In contrast with the strong growth in recent years, the discounter chain Hofer - one of the most important in Austria - for the first time reported a slowdown in its business, though of just 0.2% compared to its share of market 19.7%.

On the other side, traditional supermarkets are improving, such as Spar (28.6%) and Rewe (32%), which in 2009 expanded respectively by 0.4 and 0.7%.

Discount chains’ low-price competition therefore seems to be over, surpassed by private labels brands. The reason? Maybe discount stores in Austria have reached the peak of growth.

The traditional supermarkets’ strategy is to focus primarily on campaigns to promote their products and offer cheap private labels, such as Spar’s S-Budget. It has revealed to be a winning strategy on which supermarkets will keep on investing in the future.