THE NON FOOD PRIVATE LABEL WORLD

What is a Private Label product?

NFPL means Non Food Private Label.

A Private Label is a brand owned by a retailer who gives his name or label to the product  manufactured by a supplier. For example: Carrefour, Metro, Castorama or Wal-Mart brands produced by international manufacturers)

The Private Label potential in Europe (source : Euromonitor)

The Non food Private Label market represents a turnover in Europe of more than US$ 250 Billion  and all surveys forecast a strong development especially in non food.

Euromonitor ( British consultancy office specialised in Private Label surveys) expects an increase of more than 50 % of the non food Private Label turnover in Europe)

Nowadays, the market share of the non food Private Label products makes up around 12% of total retail turnover in Europe; but some countries like Holland and Great Britain which are more mature in Private Label products are showing market shares exceeding 25%. This illustrates the enormous potential to countries like France with a 12 % market share or even Italy and Spain with market shares below 5%.

Why such an interest by retailer for Private Labels?

Private Labels help retailers to increase their profit with better margins and to make customers loyal to their brands.

As a consequence of giving their names to products, retailers can no longer afford  poor quality concerning their Private labels.

We face the 4th generation of Private  Label Products:

• 1st  generation: first price products, poor quality (seventies)

• 2nd generation: between first price and national brand price, medium quality (eighties)

• 3rd generation: prices lightly below International and National brands with same quality (nineties)

•  4th generation: no more me-too products; quality innovative lines (2000)

Private Labels: a real opportunity for manufacturers: why?

Launching a new brand in a country is extremely expensive. In order to impose a good awareness to new brands, one need to reckon at least  on US 20 cents by inhabitant. This represents for France US$15 million and for whole Europe US$ 400 million. This can only be done by large companies.

By manufacturing Private Labels for retailers, you can avoid paying such an amount of money because the retailers uses their own brands which are already known.

If you supply one major retailer like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro, Castorama or Kingfisher with their own brands, you do not have to invest in marketing but only in production for assuming big quantities, excellent quality and tailor made products.

What kind of products are concerned by Private Labels?

Products concerned by Private Labels are retail products in the following sectors :

• DIY, hardware and Garden products and furniture

• Shoes and clothing                 

• Auto parts and accessories

• Leather ware and fashion accessories

• Electronics and domestics

• hygiene and cosmetics

• Household furniture and equipment                                 

• Drugs and health

• Festivity and seasonality products                                   

• Pets accessories and aquatics

• Table and Kitchen ware                                                    

• Stationery

• Toys and games                                                            

• Packaging

• Sport and leisure                                                  

• Mother care accessories

NFPL: an answer for both retailers and manufacturers wanting to follow the market evolution :

The NFPL & Cie (Non Food Private Label Company) has the aim of helping both retailers and manufacturers in finding each other and doing business in non food private label products.

This happens in several ways: The NFPL 2001 exhibition, the NFPL Association, the nfpl.net, and the surveys.

The NFPL 2001 Exhibition :

The NFPL 2001 will be the second fair of the NFPL & Cie and will happen next May 29th and 30th 2001 in Paris, France.

Manufacturers from all over the world will physically show their products to the European buyers coming from Hypermarkets, Specialised stores and Mail Order companies. We already reach 20 000 buyers of more than 850 retail companies in France, Benelux, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Skandinavia, Austria, Portugal  and Switzerland.

The NFPL Association :

The NFPL Association counts already more than 3000 members among whom 900 retailers and 2000 manufacturers.

The association members receive regular information about the market, the Exhibition, surveys etc…

Being member of the NFPL Association give you advantages like discount prices on all NFPL events.

The retailers involvement in NFPL: the "NFPL Committee"

Retailers are very interested in having a structure that can help them to have more information about the Private Label market but also that can organise exhibitions and business contacts with potential suppliers throughout the world. Retailers therefor have decided to join the "NFPL Committee".

The NFPL Committee is made up of International Retailers interested in  Non Food Private Labels. They will  decide the strategy of the NFPL Exhibition and stand for  the quality of the event and the quality of its visitors.

We already have the support of Opera (US$ 30 Billion turnover  with Cora  + Casino), Auchan (US$ 30 Billion), Domaxel (US$ 2 Billion) and Leroy Merlin (US$ 3 Billion)  for initiating the NFPL Committee. The Committee will start in September 2000 with 20 European Retail Representatives.

Other  NFPL  services : the surveys

The NFPL Committee and the NFPL & Cie will ask Euromonitor to realise regular surveys about the evolution of the Non Food Private Label Market. The first report will be accessible end of September 2000 and will present the Private Label forecasts for DIY and Gardening  products in Great Britain, Germany and France .