Bathroom products, 2012

France The French bathroom products market seems to have been lathering up nicely during the past year and according to Symphony IRI France the market grew by 2.7% in 2011 to total €958.4m. Much of the activity here is focused on the shower category which accounts for about 73% of the French spending for bathroom products. Shower products grew by 2.5% in 2011 to make sales of €486m and shower gels of over 500ml in size grew by 9.3% to €69m as French consumers opted for larger formats.

Germany According to the latest data from Symphony IRI Germany the bathroom products sector here was also on top form with gains of 2.4% in value terms. The sector grew from €717.6m in 2010 to €734.9m in 2011 with volume sales growing by an even better 2.5%, rising from 176.3m units in 2010 to 180.8m units in 2011. Breaking the category down further it can been seen that again shower products were the dominant sub-sector, accounting for 56.5% of value sales.

Italy Although npd in the field of bathroom products was strong in Italy in the past year, the statistics did little to support this. According to the latest data from Italian trade body Unipro, the market here slipped by 1.2% to total €755.96m in the past year. Of this, bath and shower products represented the largest chunk of this with sales here standing at €454.78m. In terms of what is new in the past year, L’Oréal brand Roger&Gallet launched its new collection onto the Italian market while L’Oréal brand Vichy also had some new additions.

Spain In Spain there was also a decline in sales, according to Symphony IRI Spain, as the market tumbled by 1.6% to €51m. Volume also fell by 1% to 15.4m units which rounded off a dismal year for the category. Although volumes have fallen across the board, and sales values in supermarkets fell by 3% to €66m in 2011, the value of soaps and bath salts bought in pharmacies actually rose by the same amount to €7.6m.

UK The UK bathroom products market recorded another steady performance in the past year, growing 2.9% in value terms in 2011 to reach £543.21m. Volume sales also rose 2% to 441.65m units, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel. Having suffered somewhat during the recession, the branded products market for bathroom products is picking up again, growing 6.4% to account for 85.2% of the market, as compared to 82.4% in 2010.