Following years of growth, total consumption of private-label products has softened as of late, says Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. “We saw a nice continuous run for a decade, and then in the last year or two, that started slowing down,” he says. “It’s reached a plateau — it’s not declining; it’s not [growing].”
From 2000 to 2010, the category grew by 10 percentage points because of consumers turning to private-label products to save money in the face of a difficult economy, Balzer says.