In the global market the distributor's brand exists today in completely different worlds.
On the one hand we encounter Western Europe, where the private label has been converted into a structural element of the distribution system, with prices in some countries exceeding even 50% of the value of the grocery stores. On the other hand we find a large part of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where the price of the distributor's brands continues to be marginal, often less than 2%.
The NielsenIQ graph corresponding to Q4 2025 perfectly describes this global fracturing and shows with extreme clarity how the private label is not simply a product category, but a very precise indicator of the level of evolution of modern retail: the global average is located at 23% of the price in value.
However, this provision hides enormous differences between hard markets and markets still in the embryonic stage.
The leading countries at world level are all European cases. At the head we find Lower Countries with 55%, followed by Suiza with 52%, United Kingdom with 49%, Portugal with 47% and Spain with 46%. These figures are very relevant: it means that in these markets approximately one of each of the products purchased in modern distribution is the distributor's brand. Both Belgium (41%), Germany (38%), Slovenia (37%), Austria (36%) and France (35%) have extremely high levels.
Italy is at 32%, clearly above the world average of 23%, even though there are still fewer of the great European champions. This data is very interesting because it describes an Italian market that is hard on private labels, but which still retains important growth spaces compared to models from Northern Europe.
In Europe the distributor's brand is not considered a simple economical alternative.
It has converted (in Italy it can still be said that it is trying to convert) into an strategic loyalty strategy, not only into a brand instrument, but mainly into an identity element of the company, a type of competitive positioning in front of the brand industry.
The most advanced European retailers have built real architecture on the surface of their MDD products and, in many cases, the consumer enters the sales point by looking directly for the home brand and not the industrial brand.
Also very interesting is the behavior of Central and Eastern Europe: Czech Republic at 28%, Slovenia at 27%, while Poland, Croatia and Romania are at 21%. These markets are experiencing a transformation very similar to the one experienced in Western Europe between the 90s and the early 2000s. Private label is growing, in fact, especially when modern retail increases at a pace compared to traditional retail.
United States, in exchange, holds 18%: a figure lower than the European one, but equally significant considering the strong historical presence of the great American industrial brands.
¿Y South America? Colombia is 15%, Costa Rica is 9%, Chile is 6%, Mexico is 4%, Argentina is 4% and Peru is just 2%; figures that describe a market would still be much lower than European standards.
But attention: this does not mean lack of opportunities. On the contrary, in many Latin American countries private labels still enter an initial phase of cultural and distribution construction.
The Colombian case is emblematic. With 15%, Colombia currently represents one of the most evolved markets on the continent, mainly thanks to the accelerated development of modern discount stores.
Here MDD is growing very rapidly because the Latin American discount store uses private label as a central element of its operating model, exactly the same as what it does in Europe.
To date, the lowest prices are in much of Asia and the Middle East: Taiwan, Morocco, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Lebanon are at less than 2%; Oman has 2%, Malaysia 3% and South Korea 4%.
In the Middle East there is a retail structure historically built around imports and international brands, while in many African areas traditional trade continues to dominate food distribution.
The graphic tells you exactly this.
Y surge entonces a question:
Is the strength of MDD really synonymous with a more evolved Mass Market Retail, or does it not have a direct relationship with it?
We analyze it in another editorial article signed by Andrea Meneghini, who will participate as a participant in the conference dedicated to Mass Market Retail during the Feria Alimentec de Bogotá, on June 11th at 2:00 pm
