Mass Beauty and Personal Care in Saudi Arabia

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Mass brands continue to account for most beauty and personal care consumption

Saudi consumers continue to find mass beauty and personal care products more suitable for everyday use, with consumption of mass brands far higher than premium brands as a result. However, sales of mass brands are under pressure in numerous categories despite the increasing employment rate in the country, with female participation in the workforce notably increasing.

Nivea cements its position as the leading mass beauty and personal care brand

2019 saw Beiersdorf’s brand Nivea remain the leading name in mass beauty and personal care. The brand, distributed in Saudi Arabia by Al Naghi Co, offers an extensive range of products across all major beauty and personal care categories.

Supermarkets remain popular sources of mass beauty and personal care products

Many Saudi consumers acquire their mass beauty and personal care products primarily from supermarkets. Major supermarket chains such as Panda, Bin Dawood, Danube, Al Raya, Manuel Market, Tamimi Markets and Abdullah Al Othaim Markets, among others, benefit from high numbers of outlets and their chains are consistently expanding.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

Sales of mass beauty and personal care are expected to decrease marginally over the course of 2020 in 2019 constant value terms in light of the impact of COVID-19. Mass beauty and personal care avoided serious sales declines as result of COVID-19 during the first half of 2020 due to the essential nature of many mass beauty and personal care products and the fact that the most important retail outlets for these products, specifically chemists/pharmacies, drugstores/parapharmacies, supermarkets and hypermarkets were not closed during the curfew and lockdown period.

Affected products within mass beauty and personal care

As can be expected, more essential categories of products that are seen as indispensable have been less affected by COVID-19 than those which are seen as non-essential for instance, mass bath and shower is expected to register the strongest value growth over the course of 2020, with these products benefiting from the increased frequency with which consumers are washing their hands in response to the threat of contagion. At the other end of the scale, mass fragrances is expected to experience very strong sales declines as these are the epitome of non-essential purchases and therefore vulnerable to being left on the shelf by consumers who perceive their incomes to be under threat.

Recovery and opportunities

With the cost of living in Saudi Arabia set to continue increasing over the forecast period, it is expected that demand for mass beauty and personal care will also increase, largely at the expense of premium brands. Growth in mass beauty and personal care is expected to be driven by categories in which the biggest selling products are widely regarded as essential such as bath and shower, deodorants and oral care, although mass sales are likely to continue seeing positive growth across the industry.

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