Personal care: Over the Counter: Top Products 2019

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Cold and flu

Source: Unsplash

Brits are a sickly bunch. They splashed out an extra £30.7m on four million more packs of over the counter remedies in 2019.

That’s an impressive result given the boom in sales a year ago, when the extreme weather of winter 2017/18 led to record numbers of runny noses.

Painkillers (up £26.9m) are driving the bulk of growth this time around – rather than cold & flu remedies (down £2m) – yet leading analgesic Nurofen hasn’t seen much of that action. It’s up 0.5% in value on volumes down 2.7%.

The brand “hasn’t capitalised on the positive trends in adult oral analgesics for two reasons” says Nielsen analyst Ciaran Meyer.

“That’s the complete delisting of the Joint & Back line last year, as well as some important distribution losses for its Express lines.”

It’s better news for number two and three painkilling players Solpadeine and Panadol, which benefited from growing distribution and increased rate of sale, up £5.3m (12.1%) and £2.2m (9.9%) respectively.

Meanwhile, high-strength brands Cuprofen and Paramol are up £900k (21.4%) and £800k (11.6%). “Both might be benefiting from the search for stronger painkillers,” Meyer says.

Heartburn remedies are the next biggest contributor to OTC growth, with sales up £8.4m (5.3%) and volumes 2.6% higher.

The Top Products

In association with nielsen

Top 3 Paediatric analgesics
				£m	change (£m)	change (%)
			Total Category:	88.1	-4.0	-4.4
Total volume change:	-4.70%		Total Own Label:	-	-	-

This year’s rank	Last year’s rank	Brand	Manufacturer	£m	change (£m)	change (%)
1	1	Calpol	Johnson & Johnson	54.4	-2.4	-4.2
2	2	Nurofen	Reckitt Benckiser	17.4	-1.3	-7.2
3	3	Calprofen	Johnson & Johnson	2.6	0.0	-0.5

Top 10 Cold & flu remedies
				£m	change (£m)	change (%)
			Total Category:	518.5	-2.0	-0.4
Total volume change:	-1.90%		Total Own Label:	58.4	2.5	4.5

This year’s rank	Last year’s rank	Brand	Manufacturer	£m	change (£m)	change (%)
1	1	Lemsip	Reckitt Benckiser	64.6	-2.3	-3.4
2	3	Day/Night Nurse	GSK	36.9	1.1	3.1
3	2	Strepsils	Reckitt Benckiser	36.0	-2.0	-5.3
4	4	Sudafed	J & J	35.7	1.1	3.3
5	5	Benylin	J & J	34.4	0.5	1.6
6	6	Halls	Mondelez	28.4	-0.5	-1.7
7	7	Vicks	P&G	25.6	0.8	3.2
8	8	Covonia	Thornton & Ross	23.6	-0.7	-2.7
9	9	Beechams	GSK	18.0	-2.3	-11.5
10	10	Jakemans	Lanes Health	17.1	0.8	4.8

Top 10 Indigestion remedies
				£m	change (£m)	change (%)
			Total Category:	166.3	8.4	5.3
Total volume change:	2.60%		Total Own Label:	20.1	1.3	7.1

This year’s rank	Last year’s rank	Brand	Manufacturer	£m	change (£m)	change (%)
1	1	Gaviscon	Reckitt Benckiser	67.0	2.3	3.5
2	2	Rennie	Reckitt Benckiser	33.9	3.1	10.1
3	3	Nexium	Pfizer	21.3	2.5	13.4
4	4	Zantac	Omega Pharma	5.14	-0.28	-5.22
5	5	Andrews	GSK	3.46	0.01	0.29
6	6	Pepto-Bismol	P&G	3.01	0.03	1.07
7	8	Windsetlers	Thornton & Ross	2.28	0.22	10.84
8	7	Phillips	Omega Pharma	2.06	-0.14	-6.48
9	9	Wind-Eze	Forest Labs	1.12	-0.44	-28.10
10	12	Remegel	Reckitt Benckiser	0.98	0.16	19.74

Top 10 Adult oral analgesics
				£m	change (£m)	change (%)
			Total Category:	414.6	26.9	7.0
Total volume change:	2.70%		Total Own Label:	146.4	13.6	10.3

This year’s rank	Last year’s rank	Brand	Manufacturer	£m	change (£m)	change (%)
1	1	Nurofen	Reckitt Benckiser	81.2	0.4	0.5
2	2	Solpadeine	Omega Pharma	49.3	5.3	12.1
3	4	Panadol	GSK	23.9	2.2	9.9
4	3	Anadin	Pfizer	23.1	0.4	1.6
5	5	Galpharm	Galpharm Int	11.6	-0.6	-4.5
6	6	Paramol	Reckitt Benckiser	7.7	0.8	11.6
7	7	Aspar	Asphar Pharmaceuticals	5.5	-1.3	-19.2
8	11	Numark	Numark	5.3	0.7	14.5
9	12	Cuprofen	Reckitt Benckiser	5.0	0.9	21.4
10	8	Alka Seltzer	Bayer Consumer	5.0	-0.1	-1.4

Top 10 Allergy remedies
				£m	change (£m)	change (%)
			Total Category:	130.7	1.4	1.1
Total volume change:	1.00%		Total Own Label:	-	-	-

This year’s rank	Last year’s rank	Brand	Manufacturer	£m	change (£m)	change (%)
1	1	Piriteze	GSK	20.1	-0.4	-2.1
2	2	Benadryl	Johnson & Johnson	13.1	-0.7	-5.3
3	3	Piriton	GSK	11.0	-0.3	-2.9
4	4	Beconase	Omega Pharma	10.5	0.9	9.8
5	5	Pirinase	GSK	4.1	0.0	1.0
6	6	Opticrom	Sanofi	3.6	0.6	20.7
7	12	Bells	Bells Healthcare	2.6	0.9	57.6
8	8	Optrex	Reckitt Benckiser	2.5	-0.3	-12.3
9	9	Phenergan	Sanofi	2.4	0.2	8.2
10	13	Allacan	Bristol Laboratories	2.1	0.8	56.7

The Grocer’s Top Launch

Nurofen

Nurofen 200mg Medicated Plaster by RB

This Nurofen innovation is the first clinically proven 24-hour pain relief patch to hit the UK, claims Reckitt Benckiser. It says bodily aches and twinges are the most commonly experienced types of pain in Britain, yet nearly half of sufferers choose not to treat them. Of those who do, nearly a fifth are not satisfied with the result. The Nurofen 200mg Medicated Plaster has been launched in the hope of changing that. Flexible and less than 1mm thick, it delivers liquid ibuprofen through its adhesive.