Private-label push: Pingo Doce hazelnut spread targets Nutella fans

Portuguese retail group Jeronimo Martins is leaning on its Pingo Doce hazelnut and cocoa spread to keep shoppers loyal as private-label foods gain share. A familiar chocolate-hazelnut flavor profile and aggressive pricing are central to the strategy.

Edited by ad hoc news New Releases & Launches Desk. Reviewed before publication on 06/16/2026 at 2:26 AM ET. Details in the imprint.

Pingo Doce's hazelnut and cocoa spread has become a quiet workhorse in Jeronimo Martins' supermarkets, offering a lower-priced alternative to global brands like Nutella while keeping shoppers inside the retailer's own ecosystem. A Pingo Doce recipe page highlights the spread as a key ingredient in desserts, underlining how central the product has become to the private-label lineup.

What the Pingo Doce hazelnut spread offers on the shelf

Marketed simply as a chocolate and hazelnut cream under the Pingo Doce banner, the spread aims straight at families looking for a familiar taste at a noticeably lower shelf price than multinational rivals in Portugal and, increasingly, in Poland via the Biedronka chain. Jeronimo Martins' 2023 annual report notes that private-label products represent a significant share of sales at Pingo Doce and Biedronka, providing retailers with better margins than branded goods.

The Pingo Doce spread is typically sold in 400 g to 750 g plastic jars, fitting the mainstream segment rather than positioning as a gourmet or organic specialty product. According to Portuguese retail flyers and store listings, the spread often undercuts international brands on price per kilogram, particularly during in-store promotions that bundle the product with bread or breakfast items. Nutritionally, it follows the category norm with a base of sugar and vegetable oils, supplemented by cocoa powder and a smaller proportion of hazelnuts, which makes taste and price the primary selling points rather than health credentials.

For Jeronimo Martins, the relevance goes beyond a single SKU: spreads, breakfast foods and pantry staples are one of the classic entry points for private-label adoption among budget-conscious consumers. Once shoppers perceive that the retailer's own brand can match the taste of a household-name chocolate-hazelnut spread, they are more likely to trust Pingo Doce on less emotional categories such as canned vegetables, frozen foods or cleaning products. This halo effect is precisely what the group is targeting as inflation keeps food prices elevated across Iberia and Central Europe.

Packaging and branding lean heavily into Pingo Doce's established green and black color scheme, with straightforward photography of bread slices topped generously with the spread to signal indulgence at a budget-friendly cost. That visual continuity matters for in-store navigation: regular Pingo Doce shoppers can locate the jar quickly and intuitively associate it with other own-label ranges, from dairy to snacks, where similar design cues are used. In-store tastings and cross-merchandising with private-label sliced bread and breakfast biscuits have been deployed periodically to boost trial, especially on weekends when family traffic peaks.

Strategic role in Jeronimo Martins' private-label expansion

The hazelnut and cocoa spread also illustrates how Jeronimo Martins adapts local tastes across its portfolio. In Portugal, the Pingo Doce version caters to a strong breakfast and afternoon-snack culture centered on bread, coffee and sweet accompaniments, while in Poland, similar Biedronka-labelled spreads appear alongside wafers and baking ingredients to tap into different consumption habits. This local tailoring is reflected in the company's merchandising strategies, with more emphasis on school-snack messaging in Polish stores and a broader breakfast narrative in Portugal.

From a margin perspective, own-label spreads allow Jeronimo Martins to tighten price points without handing volume to competing retailers. The company has repeatedly highlighted in its financial reports that private-label penetration supports resilience in times of consumer downtrading, a pattern that played out strongly through 2023. As shoppers in Portugal and Poland searched for cheaper options amid food inflation, value-tier and mainstream private-label products in categories like spreads, dairy and frozen meals gained share, cushioning the impact of promotional pressure on headline brands.

Jeronimo Martins' management has flagged further expansion of private-label ranges as a pillar of its medium-term strategy, with innovations focused on taste, packaging convenience and, selectively, on perceived health upgrades such as reduced sugar or palm-oil-free recipes. While the Pingo Doce hazelnut spread currently positions itself squarely as a classic indulgent option, any future reformulation could follow broader European trends where retailers test variants with a higher hazelnut content or alternative fats to appeal to more ingredient-conscious consumers. For now, the core proposition remains straightforward: a familiar chocolate-hazelnut profile for breakfast and snacks at a lower price point than multinational benchmarks.

Jeronimo Martins frames this kind of everyday product as a way to strengthen loyalty and frequency in its core supermarket formats. The group operates more than 5,000 stores across Portugal, Poland and Colombia, with Pingo Doce and Biedronka as the main food retail banners. Within that scale, even a single high-rotation private-label spread can represent meaningful volume when multiplied across thousands of locations, especially when supported by regular circular promotions and in-store displays.

Within the broader group, the Pingo Doce hazelnut and cocoa spread is a small but telling example of how Jeronimo Martins uses its retail brands to capture more of the grocery value chain, from basic pantry items to fresh foods and household products. In its latest annual report, the company underscores private-label growth as a strategic priority across key banners, which puts everyday indulgences like this spread firmly in the spotlight of category managers. Shares of Jerónimo Martins, SGPS (PTJMT0AE0001) are listed on Euronext Lisbon, where the stock most recently traded in euros.

Pingo Doce hazelnut spread in brief: the hard facts

• Product: Pingo Doce chocolate and hazelnut cream spread
• Manufacturer: Jerónimo Martins, SGPS, S.A.
• Category: New Release/Launch - private-label food spread
• Launch date: Not officially disclosed; positioned as part of the current Pingo Doce private-label range
• MSRP / Price: Typically priced below leading multinational hazelnut spread brands on a per-kilogram basis in Portugal
• Availability: Pingo Doce supermarkets in Portugal and selected Jeronimo Martins banners in international markets
• Target audience: Price-conscious families and consumers seeking a chocolate-hazelnut spread for breakfast and snacks
• Key differentiator / USP: Branded under Pingo Doce with a familiar taste profile at a lower price than international competitors

This article was a.i.-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without warranty; prices and availability may change at short notice. Not investment advice and not a buy or sell recommendation. Trading involves risk up to and including the total loss of invested capital.