HCM City (VNA) - From the many cooking oils on ashelf at Co.opmart Dinh Tien Hoang supermarket, Nguyen Thanh Truc of District 1has picked 2l bottles of Co.opmart soya cooking oil.

“Istarted using this cooking oil a few months ago, and saw its quality was okwhile its price is good compared to other products,” she said.

In hertrolley are also some other Co.opmart-label products such as box tissues and afloor cleaning liquid.

A researchby Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam showed that 39 percent of Vietnamese shoppers atmodern outlets prefer private-label products.

The top10 common products are toilet paper,box tissues, table napkins, loose leaf teas, floor cleaners, liquid detergents,frozen foods, dishwashing liquids, detergent powders and cooking oils, it said.

Accordingto industry experts, the development of private-label products is an inevitabletrend.

Developingsuch products benefits consumers, retailers and manufacturers, they said.Consumers can get quality products at lower prices, retailers can offer morechoices and thus retain customers, while manufacturers earn more from makingthese products.

Afterdeveloping private labels since 2007, Saigon Co.op, the country’s leading retailer,now has nearly 3,000 products, including essential products, householdutensils, students’ uniforms, office fashion, rice paper and others.

Vo HoangAnh, private-label director at Saigon Co.op, said: “There is huge potential forprivate-label development in Vietnam. Consumers are growing fond ofprivate-label products since they are quality products at good prices.”

Throughdevelopment of private-label products, Saigon Co.op wants to attract and retaincustomers better, he said.

“With itsadvantages of having the largest retail market share in fast moving consumergoods in the country, a diversified retail model, and understanding ofconsumers’ needs, we have a clear product development direction whenco-operating with manufacturers in making private-label products."

Theco-operation would help the manufacturers fully utilise their productioncapacity, promote their brands to consumers since their information is alsoavailable on the packaging as well as in Saigon Co.op’s promotions, he said.

“So wewant manufacturers to have peace of mind when producing products based onSaigon Co.op standards.”

Manyforeign retailers such as LOTTE Mart too have private-label productsmanufactured by enterprises in Vietnam not only for selling in the domesticmarket but also to export to other markets.

Doan DiepBinh, head of PR and events at LOTTE Mart Vietnam, said the supermarket startedto develop private-label products over a year ago and has more than 1,000 ofthem.

“In 2017LOTTE also exported to Myanmar and Laos nearly 2 billion VND (88,105 USD) worthof Choice L private-label products, including foodstuff, consumer goods,household plastics.”

KantarWorldpanel’s research also found that private labels are still limited in Vietnam,accounting for a mere 2.4 percent of sales at supermarkets compared to 20-30 percentin the US and EU.

The lowrate is mainly due to the underdeveloped modern trade channel, lack of adiverse range of products and poor communication, it said.

However,with the strong development of modern retail channel, the market for privatelabel products is projected to grow further, according to experts.

Binhsaid: “The LOTTE private-label products are meant to increase choices forcustomers, so [we] choose to invest slowly but surely. We will expand certainprivate-label products, with a focus on essential food items serving consumers’daily needs.”

Anh said:“Saigon Co.op would continue looking for capable partners with the same senseof purpose to develop specific featured products to bring a better shoppingexperience to customers coming to shop at our retail systems.”  

Accordingto Le Thanh Lam, deputy general director of Saigon Food JSC, a company thatmakes private-label products for supermarkets and has a contract to supplynearly 50 dishes to 7-Eleven convenience stores, there is a steadyoutlet for private-label products.

Thanks tothat, her company has been able to optimise the capacity utilisation ofmachinery, equipment and factories besides saving distribution costs.-VNA