The objective of Private Labels of FMCG Chains in Russia, Trends of 2011 and Prognosis till 2015 Research is to provide a system analysis of PL retail trade conditions in the world and in Russia, to offer all-inclusive description of the market trends and promising directions of private label development, characteristics of market potential of the private label segment of FMCG chains in Russia, as well as formulation of recommendations for producers and retailers aimed at enhancement of PL activities efficiency. The development and consolidation of retail trade market is determined by growing significance of retail chains for wholesale and retail consumer goods trade. Under economic crisis conditions the “bottlenecks” in operation of retail chains became critical risks for regional players, and led to decrease of efficiency for federal ones. While at the world-wide market the growing margin pressure stimulated complete optimization of business processes, Russia borrowed the target factors of development without formation of a relevant package of activities aimed at their achievement. The detailed analyses of private labels dynamics at the world-wide market of FMCG makes it possible to reconsider the directions and methods of PL development in Russia due to more efficient technological, logistics and marketing schemes. Private Labels of FMCG Chains in Russia, Trends of 2011 and Prognosis till 2011 Research renders possible the definition of promising directions of PLs development, exposure and elimination of popular errors of private labels portfolio management, as well as efficient introduction of successful practices of the market leaders, taking into account the limitations of FMCG market in Russia.
In 2010 the total sales volume of private label (PL) by Russian FMCG chains came up to more than 140 bn roubles ($4.6 bn), the growth of the index by 2009 came up to about 40%. Russian FMCG chains try to follow the international trend of growing private label goods share and that is why they introduce private labels into the product mix, whishing to diversify the offered range of commodities and to increase sales volumes of PL. At the same time the shortage of true-to-life information about directions and ways of PL development, about positive and negative international experience of FMCG chains developing their PLs, specific features of production and consumption in Russia leads to faulty planning of private label development objectives. The relevance of Private Labels of FMCG Chains in Russia, Trends of 2011 and Prognosis till 2015 Research for Russian FMCG chains is determined by the necessity of efficient strategic planning of private labels development in Russia and definition of their effectiveness enhancement in the mid-term.
In August 2011 the survey conducted among production companies revealed that 66% of companies, which do not produce PL, are interested in entering this market; 65% of PL suppliers are interested in expansion of this type of production. The relevance of the Research for Russian production companies is determined by the fact that suppliers of PL are often not ready to flexibly comply with rather long list of the customer’s requirements, and production of PL turns out to be unprofitable for the supplier. The development strategies of PL should be rationally integrated into the manufacturing system of other company’s brands; they should serve the aims of efficient competition at the market and should be taken into account when researching the marketing outlets for company’s own output.
During the preparation of the Research of PL market in Russia the specialists of INFOLine IA identified deep recessionary tendencies of private labels market in 2010-2011, described typical for Russia problems in the field of creation and promotion of PLs, which represent key obstacles for development of private labels and substantially divert away the development vector of the Russian consumer goods market from the world-wide trends. The most important among them are the incorrect KPIs of PL departments at retail chains (concentration on the number of launched SKUs instead of sales performance figures), which determine the overall low efficiency of the majority of new private label goods and absence of the essential support of the brands at retail chains (especially negatively such situation affects umbrella brands), as well as the unreadiness of retail chains to provide some kind of guarantees to producers, which prevents shaping of prerequisites for a long-term partnership. Under conditions of economic crisis the sales problems forced the suppliers to agree to practically any conditions on the part of retail chains regarding production of PL, and at present time the retailers go on with a similar strategy, offering no guarantees on volumes and terms of their purchases of PL, on buy-out of PL packaging etc. As the result, the production of private labels becomes unpractical for many not-too-large producers and they gradually scale down their activities in this direction. The largest producers continue their production of PL goods, since it – to certain, but not very large extent – positively affects positions of their own brands within a retail chain, as well as allows optimization of logistic costs. In connection of the above-mentioned factors the INFOLine IA specialists rather cautiously estimate the prospects for increase of PL share in Russia and would describe the overall situation at PL market as stagnation, as far as such performance indexes as SKU and retail chains sales are concerned.
Private Labels of FMCG Chains in Russia, Trends of 2011 and Prognoses till 2015 Research includes the characteristics of such phenomenon as private labels at retail chains and changes, which PL introduces to development of FMCG market; characteristics of PL goods market development abroad and in Russia; directions of efficiency enhancement in the field of creation and promotion of PL. Research and analyses of the trends at the private label world market makes it possible to make a true-to-life evaluation of its priority development directions, which should become relevant for Russia in mid-term, taking into account the specificity of Russian market development. On the bases of the results of the Research the specialists of INFOLine IA formulated recommendations aimed at enhancement of FMCG retailers’ activities efficiency and improvement of PL portfolio management practices.
In September 2011 the rating of Russian retail chains prepared on development indicators of PLs, winners were awarded by prize INFOLine Private label Profi.
Main sections of Private Labels of FMCG Chains in Russia, Trends of 2011 and Prognosis till 2015 Research.

