Deodorants

France According to Symphony IRI France the deodorant market in France kept its cool last year, putting on 2.3% to make €441.9m. Men’s deodorant’s performed better than women’s, putting on 2.8% to make €204.5m compared to €233m for women’s deodorants which increased by a more modest 1.5%. Unisex deodorants are a much smaller category in France but they too saw dynamic growth of 27.3% to make €4.4m in the past year. The deodorant category in France is dominated by aerosols and roll-ons.

Germany The German deodorant market has seen the biggest growth in the past year, putting on a healthy 3.3% in 2010 and growing from €599.11m in 2009 to €619.11m last year. The two biggest sub-sectors in this category which is all about personal hygiene were unsurprisingly aerosols and roll-ons which accounted for 58.7% and 22.7% market shares respectively. Aerosols put on an impressive 6.5% to make €363.71m while roll-ons grew by 3% to total €140.49m. Unfortunately all other categories in the German deodorant market lost sales in value terms apart from deodorant wipes.

Italy According to industry body Unipro the Italian deodorant market inched up by 0.3% in 2010 to total €395.69m. This was a slight disappointment compared with the previous year’s much healthier growth of 4.1% when retailers pulled out all the stops to get consumers buying deodorants from them. They rolled out a range of deodorant formats to meet consumers sweat-related concerns. When it comes to key brands in the deodorant sector, Unilever’s Dove and Beiersdorf’s Nivea remain very popular with consumers.

Spain The Spanish deodorant market did see a growth in the past year, according to Symphony IRI Spain, but it only managed to eek out a tiny 0.04% increase to make €256.7m. Volume sales did manage to put on 2% to make 14.2m units which was more positive news. Own label deodorant brands are gaining in popularity in Spain, having grown by 7% in the past year to account for €47.7m worth of sales. But branded deodorants still remain the favourites with customers wanting to keep perspiration at bay and they are able to keep their prices competitive, for the time being at least.

UK According to Kantar Worldpanel the UK deodorant market has reached something of a plateau, growing by just 0.1% in the past year to total £520.48m. Here again aerosols and roll-ons dominated the category. Volume sales fared worse however, dipping by 0.7% to 352.6m units, perhaps as people switched to larger formats. Own label sales in the UK were small, accounting for just 5.6% in a market increasingly crowded with branded players jostling for attention and which are often accompanied by expensive and lengthy advertising campaigns.