Private label has crossed the 40% value share threshold in EU6 for the first time. Circana confirmed in April 2026 that PL reached 48% unit share across EU6 — a record. This tracker gives strategy directors, FMCG suppliers, and investors the definitive 2026 baseline: private label share by retailer, penetration by category, the momentum signals reshaping the channel, and three strategic reframes that should change how you model FMCG growth assumptions.
| Retailer | Country / Region | Est. PL Share | PL Revenue | 2026 Momentum Signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aldi Nord | DE, NL, BE, PL | ~90% | ~€20B | Aldi Original rebrand (Sep 2025): 90 brands → 26 lines; +90 stores EU-wide 2026 |
| Aldi Süd | DE, UK, ES, IT, AU | ~90% | ~€50B | Two-thirds of UK households buy from Aldi; PL drives 7.1% store traffic gain H1 2025 |
| Lidl (Schwarz Group) | DE, UK, ES, IT, PL, EU-wide | ~80% | ~€100B | +150 new premium PL products H1 2025; Schwarz Group revenue €175B, Lidl GB €132.1B |
| Migros CH | CH (Switzerland) | ~95% | ~CHF 15B | Highest PL share in Europe; restructuring 2025–2026, sold Tegut/Micasa/SportX/Do it+Garden |
| Mercadona | ES (core market) | ~75–80% | ~€20B | Dominant Spain 27.3% market share; Hacendado brand deepening in every category |
| Coop CH | CH (Switzerland) | ~55% | ~CHF 10B | Overtakes Migros: 43% Swiss food market share (vs Migros 37.4%); organic PL differentiation |
| Tesco | UK, IE, HU, CZ | ~50%+ | ~£13B UK PL | Tesco Finest: premium bakery, chilled, ready meals expansion 2025–2026 |
| Sainsbury's | UK | ~47% | ~£7B group PL | Taste the Difference: +12 new SKUs across ambient and chilled Q1 2026 |
| Edeka | DE | ~45% | ~€25B | Expanding Premium organic tiers; Edeka Zentrale + local cooperatives structure |
| Rewe / Penny | DE, AT, PL | ~40% | ~€15B | Penny (Rewe Group): PL-led format in DE/PL; Rewe brand expansion in AT |
| Ahold Delhaize | BE, NL, US | ~35–40% | ~€12B | Albert Heijn (NL): organic PL expansion; Stop & Shop (US): private label refresh |
| Carrefour | FR, ES, IT, EU-wide | ~33% (→35%+ target) | ~€15B | Carrefour Sélection: +5% value growth 2025; CEO Alexandre Bompard: PL is structural growth engine |
| Conad | IT | 34.1% | €6.5B (+5.7% YoY) | €2.17B investment plan 2025–2027; European Private Label Awards 2026: 3 category wins |
| Jumbo | NL | ~35% | ~€3B | Premium own-label food expansion; Jumbo Foodservice PL gaining share from Bidfood |
| Colruyt | BE | ~50% | ~€2.5B | Sparing format with Bio-Planet (organic PL) and Cora hyper; PL majority of volume |
| Tosano | IT (Emilia-Romagna) | ~30–35% | ~€400M | Fastest-growing regional Italian discounter; aggressive own-brand fresh strategy |
SOURCES: NIELSENIQ (2024, 2025), CIRCANA EU6 TRACKER (L52W AUG 2025), PLMA INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL (MAR 2025), ESM MAGAZINE, COMPANY ANNUAL REPORTS, HORTIDAILY · ALL FIGURES ESTIMATED; CONFIRM WITH OFFICIAL COMPANY DISCLOSURES BEFORE INVESTMENT DECISIONS
| Category | PL Share (Value) | YoY Change | Fastest PL Growth Signal | Branded Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bakery (fresh, in-store) | ~55–65% | +1–2pp | Aldi/Lidl in-store bakery investment: local sourcing commitments 2025–2026 | Low |
| Ambient Grocery | ~50–55% | Stable | PLMA 2026 show: ambient shelf space growing; discount PL expanding into snacks, pasta, cooking oils | High — mature |
| Dairy | ~48–55% | +2–3pp | Aldi/Lidl premium dairy (organic, A2 protein, lactose-free); own-brand butter outsells branded in UK, DE, NL | High — structurally entrenched |
| Fresh Produce | ~35–45% | +1–2pp | Italy fresh PL: +0.7pp share gain H1 2025 (Circana); Mercadona Hacendado fresh; Aldi bakery expansion | Medium — quality gap closing fast |
| Frozen | ~38–45% | +2–3pp | Lidl: premium frozen fish and plant-based SKUs; Aldi Specially Selected frozen range; Conad frozen expansion | High — quality matches mainstream branded |
| Ready Meals / Chilled Prepared | ~30–40% | +2–3pp | M&S: The counter is the product; Tesco Finest ready meals; Aldi/Lidl chilled prepared in UK | Medium — quality gap closed significantly |
| Health & Beauty (HBC) | ~22–30% | +3–4pp | Action (non-food HBC): fastest-growing European discounter by store count; Aldi Choceur chocolate +83% volume 2024 | Medium — historically brand-protective |
SOURCES: CIRCANA EU6 FMCG TRACKER (H1 2025), MARCA BY BOLOGNAFIERE & ADM (JAN 2026), NUMERATOR TRACKER (2024), GROCERY TRADE NEWS, HORTIDAILY, PLMA 2026 SHOW COVERAGE
EUROPEAN RETAILER PRIVATE LABEL SHARE — 2026 LANDSCAPE
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
DISCARDER ZONE (75–95% PL) PREMIUM-PL ZONE (45–60% PL)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Aldi Nord/Süd ╔══════════════╗ Edeka ╔══════════════╗
90% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ~45% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
Migros CH ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ Coop CH ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
~95% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ~55% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
Lidl ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ Tesco ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
~80% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ~50%+ PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
╚══════════════╝ ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
