Shoppers Drug Mart looks to private-labels as customers hunt for deals

From the Canadian Press:
Retailers are shifting their focus to private-label brands as more Canadians search for low-cost shopping alternatives, and the chief executive of Shoppers Drug Mart wants to ensure that the company's popular Life brand and its other private-label products, aren't left in the dust.

Jurgen Schreiber told shareholders at the company's annual meeting Thursday that Canada's largest drug store chain by revenues (TSX:SC) is introducing three to five new private-label items each day, as part of long-term revamp of its private-label products across the entire store.

"There's so many more private-label (items) in the store," the CEO said in an interview after the meeting.

"Last year we had, I think, 1,800 new products coming in on private label."

Chances are, you probably didn't notice most of them the last time you visited their stores because, as Schreiber puts it, they were "silently introduced" onto the shelves, selling under relatively covert names like Nativa Organics, Quo cosmetics and Get office supplies. ...more