Competitor Strategies in Retail Tissue and Hygiene

August 2024

Tissue and hygiene players face a challenging environment of tighter consumer spending and fierce competition. Volume recovery and margin protection are forcing market players to reassess their priorities. Those banking on value creation focused back to basics, blurred wellness trend, lifestyle positioning, while seeking pivots in high-growth segment such as women’s health are better positioned to strike the right chord in such a fragile environment.

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Key Findings

Sharpened competition accentuates focus on growth categories, markets and adjacencies

Most leading players experienced stagnation or reduced market share amid their weakness in home markets and fierce local competition in foreign markets, which has led to a slew of market exist/entries, M&As and reorganisation as efforts to reassess growth pockets, portfolio competency, channel strategy and operational environment particularly in developing regions.

Price sensitivity reinforces back to basics emphasizing functionality and value incentives

As inflation effect persists, businesses are seeking a balance between margin protection and volume growth, navigating both premiumisation by tapping further into quality, performance, efficiency, versatility and targeted problem-solving and affordability by strengthening value tier and offering return-friendly selling incentives.

Blurring wellness inspires broadened natural positioning and beauty-inspired ingredients

With wellness demand increasingly interlocked with affinity to natural positioning, businesses move beyond core product functionalities to adopt a broader wellness positioning by tapping health claims such as skin health, sensitive skin, organic and antibacterial and beauty-inspired ingredients for more potent skin care.

Lifestyle priority anchors consumer-led format innovation and portfolio alignment

With lifestyle disruption being a key motivation for consumers to switch health treatment methods, brands are ramping up consumer studies to identify pain points and white spaces, strengthening product features to target tangible use occasions and improve living experience, and adopting storytelling, influencer collaborations and community engagement to build trust and fostering loyalty.

Women’s health provides adjacency pivots given greater understanding of life cycle needs

As women’s heightened exposure to health and wellness hiccups throughout life comes to recognition, women’s health will continue to drive the dynamic pillar of femcare, encompassing menstrual care and adult incontinence. Businesses are seeking growth pivots by offering products and services that help women navigate across a continuum of wellness needs and life stages.

 

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Scope
Key findings
Companies at a glance
Categories’ essential positioning provides market momentum for growth
Most top players grapple with share stagnation or declines despite sales increase
Top players remain focused on core portfolio of strength
Leading players’ active category shares stand firm, with Softys and Hengan gaining shares
Developing markets continue to show prospects, though leading players tread with caution
K-C’s re- organisation indicate s sharpened focus on high-growth markets and categories
Market fragmentation escalates in APAC and MEA, driven by agile local rivals
Narrowing quality gap and value sustain private label’s foothold in well situated markets…
…while additional growth momentum is gaining in emerging Latin America and Turkey
Private label’s pricing advantage supports notable volume share growth in Latin America
Local fragmentation most notable in APAC, predominantly driven by China
E-commerce provides a competitive lever for insurgent players
Social commerce Douyin catalyses small brand growth in China
Chinese top 10 players tend to only operate in their domestic market
Local manufacturing support and downtrading challenge leading multinationals in MEA
Businesses seek adjacent pivots for long-term growth and resilience
Businesses growth plans hinge on company offerings and consumers
Macroeconomic challenges reinforce an uphill battle to value creation through back to basics
Key themes shaping business strategies in tissue and hygiene
Consumers striving to do more with less demands back-to-basics value redefine
Most desired features coincide with largest desire-pay gap, indicating higher expectation
Durability upgrade and use occasion targeting improve cost-benefit equation in tissue
P&G strengthens value-tier Luvs nappies/diapers with added leak protection, alongside refund offer
Natural demand rises as the wellness link tightens
Natural positioning increasingly adopted by brands, with APAC early in adoption curve
Claim fatigue and lack of regulation in certain markets drive claim diversification
Top players adopt natural positioning but diversifying into functional, skin-forward claims
Popi taps beauty-inspired ingredients to drive skinification in facial tissues
Lifestyle compatibility at the forefront of consumer loyalty building
Kimberly-Clark and Edgewell Personal Care add multi-fluid pads and liners for mothers
Unicharm’s one-sided baby nappy/diaper pants improve change efficiency and safety
Diversity of women’s health concerns across life stages inspire ecosystem, adjacency play
Exploring further converging spaces and synergies between femcare and adjacencies
Essity taps partnership to address sleep and stress issues for menopausal women
Rael elevates holistic cycle care with cycle-syncing skin care assortment
Key findings

Tissue and Hygiene

This is the aggregation of retail and away-from home tissue and disposable hygiene products as well as Rx/reimbursement adult incontinence.

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