It is increasingly common to find products labelled under supermarketbrands, offering less expensive prices on shelves of supermarkets inmajor cities.

According to Vu Vinh Phu, President of the HanoiSupermarket Association, selling products under retailers' brands ispopular throughout the world and has begun to develop in Vietnam inrecent years with the participation of big names such as BigC, Metro,Co.opmart and Fivimart.

Private-label products found insupermarkets are varied from beverages and foods, as well as dailynecessities such as tissue, toothpaste, shower cream and washing powder.

Currently,private-label products account for a modest percentage of storeproducts, often several hundred product types, as well as fast-movingconsumer products.

The potential of developing private labels waslarge in Vietnam, given improved attitudes of consumers towardsretailers' private labels.

A report by Nielsen, the globalinformation and measurement company, released at the end of last yearrevealed that 84 percent of consumers in Vietnam said that theirperception of private label brands had improved over time, being thehighest rate in the region.

In addition, the price ofprivate-label goods were less expensive, as supermarkets impose fewerfees with lower distribution costs than the same products with namedbrands, often from 5 percent to 30 percent lower.

Arepresentative from Hanoi Co.op Mart said developing private labelbrands was one of numerous development strategies of the supermarket.Currently, private-label products accounted for a modest 3 percent ofgoods on shelves at the supermarket.

BigC also developed severalprivate label brands, offering more than 1,000 products, and the numberwas expected to continue increasing.

Phu said that private labelproducts were the result of cooperation between producers anddistributors, which could solve distribution problems, especially forsmall-sized firms.

While the development of private-label goodsmight affect market share and consumption of existing branded products,Phu urged that supermarkets' traditional suppliers improve theirproducts' competitiveness to compete with private label goods.

NguyenThi Hoai, a consumer in Hanoi, said that if the quality ofprivate-label products was not much different from branded products ormerely "acceptable", she opted to buy private-label products due tolower prices.

According to Dinh Thi My Loan, President of theVietnam Retailer Association, consumers must pay attention to thequality of products when making purchasing decision.

Quality remains a decisive factor to draw buyers to come back to all products.-VNA