Hair Care

France According to Symphony IRI France, the hair care market is not exactly full of bounce at present as it slipped by 2.2% in the past year to €1.183bn from €1.209bn the previous year. Even sales of conditioners, normally an extremely popular sub-sector in France, fell by 0.7% to total €197.2m. But gains have been made in the area of family shampoos which put on an impressive 11% to make €84.3m.

Germany The hair care category in Germany also made a loss in value terms, sliding by 0.9% to total €1.59bn in 2010, according to data from Symphony IRI Germany. However, hair care on its own did inch up by 0.3% to account for €848.35m while hair styling plummeted by 1.8% to total €439.63m. The last category of hair colourants also made a loss of 2.6% to make €307.12m.

Italy According to industry body Unipro, the Italian hair care market also fell by 2.3% to total €1.15bn, accounting for a 15.1% share of the total Italian C&T market. Shampoos, which are normally one of the most steadfast categories, also fell by 0.4% to make €490m while masks and conditioners dipped by 2.1% to total €152m. The biggest losses were recorded in the hair gels and waters sub-sector as it slid 4.5% to total €71.96m.

Spain Figures from Symphony IRI Spain show that the hair care category in the country fell by 3% in the past year to total €748.6m. The sub-sector of shampoos fell by 3% to total €289m, though volume sales for this area did grow by 3% in turn in the largely affordable retail channel of supermarkets and hypermarkets. This suggests that Spaniards now prefer to buy their shampoos with the weekly shop rather than make a separate trip to the perfumery or drugstore and indeed these retail channels have seen a drop in volume sales over the past year.

UK Things were faring better in the UK as the hair care market put on a robust 5.3% to total £1.16bn in 2010 while volume sales did fall by 1.5% to make 509.48m units, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Of the individual hair care categories, shampoo remained the largest, maintaining its 32% market share and growing 4.9% year-on-year while hair colourants, which command a 23.3% market share, grew by 11%. The conditioner market remained steady at 21.7%, growing 1.2%, while women’s hairsprays grew 10.5% to take a 10% market share.