Huge growth opportunities for Private Label in Convenience Stores.

Private label products, or store brands, are growing faster in convenience stores compared to other stores and represent a tremendous growth opportunity for the convenience channel, according to new research by The Nielsen Company. A leader in convenience store solutions, Nielsen will unveil its analysis as well as new product enhancements offering the industry’s most accurate and representative view of the convenience store channel at the NACS (The Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing) Show in Chicago October 4 – 7.

Nielsen’s research shows that sales of private label products rose over the last year nearly 20 percent to $826 million in convenience stores, compared to a 15 percent increase in drug stores and just under 10 percent in supermarkets. Overall, private label share is significantly lower in convenience stores – only 1.5 percent – compared to a 13 percent share of drug stores’ dollar sales and a nearly 18 percent share of supermarkets’ dollar sales.

“Convenience stores are just starting to see the potential of private label, said Tom Pirovano, director of industry insights, The Nielsen Company. “While private label dollar growth has been driven more so by higher unit prices, versus a shift from traditional brands, we do see private label unit sales up in recent weeks. The convenience channel has an opportunity to develop their own store brands using private label benchmarks at supermarkets and drug stores.”

Opportunity Knocks
Looking deeper, Nielsen’s analysis shows that six out of the top-selling product categories in convenience stores, such as carbonated beverages, snacks and candy, are significantly underdeveloped in private label, representing opportunities for convenience store retailers. (See chart “Private Label Dollar Share By Product Category” in Full PDF Download version of release).

“These products are generally considered strong sellers for convenience stores yet are very underdeveloped in terms of private label share,” said Pirovano. “Now more than ever is the perfect time for convenience store operators to expand their private label offerings. Although store brands generally deliver higher margins, private label products can also convey a value image that many shoppers are looking for during times of economic uncertainty.”

Additional Findings
Other key findings include:

* Nationwide, convenience store sales are up 4.1 percent.

* Little Rock, San Antonio, Richmond/Norfolk, Boston and Seattle show the biggest growth in convenience store dollar sales.

* Least amount of growth in convenience store dollar sales is in Tampa, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis and Phoenix.

* Convenience stores sell more beer, cigars and chewing tobacco than grocery stores, drug stores and mass merchandisers combined.

Top view charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.

For more information at http://www.nielsen.com