Coles and Woolworths are among a growing and diverse set of retailers injecting hundreds of millions into private-label range expansion – not just for revenue growth, but customer stickiness, trust and loyalty. They’re no longer just chasing price-conscious consumers: Today’s own brand strategies are leveraging every lesson from the brand playbook to win from value to premium tier, utilising quality product credentials, growing first-party data insights, category diversification and co-brand partnerships while also tapping into future-forward trends such as health and wellbeing, blurred work/home lifestyles, sustainable sourcing, changing consumer behaviours and preferences to innovate. It’s working. Circana figures show 4.8 per cent year-on-year growth across CPG/FMCG to $46bn in annual private-label sales last year. Complementary research shows 95 per cent of Aussie consumers are now open to buying private-label brands, and exclusive research supplied to Mi3 reveals broad familiarity and emerging motivators for own brand purchases. Even more significantly, Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly being swayed to consider private-label products. Here’s the lowdown on why and how retailers are making private-label the next big brand success story, and what name brands should attempt to fight back.