the only growth figure is represented by the Premium lines of PLs (+7.7%). Thus, not only has the gap between industrial and PLs widened; in the vast set of PLs, certain trends emerge that are typical of periods that, much like the current one, are characterized by price tension.l

PLs rise in all departments apart from home care and frozen foods. Numbers drop for home care and toiletries.

PL LCC – Omnichannel – Performance by department – Progressive 2022

Groceries Fresh Food Drinks Toiletries Fruit and Vegetables Home Care Frozen Food Pet Care Meat PL Share Value Trend Delta Point Value