Male Grooming

According to the latest figures from Mintel, the French male grooming market managed to eek out 0.7% growth in 2010, taking its total to t1.02bn. However, sales through the mass market have been much more buoyant with Symphony IRI France reporting some good gains in key areas. The third biggest sector of the French male grooming market, shower gels, put on a very healthy 6.4% to make €70m (for sales through supermarkets and hypermarkets) while the much smaller sector of skin care saw the largest growth of 7.6% to total €27.2m.

There was positive news for Germany with the male grooming sector there seeing a 7.4% increase in value terms to boost its value to €503.91m in 2010. Volume sales also saw healthy growth putting on 5.1%, growing from 236.17m units sold in 2009 to 248.43m last year. In both value and volume terms all categories including shower products, deodorants and facial skin care saw growth – which was especially good news considering some lacklustre performances in the past year.

There was disappointing news in Italy as the male grooming sector there struggled in the past year, falling 1.9% to €559.68m, according to Italian trade body Unipro. Aftershave lotions saw particular losses, dropping by 3.5% to €70.55m while men’s fragrances also lost 2.1% to make t348.11m in the past year. The normally popular category of shaving products also took a nosedive of 1.7% to €90.51m. One of the few sectors to make a gain was that of skin care, which totalled €50.51m, a rise of 1.2%.

According to the latest data from Symphony IRI Spain, the male grooming market here saw disappointing news in both value and volume terms. The value category, which took into account the face and body, shaving and aftershave areas, was worth €79.14m in 2010, which represented a worrying loss of 7% on the previous year. The hardest hit individual category was that of male body treatments which plummeted by 20%.

The male grooming market, including razors and blades, in the UK did buck the general trend by putting on a decent 3% in 2010 to account for £843.27m, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel. The male grooming market was made up mostly of deodorants and bodysprays at £279.16m, male fragrances at £135.16m, skin care with £93.96m, shower products with £92.07m and shaving preparations with £74.57m.