╚══════════════╝
CONVERTER ZONE (30–45% PL) TRADITIONAL ZONE (25–35% PL)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mercadona ╔══════════════╗ Conad ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
~75–80% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ 34.1% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
Rewe/Penny ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ Carrefour ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
~40% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ~33% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
Sainsbury's ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ Jumbo ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
~47% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ~35% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
Ahold Delh. ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ Tosano ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
~35–40% PL ║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ~30–35% est.║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║
║▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓║ ╚══════════════╝
╚══════════════╝
EU6 SUMMARY: €291B PL value | 40% value share | 48% unit share
TOP MARKETS: NL 55% | Spain 51% | DE 42% | UK 37% | FR 36% | IT 30%
SOURCE: CIRCANA EU6 TRACKER (L52W AUG 2025) · PLMA INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL (MAR 2025) · MARCA BY BOLOGNAFIERE & ADM (JAN 2026) · COMPANY DISCLOSURES · AISLEINTEL ANALYSIS · MAY 2026
Tesco Finest — Premium Tier Goes Mass
Tesco's Finest range is the most significant premium PL expansion in the UK market in 2026. The programme spans bakery, chilled prepared, and frozen — three of the highest-margin, highest-brand-switching categories. Tesco targets 30% UK market share by 2027, with private label innovation (Finest + its Farm Brands) central to that strategy. The signal for FMCG brands: Tesco is using premium PL as the primary vehicle for winning back the affluent core shopper who defected to Lidl on price but still buys Finest-tier when quality is equivalent.
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference — 12+ New SKUs Q1 2026
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range has added 12+ new SKUs across ambient grocery, chilled, and household in Q1 2026 — a significant acceleration versus the prior year's pace. Sainsbury's is narrowing the gap with Tesco on market share (now ~16.1% vs Tesco ~27.4%) and is using premium PL as the primary differentiator in the mid-market.
Lidl — 150 New Premium PL Products, Continuing into 2026
Lidl's premium-tier PL expansion is the most operationally significant of any discounter. Schwarz Group has repositioned Lidl's own-brand range from "cheap equivalent" to "hero product category." Lidl's UK expansion (+50+ stores in 2026, £600M capex) is accompanied by a ranging decision that positions Lidl's core food range against Tesco and Sainsbury's on quality, not just price.
Carrefour Sélection — +5% Value Growth, Targeting 35%+ PL Share
Carrefour's Sélection tier has delivered +5% value growth in 2025. Alexandre Bompard (CEO) has been public about private label as a structural growth engine, not a defensive measure. The 2024–2026 strategy commits to lifting PL share from ~33% to 35%+ across the European footprint. For brand managers with listings across the Carrefour estate, this is not a slow trend — it is an explicit commercial commitment to grow PL at branded's expense.
The Structural Conclusion for FMCG Brands
The commercial question in 2026 is not "how do we maintain share?" — it is "which of our SKUs can we defend on product grounds that private label cannot replicate?" If the answer is "none," the ranging conversation is already lost. The FMCG giants that are surviving this dynamic — Unilever with its Power Brands strategy, Nestlé with Fuel for Growth — have answered that question and allocated capital accordingly. Everyone else is negotiating from a weaker position than they think.
PL growing at +3.8% per year by value; branded FMCG at ~0.8–1.2%
Gap = ~250–300bps annual share transfer from branded to private label
At this rate, branded FMCG's share of EU6 grocery falls below 55% by 2030
Circana confirmed in April 2026 that PL reached 50% unit share across EU6 for the first time. Any FMCG supplier whose product is on shelf in DE, FR, UK, ES, IT, or NL is now in a category where the buyer (retailer) has structural leverage they did not have three years ago. Price parity vs equivalent PL quality is the floor, not a concession.
Italy registered +4.7% PL value growth in H1 2025 — strongest of any EU6 market. Fresh food PL gained +0.7pp; functional products surged +21.7% by value. Italy is the third-largest European grocery market. If your European PL strategy does not have an Italy-specific workstream, you are leaving share on the table. Mercadona, Lidl Italia, Selex, Conad, and Aldi Italia are the primary vehicles.
Unilever's ice cream demerger, Nestlé's brand portfolio compression (400→150), and the broader FMCG exit from "non-core" categories create supply chain disruption — but also opportunity. Private label manufacturers and co-packers positioned to absorb displaced branded production capacity can grow volume without winning new business from scratch. Watch the FMCG M&A pipeline for brand divestiture signals that precede supply chain restructuring by 12–18 months.