But the numbers don’t lie

Just days after Retailing Today released its annual Top Brands report based on consumer opinions, the Private Label Manufacturers Association came out with its annual report based on actual purchase behavior. While shoppers have high expectations that retailers will offer their preferred brands, when it comes to dollars spent the PLMA study, based on Nielsen data, shows that store brand growth again outpaced national brands in 2009 to establish new sales and units volume records.

Sales of private brands increased by 1.8 billion units last year and added $2.7 billion in volume to total $86.4 billion, according to PLMA’s data. National brand sales increased by $1.6 billion, but those gains were largely, if not entirely, the result of higher prices, according to PLMA. The organization’s president, Brian Sharoff, said this year’s study was particularly significant since it included the first full year of the recession.

“Not surprisingly, the statistics document the amazing increases in store brand popularity. But as most market researchers know, the growth of store brands is by no means a recessionary phenomenon,” Sharoff said. “Its success began years before the current downturn and is rooted in increasing assortment, quality ingredients, innovative product concepts and retailer commitment.”