This report covers the existence and development of private label (otherwise known as own brand and store brand) goods within the retailing industry in the People’s Republic of China, and includes coverage of both food and non-food products offered as private label by leading retail chains in China.

This recently updated report includes:

• An overview of China’s total retail market with sales statistics up to 2008;
• Analysis of the growth and potential of consumer China;
• An overview of China’s total retail industry with sales statistics up to 2008;
• Forecast retail industry growth in China up to 2013;
• An historical analysis of the development of private label in China to date;
• Case studies and examples of private label lines among key retail companies within the key retail sectors;
• Analysis of consumer and supplier responses to the development of private label;
• Analysis of the total private label market with historical market value up to 2008, estimates for full-year 2009 and a forecast of growth up to 2014;
• Store checks giving examples of private label goods in key sectors, including product description, brand name, retail company, pack size and price;
• Overview of China’s demographics and macroeconomics.

Chinese consumers are also turning on to private label. The old mantra that Chinese consumes only love brands now rings hollow. Perceived value-for-money, coupled with increasingly good quality has brought much more consumer interest and acceptance. Also, for consumers the knowledge that if there are any product problems they can raise the issue direct with the retailer means better face-to-face recourse, rather than frustrating, long-distance, impersonal correspondence with a remote manufacturer.

Farmers’ cooperatives are getting larger, and are now often significant enough to deal direct as major suppliers to the leading modern grocery chains, providing quality-assured product to the supermarkets and hypermarkets that can be sold under various own brands iterations.

Commodity products, such as sugar, make their manufacturers more reliable money sold in bulk to the big retail groups to sell in their own packaging.

And there are even premium private label brands now emerging in China. Having nearly quadrupled in value in the past five years, the next five are likely to see the market value at least triple, with the significance of private label becoming much larger, especially among the modern grocery chains.