Laundry: Conditioners bring comfort to detergent category

Talk about softening the blow. As value and volume sales of detergents have drained away over the past year, fabric conditioners have continued to enjoy a renaissance.

All bar one of the top five conditioners (fifth-placed Surcare) have achieved value and volume growth, with Fairy the standout winner in terms of percentage gains, up 21.9% on volumes up 31.1% [Nielsen 52 w/e 12 October]. In absolute terms however, category leader Comfort remains the biggest grower, having increased in value by £10.9m (8.3%) on volumes up 12.8%.

The fact Fairy’s average price has fallen 7%, compared with an average market decline of 0.4% suggests owner P&G has ramped up deals to achieve growth. Comfort’s price slip of 4% suggests a similar reliance on deals.

We’re not talking about blunt price cuts, however. “Promotions have become more sophisticated,” says Ben Taylor, Unilever’s household category manager. “The biggest way for us to drive fabric conditioners through promotions is through a lot more joint features in-store. That’s detergents and fabric conditioners on at the same time.”

Therein lies a key reason for the disparity between the performances of the laundry and conditioner sub categories. Everyone uses detergent, whereas conditioners are still seen by many as a luxury. Conditioners are in growth because brands are managing to convince consumers to buy a conditioner when they stock up on detergent.

That’s not to say detergents are all washed out. Persil Liquid’s 0.9% value growth may seem meagre (and volumes are down), but year-on-year comparison is skewed by the brand’s stonking 19.7% growth in 2012. The July relaunch of Small & Mighty (see below) has helped offset declines in other variants while helping to raise average price by 2.6%.

P&G has also had an active year, with Ariel Liquid Capsules enjoying the strongest growth. The variant’s 11.9% fall in average price suggests deals have been key to this performance but that doesn’t mean value isn’t being added to the category. Working out at 23p and 24p per use respectively (compared with a market average of 18p), Ariel and Persil Liquid Capsules are significantly raising the price punters will pay for fresher threads.

You could say they’re cleaning up.

Read The Grocer’s full Top Products Survey.