SINGAPORE: In Ms Julie Kee's household, buying no-frills bread, detergent and even fish balls is a start when it comes to trimming the grocery bill for her family of four.

The 51-year-old design drafter estimates that her family saves "a few dollars" on each trip to the supermarket by opting for some house-brand items. But were they to switch completely to house brands, she estimates that up to S$50 could be saved each time — reducing their S$150 weekly grocery bill by a third.

At a time when the price of food has risen 2.9 per cent (from 2006 to 2007) and overall inflation 4.4 per cent, more are turning to no-frills brands to cut costs.

As a result, supermarkets are seeing a spike in the sale of house-brand products, which range from bread to bottled water and tidbits to toilet rolls.

Giant Hypermarket, for example, saw an 18-per-cent increase last year. Cold Storage and Shop N Save reported a 10- to 20-per-cent increase in recent months, while NTUC FairPrice reported a "double-digit growth" in sales since it started offering a 5-per-cent discount on 500 house-brand items on Dec 19.

Consumers say they appreciate the value-for-money deals on house-brand items, which can be cheaper than their branded substitutes by 5 to 50 per cent, according to the supermarkets.

Administrator Karen Chua, who is in her 30s, said she opts for house brands when buying necessities like salt and rice. A 10kg pack of rice at Giant costs about $11 — 40 per cent less than a "branded" pack of Thai rice. "There's no compromise on quality," she added.

Making the switch to house-brand products could result in bigger savings for consumers. For example, a basket of 10 house-brand items from FairPrice, including cooking oil, canned tuna and instant noodles, would cost $23.02, "about 34-per-cent cheaper than a similar basket comprising national brands", according to a FairPrice spokesman.

Supermarkets say that due to increasing popularity, they have expanded their range of house-brand items over the years. From about 800 house-brand items in 2000, FairPrice now has over 2,000, and plans to "introduce another 3,000 items in the next five years", said the spokesperson. Giant launched about 25 new items under its Giant and Gino house brands in the last three months, bringing the total to about 950.

Even relative newcomer Sheng Siong supermarket is growing its range of house-brand items under four brands — for example, Royal Golden Grain for rice and Softess for toilet rolls. "This segment is in its early stage of development for us," said a Sheng Siong spokesman.

And consumers, it seems, will make the switch if the price difference between no-frills and branded goods is great enough, and if the difference in quality is negligible.

"If the difference is 10 or 20 cents, I won't bother. The product also has to suit me," said Ms Kee. - TODAY/ar