Sun Care

France According to data from Symphony IRI France, sun care sales through hypermarkets and supermarkets in the country grew by 2.3% in the past year to make €1.26bn. However, despite this sunny optimism, certain key categories did see a dip in sales. One such example was sun protection milks and lotions which slid by 1.7% to make €72.4m. One front runner though was sun protection oils which grew by a massive 88.9% in 2010 to account for €11.51m of sales, overtaking self-tanning products.

Germany Things were also looking good for the German sun care market with figures from Symphony IRI Germany indicating a 6.4% rise to total €173.84m in 2010. The German market is divided up as follows – 78.2% of the market is given over to sun protection products with aftersun products taking 10.1% and self-tanning products accounting for 11.7%.

Italy According to industry body Unipro, the Italian sun care market put on a respectable 3% in 2009, to reach €359.6m. Of this, total pharmacy sales accounted for a large share with €107.5m worth of sales, followed by perfumeries with €74.98m. The increased importance placed on sun protection products in Italy has been put down to sustained marketing campaigns about the need to protect oneself from the sun’s rays. This was also coupled with a very hot summer in Italy last year which prompted consumers to part with their cash.

Spain While Spain did make value and volume gains, according to Symphony IRI Spain, these were less than 1% in each case. Sun care sales in 2010 amounted to €149.5m in value terms which represented 7.67m units in volume sales. There was also a marked increase in sales of products which are formulated to protect the hair from sun damage and these are now available on Spanish shelves in a plethora of formats from oils and sprays, to mousses and gels.

UK The UK sun care market was worth £215.41m in 2010, a modest growth of just 0.1%, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Meanwhile volume sales did take a tumble falling by 3.6% to 36.77m units. In terms of how the UK market was divided, sun protection products accounted for 80.1% with aftersun and self-tanning products making up the remaining 10.5% and 9.4% respectively.