Oral Care in South Africa

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Sales of toothpaste are boosted by launches, whilst tooth whiteners performs well

Oral care maintained dynamic current value growth in 2019, with growth seen across all categories. Despite its dominance, toothpaste saw the strongest increase.

Supporting oral hygiene by continuously providing education

Health studies in 2018 showed that 60% of children in South African primary schools suffered from tooth decay, with 80% of tooth decay left untreated. This has detrimental effects on children’s health and development.

Colgate remains the generic term for toothpaste, helping to maintain its lead

Colgate, owned by Colgate-Palmolive, continued to lead oral care in South Africa in value terms in 2019, as has been the case for many years. Its lead is cemented by the brand’s strong lead in the largest oral care category, toothpaste.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

Oral care is now expected to grow by 3% in 2020 in 2019 constant value terms in light of the impact of COVID-19. This compares to an expected rise of less than 3% forecast for 2020 during research conducted at the end of 2019, before the spread of COVID-19.

Affected products within oral care

Although oral care is not expected to see much impact from COVID-19 in 2020, it is expected that there will be differences in growth between categories. The country was experiencing a difficult economic situation in 2019, and this is expected to worsen in 2020 as a result of the impact of measures taken by the government to prevent the spread of the virus.

Recovery and opportunities

Little direct impact is expected from COVID-19 on sales of oral care products in 2020, and the category is expected to maintain a rising level of current value growth throughout the forecast period. However, the trends seen at the end of the review period and in 2020 are expected to be maintained.

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