Own label brands way forward for supermarkets in economic crisis: Dr. Rohantha Athukorala

Latest data reveal that one third of the income of a typical Sri Lankan household is spent on groceries, which has now shot up by 60% given the current pressure on the disposable income for an average Sri Lankan. This is now even impacting the A and B social economic groups, said Dr. Rohantha Athukorala at a Keells forum recently. 

In fact, for many consumer goods, the year 2022 saw the overall business declining by as high as 20% according to the latest data revealed by Kantar Household panel, said Dr. Athukorala who heads the Artificial Intelligence company for brand mapping Clootrack Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan.

This is the challenge that Sri Lanka is faced with in the backdrop of inflation at 70% and interest rates at 30%. Going to the specifics, he cited that those households who buy over 25 categories have dropped from 48% to 26% in the A SEC group whilst in the B SEC group it has dropped from 42% to 22% which is the volatility in the marketplace even on the top two tiers of the social strata.

Given this backdrop, one way that a responsible supermarket chain can help the Sri Lankan household is by developing own label brands like the Keells brand of products. Even though the switching from own label brands to conventional brands takes place, may be this time around it will happen at a larger scale due to the pressure on the purse. The current pricing strategy of Keells own branded products being priced at 10% lower than comparable brands covering multiple product categories is the right way to use this strategy as even the AB SEC groups are cash strapped as per the Kanta consumer wallet survey, said Athukorala.

Given that Keells has over 230 categories in the Keells product portfolio and it is available across all 131 retail outlets in Sri Lanka which means a typical housewife can find a store close to home which we call ‘at arm’s reach’, product availability is there, he added.