The Own Brand Retail Revolution in British Supermarkets

In this bonus episode, Clare Bailey joins BBC Merseyside to discuss the shifting grocery shopping habits in the UK. Once considered second-rate or even a little embarrassing, own label groceries now account for 52% of all items in our baskets — a dramatic change driven by rising costs, wider choice, and a new sense of pride in savvy shopping.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Do you choose supermarket owned brands over labels now? I think
the stigma. There was a stigma a few years ago, wasn't there? You know, going
to these cheaper supermarkets. Some people would take branded shopping
bags or carrier bags into these, you know, cheaper
supermarkets and walk out with them. So you didn't want to be seen.
How the worm has turned. Maybe you've been buying own brands since the

(00:21):
original grocer on the corner. But for the first time,
52% of all grocery items are now
own brands. So that's a big shift. Well, it's got to be.
It's got to be cost, isn't it? Why? Price higher food cost. Also more
choice now with premium own label options.
So has our love for the household brand name gone

(00:43):
for good? Well, maybe not quite but some of the big name brands have been.
They've been looking at this and going, we need to bring our prices down here.
They've been cutting their prices by using offers or promotions, this
price matching thing as well. BBC breakfast pizza. Roddick has been out for
his little shop and he's brought this back. Posh biscuit, Brown
biscuit. What are you going for? I'd probably go for the Tesco one.

(01:05):
The own brand one. How come? It's cheaper. I can't tell the
difference. Are you own brand person or a branded products?
Both had their own brand but their mad go
probably posh. How come? I don't know.
I just. I don't know. What was the price? The.
I'd go for the posh ones probably but I'm sure the cheap ones are just

(01:27):
as tasty. Yeah. Depends. He's coming around. Yeah, it
does the posh ones. Buns? Yeah. Vitti's
digestive. Even though they're so much more expensive.
Yes. How come? I just like the taste. I've
tried the others and I don't like the taste. The cheap version.
All day. All day? Yeah. You know, because I like Maltese.

(01:51):
Yeah. How come? What about beans?
Do you know with Heinz, they're all the same. Tesco beans are
exactly the same as Heinz. Yeah. It's just in a different tin.
You reckon you wouldn't be able. No, I can't tell the difference, I'm a chef.
So you'd go cheap? Yeah, I'd go cheap, yeah. Most probably branded.

(02:11):
How come? Just because you know what you're getting. Really? Yeah. We'll go for
home branding certain products because it's cheaper and it's. I've
got three kids so it's more cost effective for the three kids as well. Then
there's certain things I bought, John, I can't
tell the difference and I'm a chef, that fella said. So we're asking you today,
what is the product that you will not compromise on? Or maybe you've

(02:33):
changed your brand habits due to cost. Like that fell at the end. He' got
three kids trying to feed them. We're joined now by retail champion Claire
Bailey, leading UK retail expert consultant, a media
commentator with over 30 years of experience. So maybe seen
it all before, heard it all before. Nice to, to have you with us,
Claire. Are we shelving bigger brands now for the

(02:55):
supermarket owned brands? Or as a nation do we, do
we still have those things that we just will not compromise on?
I think as you've heard from the little snippets there, there's a
mixed bag. But from my point of view, having worked in retail
supply chains for grocery, I know for a fact that the own
brands are made in the same factories a lot of the time as the

(03:17):
branded. They just have a slightly different recipe, they strip out
a little bit of cost, they can buy so much on
mass that they can bring the prices down and it's
more or less the same. So unless you are
particularly picky about your beans or your mayonnaise,
you're more or less buying the same thing. Do you know what? I kind of

(03:39):
suspected that because you can't have a Branston beans factory, a
Heinz beans factory, a Cross and Blackwell beans factory, there
wouldn't be enough land. So they're all made in the same place with a little
bit of a tweak and a different label. I kind of suspected that often
that's the case. Yeah, so I mean it's not the case universally.
Yeah, of course, because obviously some of the higher end brands have

