Private label dairy products have taken over even more space on German supermarket shelves. Results from 2010 show that 55% of all milk and milk products sold in the country bore a private label. This represents a rise of 1.3% on the year on weight basis. Based on percentage of retail turnover, the private label share of German dairy trade is just short of 44% (-0.5% on the year).

The rise in sales, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), is mainly through expansion in own labels by supermarkets as an answer to discounter success with their private labels.

But over the counter sales of cheese still remains the domain of well-established products bearing the labels of major dairies. For example the top seller under private label cheeses, blue mould products, captured 55.5% of self-service sales but only 0.2% of counter business. The blue mould products sold over the counter are led by international brands from Danish and Bavarian dairies.

Easily the biggest success in the private label dairy product sector was grated cheese, capturing 98.2% of German self-service sales in 2010 compared with 92% in the previous year. More than 90% of low-fat, high protein sour milk cheeses (Harzer cheeses) were also sold under private labels and another winner in this sector featured milk mix drinks (88.5% private label).