Sales for private label are outperforming branded products across Europe, new figures from IGD show.
While this might make for concerning reading to those operating in the branded space, many challenger brands continue to maintain that there is room for everyone - essentially because the believe their products to be ‘better quality’.
Amelia Christie-Miller, founder of Bold Bean Co, is among them.
Growing the category
The premium jarred bean brand owner argues that while own label continues to drop in price, category value isn’t growing with it.
“Everyone assumes commoditised categories only grow one way - price down, volume up,” she wrote on a recent Linked In post.
“Slashing price further isn’t bringing new people into the category because it was never really the barrier!”
For the bean category, Christie-Miller says growth is coming from brands like Bold Bean sitting at the “complete opposite end”.
According to the entrepreneur, a quarter of its sales are from people who never shopped beans until Bold Bean came along.
She continued: “85% of our growth is incremental to the category.
“In one major retailer, stores stocking Bold Bean Co are growing +26%. Stores without us are declining -2%.”
While Christie-Miller said she is glad that cheap beans are available to the market, she sees Bold Bean’s role as “different”.
She explained: “We make beans desirable and aspirational. We make them front of mind and put them in the front of the cupboard.”
Part of this desirability comes from the ingredients Bold Bean uses, but it’s also a result of the packaging.
“If people are genuinely going to fall in love with them and buy them differently - they need to look like something worth falling in love with. Not another functional tin in the aisle,” she added, noting that the brand would never opt for tin.
M&S enters the fray
But it appears M&S has noted this tactic, launching its own premium-looking jarred beans - with a significantly cheaper price tag.
The new range features chickpeas, green lentils, butter beans and kidney beans starting from just 55p in glass jars; and is part of a campaign with Bowel Cancer UK to help customers understand the role fibre plays in a healthy diet.
Available in 430g jars, this compares to Bold’s 300g products priced at £2.50.
In another social media post, Christie-Miller called the launch “damn scary”, expressing her puzzlement over how the premium retailer managed to make the numbers work.
“Firstly, how on earth did they make them so cheap? I know we pay way more for our raw material - so I’d expect them to be quite a bit cheaper,” the post read. “But even just on the manufacturing cost / the jar / transport alone, 55p seems madly cheap...?!”
Her post went onto describe the graft that goes into her business’s product and the “hope” that many founders will be clinging onto when they see a copycat, that yours “really is better”.
She added: “When I take a step back from the panic, I know this is a good thing. My whole mission is to make people obsessed with beans, and a retailer like M&S piling in in such a big way is a pretty strong signal that something is working.”
She added that while she dislikes M&S, she loves the messaging behind the campaign.
“I’m annoyed to say I love a lot about this initiative. The fact that they’ve linked it to supporting Bowel Cancer UK - I’m learning more and more about how that’s affecting people, and the difference beans can actually make, so raising awareness and funds for this is fab.
“So yes, it is damn scary. But I back my team to make the absolute best beans on the market. I trust that our customers care more about what’s in the jar than the fact it comes in a jar.”
Can own label compete on quality?
But her words of positivity come amidst new research from IGD that suggests the reasoning behind private label’s growth is no longer pinned on price.
More and more consumers are now also linking own label to quality. In fact more than half (52%) say private label quality matches on quality with brands.
If retailers can mimic not just the visual appeal of a brand, but the quality too - all at a lower price...well, then that’s a very scary concept for manufacturers indeed.
