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Viva la differenza
Packaging loses its spice
Basil has it wrapped
Innovation
Ideas
drought stunts cleaning product sales
The US household cleaning products
market rose only 0.3% after five years of steady growth over the previous,
says market researcher Kline & Company in its latest study.
“The stream of new product
activity that had fuelled growth slowed to a trickle, and marketers are
now looking for new energy to regain lost ground,” said Lenka Contreras,
group director of Kline’s consumer products practice.
"Competitors in a concentrated
market like this need a flow of new products to maintain growth. Because
household cleaning products are commodity everyday-use items, creating
excitement among consumers often means inventing entirely new
categories." Examples include Plug-In room deodorisers, Febreze odour-masking
sprays, Dryel home dry-cleaning kits, and the Swiffer line, which began
with a dry floor duster and expanded into wet floor-cleaning cloths.
"The markets for these new
categories get saturated pretty quickly, and companies need to keep
offering newness to increase their market share," she said.
Although market leader Procter
& Gamble's cleaning products sales dropped slightly from 2001, it
still took gained market share. Colgate-Palmolive’s category sales
dropped more than 4%, and Unilever's plummeted nearly 10%.
Meanwhile Kline noted that
customers who want good-smelling homes are switching their preferences.
The market for home fragrances is flat but consumes are switching from
candles and diffusers to room sprays and potpourri. Mass market retailers
are forcing down candle prices, and new launches such as Glade's Press 'N
Fresh products and Airwick by Wizard Click Spray spark interest in the
category. Other promising new product introductions include SC Johnson's
Oust air sanitiser, an aerosol that is said to kill 99.9% of odour-causing
germs in the air. Early in 2003, Reckitt Benckiser introduced Neutra Air,
a similar product sold under the Lysol brand.
"These new product variations
blur the line between room sprays and household cleaning products, and we
can probably expect to see more products like this that have cleaning
benefits and provide room-freshening scents," Contreras says.
UK-Italy
markets
Viva la
differenza
Italians and British eating habits
are converging, says market research factory Leatherhead Food
International (LFI), in its latest Global Food Markets report.
The so-called Mediterranean diet
may be the healthiest in the world, but time pressures are forcing Italian
consumers into convenience foods and closer to the British norm. At the
same time, travel has broadened the British palate. This now enjoys the
taste of food from all corners of the globe.
“Increasingly hectic lifestyles
in both countries have spurred sales of convenience foods. In addition,
the rise of snacking 'on-the-go', and foreign travel has opened the eyes
of many consumers to foods from all over the world,” LFI says.
“British consumers perceive
themselves as increasingly time-poor. They show a greater propensity to
spend more time outside the home and cook from scratch less often.”
But growing awareness of the impact
of diet on health suggests that more Brits might be tempted to switch to
the Mediterranean diet preferred by Italians. The growing “slow food”
movement may help to get them back in the kitchen.
M&A
Packaging
loses its spice
Spice king McCormick & Company
is sell its packaging business to Kerr Group for $132.5 million in cash
plus $10 million over five years. The sale includes the assets of both
Setco and Tubed Products. These businesses manufacture certain products
used for the packaging of McCormick's spices and seasonings as well as
packaging materials for other industries such as vitamin, drug, and
personal care. McCormick has signed a long term purchase agreement with
the new owners.
McCormick boss Robert Lawless said
the packaging business was not a strategic part of its food business.
McCormick will use the cash to pay down debt taken on when it bought
foodservice firm Zatarain's earlier this month. In 2002, McCormick
reported sales of $2,320 million and earnings per share of $1.26.
Packaging
Basil has
it wrapped
Basil-impregnated plastic may
become the food wrap of the future, if Israeli and Australian researchers
can commercialise their lab results.
The researchers found that a
plastic wrap made with basil extends the shelf life of cheese and most
likely of meats, fish, baked goods, fruits and vegetables. This is because
basil extracts methyl chavicol and linalool ooze from the wrap to slow the
growth of eight lethal bacteria including E. coli and listeria.
The research was published in the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (May 21, 2003).
The researchers are developing a
multi-layered plastic with an impermeable outer layer and porous inner
walls that will limit the flow of basil molecules to the inside of the
package only. Marketing of the basil wrap will follow these improvements. |
