Oral Hygiene

France According to Symphony IRI France the French oral hygiene market was worth €686.7m in 2011, a rise of 8.2% on the previous year. The toothpaste market in the country grew by 4.6% in the past year to total €381m, a slight increase on the previous year’s performance. However, the most impressive growth in French oral care came from toothbrushes which put on an even more impressive 12.2% to total €191m in the past year.

Germany The German oral care market had a generally successful year, according to figures from Symphony IRI Germany. The overall oral care market grew by 1.89%, from €533.77m in the first six months of 2010 to €543.88m during the same period this year. Results show that the toothpaste market also put on 2.7% in the past year, jumping from €409.23m to €420.28m. But the mouthwash category fared less well, slipping by 0.8% in the past year to total €123.6m. Volume sales for both of the main sectors though were healthy with toothbrush volume sales up by 1.1% and mouthwash volume sales up 2.4%.

Italy The Italian oral care market didn’t fare quite so well with losses of 0.2% recorded to total €554.06m, according to industry body Unipro. Of that total, toothpastes accounted for €490.9m while mouthwashes took a t63.21m share of the pie. The vast majority of this total was sold in the Italian mass market, which is largely where one would expect it to be, as Italians snapped up price promotions and special offers.

Spain Sales of oral care products have increased across the board in Spain, up a respectable 2% to €355m, according to Symphony IRI Spain. Volume sales also increased – by an even better 6% to 83m units. When it comes to volume sales, the biggest category was toothbrushes, which account for 65% of the market here whereas in terms of sales value, toothpaste and mouthwashes account for 54% and 23% of the market respectively.

UK The UK market for oral care has had a mixed performance in the past year, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Value sales were down by 0.4% to make £805m, although there was a brighter picture for volume sales as that area put on 3.6% to total 462m units. With a penetration rate in the UK of 97%, toothpaste is used by most of the population but only 39% of UK consumers use mouthwash and an even smaller 18% use floss.