South Korea’s retailers boosted by private brand products

The high inflation in the country has led to a boost in sales in cheaper private brands.

The popularity of cheaper private brand products developed in-house by large discount stores, convenience store chains and online malls has been rising at a rapid pace in South Korea as inflation picked up, Korea Bizwire reported.

Discount store chain E-Mart has noted that the sales of the company’s private brand tofu products jumped by 94% last year compared to a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the nation’s major tofu makers such as Pulmuone and CJ Cheiljedang pushed up the price of their tofu products early last year. Accordingly, private brand tofu products became up to 35% cheaper than the ones made by major tofu makers.

Lotte Mart also saw sales of its private brand ramen jump by more than 100% last year, with sales of private brand milk, mineral water and canned foods rising by up to 300 percent.

For Market Kurly, last year’s best-selling item was its milk brand that the company released in collaboration with Yonsei University Dairy. The online grocery delivery platform has sold more than 1.8 million packs of the milk since it was released in January last year.

The private brand milk that online shopping store GS Fresh Mall released in June also became a top seller in the milk category last year, primarily because it was available at a price 20-30% cheaper than existing milk products.