Report: Alcohol struggles while private labels gain momentum

By Oliver Catchpole

Published: 18 December, 2025

According to a new report from market research firm Circana, private labels now account for 42% of the value of all consumer packaged goods (CPG) sold across what it calls the EU6 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK).

In supermarkets – the most important channel for private labels and brands – this value share is even higher at 44%.

However, supermarkets continue to be difficult for alcohol, with sales value declining across both brands (-1.1%), and private labels (-2.7%), with a total contraction in the year to September 2025 of -1.4%.

Read more: Alliance to host combined Burgundy and Rhône en primeur tasting

Despite private labels' better overall performance, within the alcohol category private label sales value generally fell faster than brands. For example, private label beers fell -2.7%, while beer brands shrank by -0.7%.

Circana recorded reduction across major categories including beer (-0.9%), wine (-1.9%) and spirits (-3.0%), although growth was recorded in smaller categories such as RTDs (+8.2%) and cider (+0.5%).

This contrasts with other edible supermarket categories, where half of all value growth and three quarters of all unit growth has been driven by private labels. For example, drinks performed strongly, with a +6.5% value growth driven by bottled water, carbonates and coffee.

Another example, confectionary, saw strong value gains (+6.8%) driven by massively increased prices, with private labels increasing prices at nearly double the rate of brands.

Despite high background inflation across the EU (2.2% year-on-year, for the year to September 2025) and in the UK (over 3%), overall CPG performance has continued to improve, with unit sales rising +0.8% and value sales rising +3.1% to €22.6bn.

Within this growth, edible categories were responsible for over 90% of the increase in value sales.

Commenting on the growth of private labels, Ananda Roy, senior vice president of Strategic Growth Insights at Circana, said: “Private labels are now firmly embedded in Europe’s grocery market, and their strength in supermarkets gives them a clear advantage as economic pressures continue.

“With inflation rising and shoppers feeling the strain, we expect private labels to gain further momentum through the rest of 2025. Brands will need to be far more tactical with promotions, pricing and innovation if they want to stay competitive.”

Picture credit: Viscious-Speed on Pixabay

Printer friendly version