Oral Care in China

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Consumers continue to invest in more advanced oral care products in 2019

Oral care continued to see strong growth in 2019 as consumer awareness of oral hygiene routines continued to expand beyond the need for a basic brushing routine. Oral care is no longer limited to teeth brushing, leading to an increasing focus on the appearance of teeth and not just hygiene.

Consumers going electric as prices fall and competition intensifies

Power toothbrushes, especially electric toothbrushes, was the most dynamic area of oral care in 2019. Jumping on the dynamic growth being seen in the category the competitive landscape was a hotbed of activity towards the end of the review period as brands fought for share.

Competition intensifies as local and multinational brands go head to head

Multinational brands Colgate and Crest have long held a strong presence in oral care in China, but their share fell over the review period as a result of consumers upgrading, product innovation and the marketing efforts of major local brands. As electric toothbrushes gradually erodes the share of manual toothbrushes, this poses a further challenge to these two brands since manual toothbrushes constitutes a large part of their revenue.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

Sales of oral care are now expected to grow by 4% in 2020 in 2019 constant value terms in light of the impact of COVID-19. This compares to an expected 7% rise forecast for 2020 during research conducted at the end of 2019 before the spread of COVID-19.

Affected products within oral care

Daily necessities such as toothpaste are not expected to be severely impacted by COVID-19 with most consumers continuing to brush their teeth even when not leaving home. On the other hand, electric toothbrushes is expected to see significantly slower than in the previous year with consumers likely to restrict non-essential spending to an extent, with some consumers likely to make do with manual toothbrushes until the crisis passes.

Recovery and opportunities

Having seen explosive growth during the review period, electric toothbrushes is projected to see more stable growth over the forecast period, although this is largely due to increased saturation rather than any significant impact from COVID-19. Toothpaste is already a relatively mature category and as such it is only expected to see moderate growth, largely driven by ongoing population growth.

Files are delivered directly into your account within a few minutes of purchase.