Laundry Care in Spain

PROSPECTS

Increasing search for greater convenience supports demand for all-in-one concentrated liquid detergents

Laundry care experienced a gradual maturing in demand terms, which combined with a decline in the local population, resulted in another year of waning volume sales for the category in Spain. Consumers are continuing to move away from traditional powder detergents and towards concentrated liquid detergents, with the latter benefitting from increasing premiumisation as producers continued to focus on developing more advanced offers that incorporate other aspects of laundry care such as softeners, starch/ironing aids and stain removers.

Premium liquid tablet detergents helps to drive value growth

Although remaining a small category within overall laundry detergents, liquid tablet detergents continued to gain momentum, recording strong retail volume and current value growth as more affluent consumers looked to this convenient format that removes the mess, wastage and spillage factors of powder, and to some extent, liquid detergents. Its higher than average unit price, supported by innovative products that incorporate a number of functions such as fabric fresheners, will continue to maintain value sales growth, while manufacturers look to expand the availability of this format in retailers to gain greater consumer attention.

Niche premium products offer major players higher value potential but general consumers may remain unconvinced

While there was a notable increasing trend for all-in-one liquid or gel detergents amongst Spaniards, leading to declining interest in various laundry aids, the major players continued to look at other avenues of gaining greater value through the launch of novel and premium products in the hope of adding some dynamism to their sales. This has resulted in the entrance of scent booster and laundry sanitisers at the end of the review period which both recorded double-digit current value growth in 2019 due to their low sales base; however, they are likely to remain an expensive niche over the forecast period as generally, local consumers will remain unconvinced by their specific advantages, particularly as they are moving away from using separate laundry care products.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Procter & Gamble strengthens lead of laundry care with diversified portfolio

Laundry care in Spain remained fairly consolidated amongst the four main players, led by Procter & Gamble España SA, which gained further value share in 2019 due to its wide product portfolio that covers much of the category under its main brand Ariel, including the strongly-performing liquid tablet detergents. Major multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser benefit from their international reputations with many consumers placing greater trust in their brands, while also having the financial support to heavily invest in developing innovative products, with a specific focus on the more dynamic formats of liquids and tablets.

Collaborations and ecological products launch in 2019

Grupo Unilever España SA gained value share in 2019, collaborating with KH Lloreda to further develop its Skip detergent within liquid detergents, and more specifically, liquid tablet detergents, with the addition of KH-7 stain remover. Other new launches however, concentrated on the green segment, with an increasing number of new brands entering the category in 2019, in addition to traditional players such as Henkel, which introduced an ecological variant of its liquid detergent Wipp with Wipp Eco Eficaz.

Reckitt Benckiser takes inspiration from beauty industry with keratin-based serum for laundry care

Arguably the interesting innovation to emerge within laundry case at the end of the review period was from Flor (Reckitt Benckiser), the leading brand of fabric softeners. It introduced Flor Revive Serum, which is a single-use keratin-based serum to help strengthen clothing or textile fibres, and claims to repair one year of damage in just one wash.

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