LAUNDRY CARE PRODUCTS MARKET ANALYSIS

The laundry care products market is majorly driven by high daily consumption of these products. Laundry care accounts for 50% of daily used products. Increasing awareness regarding health and hygiene among the consumers is expected to boost growth of the laundry care products market over the forecast period. Laundry is the largest category in the home and personal care segment. For instance, Procter & Gamble has 57 different products under the brand name Tide. These products are also categorized based on size as 'Family Loads', 'Heavy-Duty Loads', and 'Quick Loads'. A wider range of products are now offered by industry players, such as washing machine-oriented detergents, which offer functional benefits such as addition of fragrance, developing new forms of products such as liquid detergents. They also offer pre-wash and post-wash products to further increase their reach and increase sales by targeting various complementary segments.

Increasing adoption of cloth wash line in various developed economies such as US and Canada has allowed the government organizations such as Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to exert strict rules on the practice of publicly availed cloth wash lines. According to CDPHE, Laundry facilities, shall be maintained clean and in good repair; except when life skills training is provided, laundry facilities shall be inaccessible to children. These regulations provide safety to children from various chemicals, which they are exposed during usage of various laundry care products such as fabric softeners and bleaches. High competition among various brands such as Ensueno, Cloralen, Pnol detergents, and Pril, results in major price wars, with consumer largely characterized by a lack of brand loyalty. This leads to major market volatility in terms of key players in the market. However, stringent regulations leading to product recall is one of the major factor restraining growth of the market. Various brands from major companies were recalled due to their harmful side effects of health. For instance, gain liquid laundry detergent, a product of Procter & gamble co. was called back due to eye irritations and symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea by exposure. In 2012, laundry detergent pods were launched. However it caused serious health hazard in young children such as skin irritation, nausea, diarrhea etc. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, in 2015, around 6,046 incidences were reported wherein, children of age five year and younger ingested or inhaled pods or got pod contents on their skin or in their eyes. Due to this, companies such as Procter & Gamble, maker of Tide Pods provided opaque hard-plastic container with three safety latches and added more prominent safety warnings.

Global Laundry Care Products Market - Market Taxonomy

On the basis of product type, global laundry care products market is segmented into:

• Detergents
• Fabric Softeners
• Carpet Cleaners
• Bleach
• Others

On the basis of distribution channel, global laundry care products market is segmented into:

• Hypermarket
• Supermarket
• Online Stores
• Convenience Stores
• Others

On the basis of product type, innovation of liquid detergent such as introduction of hyper-concentrated liquid laundry detergent by China’s Bluemoon Company Ltd. helps consumers to save more water and electricity as it contains 47% of surfactant as compared to other laundry detergents and its effect on cleaning supported by the quick and effective results have made it popular amongst the consumers. This correspondently affected the global demand for powdered detergents, which lacked standardization in measuring the amount of detergent to be used. Furthermore, in 2018, Tide launched Tide PODS, which is capable of cleaning more than 900 laundry combinations together.

Global Laundry Care - Market Outlook

Asia Pacific is projected to generate highest revenue share in global laundry care products market during forecast period due to high penetration by companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever among others with brands such as Surf Excel, Ariel etc, as manual washing is the most common form of washing clothes in emerging economies such as India, Indonesia, and China. Unilever held leading position in laundry care products market in 2017, owing to its strong distribution network and vast product portfolio, which includes products such as Cif, Comfort, Domex, Rin, Surf Excel, Molto etc. In terms of sales, detergent bars are very profound in the rural areas while liquid detergents are the preferred option in the urban areas conducive to washing appliances.

Europe is the second largest market of laundry care products with the positive development was mainly attributed to the growth in the premium segment such as detergents and fabric softeners. For instance, Unilever in 2017 launched Persil Powergems, which is neither powder nor liquid and provides the power of the major three factors which are cleanliness, freshness, and care coupling with its environment friendly nature reducing time required for washing clothes.

Key strategies adopted by market players includes incorporation of innovative technologies that offers consumers benefits such as tough stain removal, easy dissolution, and superior fragrance. For instance, in 2017, Rin added Rin Matic to its portfolio, a specialist washing machine powder. Furthermore, several manufacturers are also opting for mergers and acquisitions to increase its market presence. Henkel acquired The Sun Products Corporation in 2016.

Key players in the global laundry care products market include Clorox Company, Huntsman International LLC, Wipro Enterprises Limited, Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Kao Corporation, Reckitt Benckiser Group, and Henkel AG & Co. KGaA.