Spar has set out an ambitious five-year plan for its own brand offering.

It hopes to grow sales participation of own brand from 29.2% to 40% over the next five years. Currently worth £275m in value terms, own brand grew 2% in 2013 with new lines introduced last year adding £24m in incremental sales.

Identifying own label as one of the ‘four pillars of transformation’, Spar will be improving the distribution of the existing range, getting every store in the country to stock the 100 Spar brand best sellers.

Spar will also be extending its own brand ranges, adding to its summer range to include bite-size pork pies, a Spanish chorizo ring, bbq rack of ribs and sweet chilli noodle salads. It is also launching a range of Indian and Oriental lines including ready meals, accompaniments and stir fry mix which will be available from September, and a range of chilled desserts in both single and sharing formats which will be launched later in the year.

UK brand director Susan Darbyshire said the own label sector has evolved and that Spar needs to offer a combination of quality, competitive price for customers and a strong margin for retailers.

“Customer needs are changing and items that seemed unusual in own brand a few years ago are now mainstream and we have to keep up with these changes,” she said.

“Customers have increased choices in own brand and it’s our challenge to come up with a range that helps our independent retailers compete.”

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