Effects of intra-brand competition between private labels and manufacturer brands. Empirical results from the Italian market

A proliferation of private labels in European food retailing has been evident for several years now. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of competition between manufacturer brands and private labels on assortment and pricing practices by Italian grocery retailers. Previous studies underlined both pro-competitive and anti-competitive effects of private label development. In this study within an empirical analysis based on scanner data from Symphony IRI Group, all the Fast Moving Consumer Goods product categories are investigated over a period of two years (from September 2008 to September 2010). The empirical results indicate that there is evidence of decreasing in manufacturer brands products, prices and turnover over time when private labels proliferate