Skin care to drive European beauty packaging market says Rexam

Announced in its consumer packaging report, Rexam also believes that deodorants and fragrances will aid growth in the packaging segment in the coming years.

In Europe the personal care market accounts for 19 per cent of the global share in terms of packaging volume sales, which can be split 70/30 between Western and Eastern Europe respectively.

At present, the bath and shower segment is the biggest category with a share of 23 per cent followed closely by hair care at 20 per cent, according to Rexam’s figures. Both the facial skincare and deodorant categories have an 8 per cent share.

Europe leads the way​

Within bath and shower, bar soap represents half the category followed by body washes/shower gels and liquid soaps. Europe leads the way in ‘liquid’ bath and shower of all the regions followed by North America, although Rexam points out it is performing well in all regions.

Overall packaging volumes in Europe are expected to grow at around 5 per cent a year to reach c.25bn units by 2014, with the best performances expected from facial skin care, deodorants and fragrances.

And Rexam states that when it comes to skin care, especially facial skin care, it owes its thanks to consumer demand for its continued good performance and predicted growth, as it is deemed as a necessity.

Rexam also highlights innovation as key to the category as well, as products with added benefits such as anti-ageing and sun protection factor (SPF) are becoming dominant and well demanded.

There also seems to be an uplift in ‘premiumisation’, as consumers are spending more on products perceived to be of higher value and offering additional benefits, as they equate higher prices with better quality.

The future’s bright for the East​

The packaging company also predicts that Eastern Europe is set for a bright future, expecting pack volume for deodorants to outperform in the East compared to Western Europe, as the market as a whole has forecasted a 3 per cent growth.

For fragrances also, growth in Eastern Europe is expected to bounce back from the recession-induced knock it took in 2009. The proliferation of beauty specialist retailers in Eastern Europe is also set to drive growth in premium fragrances.

As for Western Europe, Rexam predicts it is set to continue to see value growth rise, driven mainly by the UK, with growth is expected to come mostly from male fragrances, in line with the continued success of men’s grooming products.