The household cleaning category has had £9m wiped off its value, with all major products in decline, bar one: disposable hand wipes. These have seen sales leap by £6m or 8.8% in the past year [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 27 March 2016].

“Wipes are making gains directly from the other formats as well as encouraging existing shoppers to buy more,” comments Kantar analyst Andrew Zarb, who adds that the greatest gains have come from erasers, liquids and gels.

“Last year’s strong performance for sprays hasn’t been repeated and the liquid sector continues to suffer. There’s been a lack of notabale launches compared with 2013 and 2014, which saw Flash Gel and Magic Erasers entering the market. Now these launches have been cycled, the category is struggling to annualise the sales.”

“On average, consumers spend 10 days a year cleaning their homes and four out of 10 clean every day, so they are always on the lookout for ways they can make this process quicker and easier…”

The rollout of larger pack sizes has also driven growth in wipes. In 2015, Unilever launched Cif Power & Shine in packs of 90 wipes to give larger households an alternative to the standard packs of 30 wipes.

“On average, consumers spend 10 days a year cleaning their homes and four out of 10 clean every day, so they are always on the lookout for ways they can make this process quicker and easier,” says Nikki Hepburn Unilever’s commercial manager for household. 

“Disposable wipes have seen a big increase in the past two or three years – with 40% of shoppers now purchasing them to clean their homes with, which has resulted in significant growth in the wipe market. Due to this increase in popularity, wipes are now moving to bigger packs as consumers become more frequent users.”

 In partnership with Statista. 

10 Things You Need To Know About... Household