Oct 2, 2012

Vietnam - The private brand war

Follow Me on Pinterest
VietNamNet Bridge – In the economies with developed retail industry, the total revenue from private brands could make up 40 percent of the total revenue. Meanwhile, the figure remains modest at 10 percent. However, it is expected to reach 15-20 percent soon.

A lot of private brands of retailers have been launched into the market over the last few years. Metro Cash & Carry, for example, has six private brands, namely Aro, Fine Food, Fine Dreaming, HoReCa, H-Line, SIGMA, while Big C chain has five - Wow, Bakery by Big C, Casino, Big C, Huong vi (flavor) Big C, and LOTTEMart has three - LOTTEMart, LOTTEMart Save and WithOne for some 650 products. Domestic retailers have also had their own private brands. Co-op Mart now has 15 its private brands.

Retailers’ private brands have been present in a wide range of products, from fresh food, dried food, cosmetics, and stationery to household goods. However, supermarkets have been mostly focusing on two groups of products – household products and packed food.

Duong Thi Quynh Trang, Public Relation Director of Big C, while affirming that Big C private brands would cover all kinds of products, said the distribution chain would focus on developing the brands for essential goods in the immediate time, including food and foodstuff, cosmetics and household goods.

Trang, though declining to reveal the exact figures about the sales of the products bearing Big C brands, affirmed that the revenue has been increasing steadily with Wow – the brand for dish washing products – leading the sales.

LOTTEMart has also reported the satisfactory sales from the products with LOTTEMart’s brands. Kim Tae Ho, Strategic Director of the distribution chain, said on Dau tu that since June 2012, the sales of the products has increased by 55 percent over the same period of the last year.

Manufacturers may fail to be the masters of their fates

In the competition among the supermarkets’ private brands, those, who can control manufacturers and material suppliers, would win the case. Therefore, the war of the private brands has a close relation with the fates of manufacturers.

The manufacturers, who provide goods to Wal-Mart, a distribution giant, have learned that they should not provide more than 30 percent of their output to Wal-Mart, or they would lose the control over their destiny, or suffer heavily, if Wal-Mart chooses other suppliers or develops its private brands.

In fact, a lot of suppliers have to stop their business, or have to sell huge amounts of goods though they could not make any profits from the sales. However, they still want to manufacture for the Wal-Mart, because the cooperation can help popularize their brands.

In Vietnam, according to Vu Vinh Phu, Chair of the Hanoi Supermarket Association, two main scenarios can be foreseen.

First, manufacturers accept to make products for supermarkets which bear supermarkets’ brands and live off the supermarkets.

Second, the products with supermarket private brands would crushed the products of the manufacturers, while the real manufacturers would see their market shares narrowed or have to leave the market.

Phu said that in the current economic difficulties, the high inventories have forced manufacturers to jump into the race of supermarkets to develop their private brands.

Since early 2012, Ba Huan Company began providing safe poultry eggs to some supermarkets such as Big C, Co-op Mart and Metro in HCM City which then bear the supermarkets’ brands, accounting for five percent of the total sales of the company.

Pham Thanh Hung, Deputy Director of Ba Huan, said manufacturers have to provide products to supermarkets to be sold under the supermarkets’ brands. The key is that 30 percent of the total sales of the company are from the distribution channel, which means that the supermarkets would choose other suppliers instead of Ba Huan, if Ba Huan does not “accept cooperation.”

Compiled by C. V


Business & Investment Opportunities 
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. Since we are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, you may contact us at: sbc.pte@gmail.com, provisionally. Many thanks.

No comments:

Post a Comment