Brands like Pirkka and Rainbow have become household names. For consumers, the supermarket trade names offer a more than satisfactory and more importantly, cheaper alternative to global or regional labels.
The largest supermarket chains have clearly seen the benefit of having their own brands. Sales of foodstuffs such as minced meat and milk have shifted from well-known labels to in-house products.
So-called no-name products are also growing in popularity and surprisingly, consumers are also switching away from big name cosmetic brands to more affordable house labels.
In-house brands dominate in outlets run by the German food retail chain Lidl, which has more labels that the Finnish market leaders Kesko and S-Group.
Although prices for proprietary products are rising along with other brands, the in-house labels allow food retailers some room for maneuvering as the economic conditions decline.
While in-house brands used to be nameless, nowadays the manufacturer’s name is featured more prominently. The S-Group plans to add information about the countries where the raw materials originated, and where the goods were manufactured.