Private
label products don’t qualify as an emerging market in most Western countries
today – they’ve been a staple of the U.K. for decades and in the U.S. and
continental Europe for at least 20 years. In fact, brands in those regions now
face the challenges of a mature private label market: how to develop products
that aren’t simply viable lower-priced alternatives but are category-definers
in their own right. Russia, on the other hand, would appear to be ripe for a
private label boom. The trouble is, systemic issues make it a tough process to
enact. But that’s not stopping Russian and Western retailers from trying.