Research of private label development in Croatia

Private labels have been present on the market since 19th century but their intensive market growth began in the last thirty years after retailers realized what their potential could be in the fight against ever-growing competition. Their market growth has not been distributed equally thought the world so Europe became the region with the highest private label market share, which exceeds 40% on some markets. Although the private label market share in Croatia is considerably smaller, it has also increased steadily over the last decade since private labels were introduced on the market. This paper presents the findings of a research conducted for the purpose of identifying trends in private label development on the Croatian market. The research was conducted through in-depth interviews with private label managers in retail companies in Croatia, and with the managers responsible for private label production in manufacturing companies. The research identified three expected trends of private label development in Croatia and these are: an increase in private label quality, the maintenance of a price gap between private labels and manufacturers’ brands and a further increase in the private label market share.