Wipes in Taiwan

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Waning demand for baby wipes in 2019, while general purpose wipes supported by increasing awareness of personal hygiene

Wipes recorded positive but unimpressive current value growth in 2019, mainly influenced by the increasing maturity of the largest category of personal wipes. The latter is dominated by baby wipes, which continued to experience declining volume sales linked to falling birth rates in the country.

Wet wipes well suited to country’s climate and offer convenient cleaning solutions

The niche area of moist toilet wipes continued to record the most impressive performance in 2019 in both retail volume and current value growth terms, driven by consumers who are fastidious in their toilet routines or prefer to carry a pack of these products with them in their bags in case they need to access public toilets. However, their extremely high unit price means that their use is more likely to be limited to affluent urban consumers.

Competitive landscape of wipes offers wide range of both domestic and multinational brands in 2019

The competitive landscape of wipes continued to be divided between multinational and domestic brands in 2019; while international brands such as Mamy Poko (United Charm), Johnson's Baby and Huggies (Kimberly-Clark) tend to focus on the larger category of baby wipes due to cross-category marketing with their nappies/diapers/pants, many domestic players tend to concentrate on other areas of wipes with a more economy positioning, leading to higher fragmentation compared to other tissue and hygiene categories. Wipes produced by Japanese or South Korean producers on the other hand, tend to have a more premium positioning.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

Value sales of wipes are now expected to grow by 1% at constant 2019 prices in 2020 overall in light of the impact of COVID-19. This compares to stagnation in value terms forecast at constant 2019 prices in our 2020 edition of tissue and hygiene published in February 2020 (pre-COVID-19).

Affected products within wipes

A number of different wipes with antibacterial properties are set to record stronger demand in 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, including general purpose wipes, all purpose cleaning wipes and other impregnated wipes, in addition to more niche areas such as starter kits/sweepers/sticks (dry electro-static), and floor cleaning systems as consumers follow more stringent cleaning routines and ensure that their living environments remain germ-free. An ongoing focus on greater personal hygiene in addition to panic buying of standard toilet paper during the initial stages of the pandemic are set to support strong volume growth predicted for moist toilet wipes in 2020, offering an alternative option for more affluent consumers.

Recovery and opportunities

Wipes is predicted to record a stable performance over the forecast period, with demand for products that offer antibacterial qualities likely to remain strong, despite some normalisation expected from 2021 following increasing demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the habit of following stricter hygiene routines is likely to remain due to the preventative health trend, leading to stronger demand for all purpose cleaning wipes, other impregnated wipes, refill wipes/pads, and floor cleaning systems compared to the review period, while demand for general purpose wipes will remain steady, benefiting from consumers being more cautious and following greater personal hygiene outside of the home environment.

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