Laundry Care in the United Arab Emirates

PROSPECTS

Promotions to continue driving value and volume growth

VAT of 5% was introduced in 2018 in the United Arab Emirates, which resulted in consumers opting for more economical brands. Manufacturers quickly responded by offering discounts and promotions, which helped boost both current value and volume sales during the review period.

Concentrated liquid detergents to grow by fastest rate

With the increase in household penetration of automatic washing machines and ease of use, concentrated liquid detergents is set to record faster current value growth than concentrated powder detergents over the forecast period. Although in general, promotions negatively affected value sales in laundry care, new products and packaging innovations will drive stronger positive momentum towards current value and volume growth, which in turn will lead to growth for concentrated liquid detergents over the forecast period.

Laundry care faces risk of polarisation

Innovation in packaging and product variety and fragrances are vital to compete with price reductions. Consumers are either still more inclined towards price reductions, which benefits cheaper/economy brands and private label, or they seek innovation on the shelves.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE leads laundry care

Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE retained its leadership of laundry care followed by Binzagr Lever Ltd (Unilever Arabia). As the price and promotion war continued in laundry care, brands indulged in and incorporated product line enhancements and several other advertising campaigns.

Packaging innovation and new product development

Packaging innovations and the continuous introduction of new fragrances and varieties played a vital role in the development of laundry care in 2018. For example, Persil introduced new varieties of its Abaya laundry detergent, which proved successful among locals and Arab expatriates.

Shelf space in contrast to performance

Greater shelf space continued to be allocated to environmentally-friendly and organic laundry care in 2018 as the health and wellness trend grows and consumers become increasingly aware of the benefits of using organic laundry care. However, this did not necessarily translate into a stronger performance for the sustainability trend.

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