(04:02):
their very specific factories and are very particular
about what they put in their recipes. But the reality is
when we're buying own brand, we are getting a better deal,
probably because the supermarket buying power is so much higher
and the more people buy the own brand, the
less the price will be. Because the reality is the

(04:24):
more volume that goes through one particular own branded
item, whether it be the economy or the premium within the
supermarket, the better the value the supermarket will be able to
negotiate with its supplier. I mean, advertising is, is
massive here, isn't it? Because, I mean, a really good example
and, and this is, this is one of the big

(04:45):
examples that people always use. It's the power of the brand, it's getting into people's
minds. Beans means Heinz. Three little words Yeah, I knew you were going to say
that. Exactly. Well, exactly. And it's a cliche, but cliches are true. And
that is the one that they always, they always talk about when you're on courses
for this, that and the other you've hear the time. Simplicity is genius. If you
tell people enough times, they will believe it.

(05:07):
Yeah. But the thing is they go to the shelf and they see the product,
that's the branded product and then they see the price of even the
premium supermarket branded product and think, oh
yeah, I mean, still beans that might have driven them to
the shelf, but then they look at it and go, you know what, I'll give
them a try. And then you realize it's practically the same thing. So I

(05:28):
think that's why so many people have moved away. And also there
was a couple of people on you sound bites there that talked about trust,
you know, what you're going to get and everything else. And I, I get that
because if you have a particular passion for a tomato
ketchup or a mayonnaise, and I'm not going to name them, but you know who
I mean, then you will probably go to those and

(05:49):
without default is to buy those.
However you try the supermarket branded one, just as a try,
you might discover it's practically the same. Well, that's what we've found
from, you know, talking to some of our colleagues as well,
talking about, you know, brands and being similar, but changing the recipe
slightly. Can you tell us if there's a branded salted butter

(06:12):
or an unbranded one? Is there actually much difference? It's
butter and it's salt, but it's just in a different wrapper.
But it comes a trust thing. They think, I know that, I love that one
and I don't want to deviate from it because I know that that's reliable. So
there is an element of loyalty and trust towards brands. But the other
thing is the price consideration and the fact that over the last years

(06:34):
people have become a lot more willing to shop with discounters.
You were saying about the carrier bags and so on. Well, it used to
be a snobby thing, it isn't anymore. It's actually
positively beneficial to be thrifty. So it also
means that if you had a middle market price range, if you
trade down to get something more or less the same, you can then treat

(06:58):
yourself to something a little bit nicer from maybe the local butcher. So
people are mixing it up a bit more. The very discount stores and
some of the higher end stores doing really well, the people in the middle, not
so much. It's interesting you say that there was a stigma
a few years ago, and I saw this with my kids now, they're in the
mid-20s now, so buying their own thing. So they go to.

(07:18):
They're looking at the money they've got in their pocket. But when they were kids,
they wouldn't come in. We drive into the. I don't know, Lidl or
Netto, and that was around. And they'd sit in the car in case some of
their friends from school saw us shopping in these. These
supermarkets. And we couldn't believe it, you know. But now that I think
that's gone now, well, it's normal. And proof's in the

(07:40):
pudding, because a lot of the big players, they'll price match with the little players
or the not so little players now. And that says a lot, I think, doesn't
it? And the other thing that you get with some of the discounters is you
don't get such an overwhelming amount of choice. So everybody
tends to work in retail on a good, better, best principle. So you have
an economy product that's good, and then there's a better and a best,

(08:00):
which will be the premium one. But if you only offer three items
within a choice, instead of 23, which you get
in the big supermarket kits, it's a lot less overwhelming. It's easier to
shop. All right, listen, Claire, thank you very much indeed. Really appreciate your
time. Thank you. When's your next big shop, and will you be mixing and matching?
I. I go to about three different shops, I'm not gonna lie. Okay.