Price inflation in the dairy aisle has been a blessing for private-label brands.

Driven largely by egg price increases—fueled by shortages caused by the highly pathogenic avian influenza—retail dairy category costs rose 24% in January, according to data from channels tracked by Circana.

That far outpaced the price increases seen in 12 other retail product segments—from  fresh meat and seafood on the lowest end (+3.4%), to bakery items (+16.3%) landing just below dairy.

Excluding eggs, private label dollar sales growth exceeded that of national brands across all 15 dairy categories tracked by Circana in the 52-week period ended Feb. 26.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that happen,” Circana vice president of dairy insights John Crawford said last month in a webinar conducted by Dairy Foods. “It has completely reversed what we saw in 2021 and during the pandemic when brands were winning the day.”

Private label’s biggest dollar shares are in refrigerated whipped toppings (57%) and milk (51%), but yogurt, whose private label sales only clocked in at 8%,  continues to be the biggest national brand challenge. Yogurt is still the sronghold of Chobani, whose dollar sales had risen 19.6% as of Feb. 26.

“Chobani is the second-largest brand within the dairy 15 and it is the fastest-growing brand,” said Crawford.

Among noteworthy national brand dairy innovators he cited was Haagen-Daz ice cream, with a dollar sales gain of 7.1%.

With the Häagen-Dazs Butter Cookie cone, “They changed the cone from being a waffle or sugar or cake cone to a butter cookie cone.”

Additionally, Häagen-Dazs “upscaled their pints” with the introduction of Black & White Cookie ice cream.

On the co-branding side, Sargento and Mondelez partnered to introduce Balanced Breaks—which are snack packs containing Sargento cheese and mini versions of Wheat Thins, Ritz and Triscuit crackers.

“That’s a really strong product for Sargento and for Mondelez in the marketplace,” Crawford noted.

Cheese brand Tillamook has taken “cues from wines” by introducing “vintage” products dated 2012 and 2015, along with a vintage cheddar variation of its mainstay Kerrygold product line.

Private label’s biggest dollar shares are in refrigerated whipped toppings (57%) and milk (51%).