Singapore House Brand Comparison: FairPrice vs Meadows vs RedMart vs Sheng Siong

Aside from its impact on people’s health, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit businesses and the economy hard.

Many companies in the tourism, aviation, and the oil and gas services industries have seen their revenues all but dry up.

But, supermarkets in Singapore are thriving.

Amid the recession and bad labour market, consumers are becoming more cost-conscious and turning towards supermarket house brand products.

Speaking to The Straits Times, a Dairy Farm (SGX: D01) spokesman stated that the sales for its grocery retail business have seen a double-digit increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing that:

“Demand for our Meadows range of products has grown proportionately with this increase,” the spokesman said, adding that the brand’s nuts and potato chip range are top sellers.

But here’s the million-dollar question. Which HouseBrand is the most affordable and how much can you expect to save switching to house brands?

To figure this out, I will be comparing the prices of house brands from FairPrice, Meadows (Dairy Farm), Sheng Siong and RedMart house brand products.

These are some of the biggest supermarket chains in Singapore with an established house brand line.

I will also be comparing the house brand prices with the cheapest name brand product that I can find, for a point of reference.

The list will consist of select items from the basket of goods used to calculate Singapore’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August 2020.

Information accurate as of 16 October 2020.

TL;DR: FairPrice vs Meadows vs RedMart vs Sheng Siong House Brands

Why Choose House Brands?

For shoppers, buying name brand products makes less sense when generally, the biggest difference between name brands and the house brand version is its price.

You will find that the quality of house brand products is often close to their brand name counterparts or are at least of reasonable quality.

In some cases they are even made by the same manufacturer, just packaged differently. You can tell this is the case when you compare ingredient lists.

Regardless, house brands are good for consumers, as they help lower prices overall.

This is because the more affordable house brands put pressure on name brands to produce a better product at a cheaper price.

This is likely to result in the overall average price for that product decreasing.

Comparison Methodology

For this comparison, I will be using a select list of items taken from the basket of goods used to calculate Singapore’s Consumer Price Index (August 2020).

The list includes:

1. Premium Thai White Rice (Per 5 Kilogram)
2. Ordinary White Bread (Per 400 Gram)
3. Instant Noodles (Per 5 Packets)
4. Cheese (Per 12 Slices)
5. Hen Eggs (Per 10)
6. Canola Oil (Per 2 Kilogram)
7. White Sugar (Per 2 Kilogram)
8. 3 in 1 Instant Coffee (Per 15 packs)

FairPrice (NTUC) House Brand

On this list, FairPrice or otherwise known as NTUC, is the most established, as it has a range of over 2,000 house brand products split into six categories.

Also, the company has also frozen the price of some of its most popular house brand products till December 2020 to help consumers cope with the ill effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company is also looking to expand its exclusive house brand products; which include the recently-launched SmartChoice label that carries adult diapers and cleaning products.

Dairy Farm House Brand (Meadows)

For starters, let’s look at the Meadows range of house brand products that was recently launched by the Dairy Farm group.

Meadows is the group’s first exclusive house brand with a little over 200 products ranging from fresh produce to snacks.

You can buy Meadows products from Dairy Farm supermarkets like Cold Storage, Market Place, Giant and convenience store chain 7-Eleven.

In addition, Giant has committed to reducing the prices of hundreds of its everyday essentials by an average of 20% for at least six months from 24 September 2020.

This includes products from name brands as well as Giant’s house brand Meadows.

RedMart House Brand

Next, we have RedMart, with the company selling its house brand products under the RedMart Private Label brand.

Currently, the RedMart Private Label brand has a little over 360 products; with the company looking to expand its house-brand range to include more cooking and baking essentials.

Sheng Siong House Brand

Last but not least we have Sheng Siong, and its vast array of over 1,200 house brand offerings.

There are the Happy Family, Tasty Bites, Heritage Farm and Bake For You brands.

Meadows vs FairPrice vs RedMart vs Sheng Siong House Brands vs Name Brand Price Comparison

*Do note that the percentages are rounded up to the nearest integer. Prices recorded are actual retail prices and do not take into account sales for a more balanced comparison. Information accurate as of 16 October 2020.

Overall, you will get to save quite a bit if you opt for the Supermarket house brands over name brands for household essentials.

If you switch to Meadows house brand products, you can save on average about 20% for the cheaper items.

If you switch to FairPrice house brand products, you can save on average about 21% for the cheaper items.

As for Sheng Siong house brand products, you can on average save about 27% for the cheaper items for the most savings.

For RedMart Private Label, you can on average save about 10% for the cheaper items. But for now, their range of house brands for the essentials is a bit lacking.

However, there are some things that are 3% – 7% more expensive if you opt for house brands.

Personally, I think this is an easy choice for me to opt for house brands as I am not too picky and want to cut back a bit during this period of uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And as you would know, not everything house brand is necessarily worse.

Why not try it out for yourself and you might find that you don’t want to switch back to name brands anymore!

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