No.	Section’s Title	Section’s description
	About the Research	Aims, objectives and methods of the Research, main prerequisites of its realization, experience of INFOLine IA in the field of retail trade.
I	International experience of FMCG retail chains’ private labels development	Approaches to research and treatment of PL phenomenon, classification of PL, basic strategic principles of PL creation; history, main trends and development performance figures of PL world market.
II	Structure of consumers’ preferences in respect of PL and brands in Russia and the world	Changes in consumers’ preferences of population in Russia and countries of the world in the segment of PL food commodities at retail chains under recession and economic recovery conditions.
III	Russian private label market of FMCG retail chains	Description of specific development of PL market in Russia, rating of 50 largest retailers of FMCG segment in Russia according to key indexes of PL development, number of stores and their aggregate trading floorspace.
IV	Recommendations on efficiency enhancement of PL portfolio management for retail chains and FMCG manufacturers	Analyses of the main problems of FMCG chains of Russia related to management of private labels, key directions of efficiency enhancement. Practices of private labels development by FMCG producing companies, Recommendations for enhancement of PL activities efficiency for Russian FMCG suppliers.

As a part of its project of expansion of its services range during 2002-2010 INFOLine IA presented the following package of information products:

In 2002 – Topical News: Trading Chains service.

In 2004 – information portal www.advis.ru with traffic of more than 12 thousand visitors a day. The subject of Trading chains is one of the most popular at the portal.

In 2005 – an archive of topical materials devoted to the subject of Trading chains.

In 2005 – quarterly branch FMCG Trading Chains, number of users – 200 companies.

In second quarter 2007 – analytic database 230 FMCG Trading Chains of Russia;

In second quarter 2008 – Hypermarkets Segment research.

In the 1st quarter of 2009 – a monthly periodical branch survey Rating of FMCG Trading Chains in Russia, containing performance dynamics of 70 major retailers in Russia.

In second quarter 2009 – a survey devoted to the subject of Retail Foodstuffs Trade in Russia in 2008-2009 Effects of crisis.

In second quarter 2010 – Retail FMCG Trade in Russia. Results of 2009. Prognosis till 2012 research.

In the forth quarter of 2010 – 550 FMCG Trading Chains of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Republic of Belarus database, which includes the basic results of the research of the retail trade in regions and contact information for 550 largest FMCG store chains of Russia with sales volumes over 2300 billion US dollars 2008 (these chains contain 69 thousand trading units with total trading floorspace of more than 17 million square meters).

In the first quarter of 2011 – Hypermarkets Segment of 24 Cities and Regional areas of Russia Research, which contains analyses of this segment’s conditions in 22 cities of Russia (including 2 cities-regional areas: Moscow and St. Petersburg) and 2 regional areas of Russia (not including Moscow and St. Petersburg), describes conditions of retail market of Russia in general, development and conditions of hypermarket format in Russia; it also contains a data- base of 470 operating FMCG hypermarket chains of Russia.

In the first quarter of 2011 – Segment of Shopping Centers in 24 Cities and Regional Areas of Russia. Results of 2010. Prognoses till 2013 Research, which characterizes trends and development outlooks for the segment of shopping centers in Russia, contains analyses of the overall conditions of shopping centers in 22 cities of Russia (including 2 cities-regional areas: Moscow and St. Petersburg) and 2 regional areas of Russia (Moscow and Leningrad regions).

In the third quarter of 2011 – FMCG Retail Trade in Russia. Results of 2010. Prognoses till 2013 Research, which includes prognoses for macroeconomic performance figures of Russia, description of the current conditions and development prognosis for retail trade in Russia, evaluation of the main aspects of the trade regulation, characteristics of the development indexes of FMCG trading chains, business-references for TOP-10 largest retailers of Russia and 100 FMCG retailers of the second echelon, analyses of situation in regional areas in Russia.

In the third quarter of 2011 – INFOLINE RETAILER RUSSIA TOP-100. Rating of Trading Chains. Results of 2010 Research, which contains dynamics of the key performance indexes of retail trade in RF, dynamics of key indexes for TOP-100 in total, market surveys of FMCG, home appliances and electronics, DIY and homeware, mobile devices, perfumery and cosmetics, fashion and children’s products. The research also contains structured information about their development.