With more than a third of UK households now owning an automatic dishwasher, sales of machine detergents are increasing. Although this trend is likely to continue over the next five years, with sales in the machine detergent sector expected to be worth 68% of the total market value by 2013, hand-dishwashing brands will retain their penetration as the need for manual washing-up remains. Environmental concerns are reflected in both sub-sectors, but the machine category favours convenience over the hand-washing brands' focus on luxury and exotic fragrances.
Dishwashing is hardly the most glamorous of sectors and is generally loathed as a household chore, but it reflects some interesting shopping trends. The hand-dishwashing sub-sector is a mature market where brand owners fight it out for extra share. As a consequence, there is a lot of promotional activity to tempt shoppers to try different products.
Even though the machine sub-sector is enjoying greater growth as sales of dishwashers increase, households still need to buy hand-dishwashing products. So while the frequency of purchase may drop, penetration of brands in the category will hold steady.
In the UK, 35% of households have dishwashers, according to TGI Europa. Recent research from Germany, suggesting that machines use less energy and water than washing-up by hand, might ease the public's environmental conscience. However, it remains to be seen whether the continuing steep rise in energy prices will affect this growth.
The total dishwashing market is estimated to be worth £393m this year, according to Mintel. With growth of 20% since 2003, it is one of the most buoyant household cleaning markets in the UK. The machine sub-sector is expected to account for 56% of total market sales in 2008.
Dishwasher detergents have followed the wider trend of offering multi-functionality, and rinse aids and salt are now often included. However, a quarter of respondents in a TGI poll said they still buy ancillary items separately, and there has been growth in sales of extras such as machine cleaners and fresheners. All-in-one tablets account for only 15% of total tablet sales, perhaps partly because more basic, cheaper detergents remain popular.
Among the machine-owning public, buyers of detergents tend to be more affluent and live in bigger households. The convenience of tablets makes them by far the most popular format, with 80% of machine users saying they buy them. Powder, on the other hand, has steadily declined over the past few years.
In the hand-washing arena, the major trend has been toward botanical and herbal aromas. Long gone are the days when a citrus scent was the height of washing-up sophistication - now even the most basic of household cleaning products are being infused with apparently exotic ingredients to excite shoppers' olfactory senses.
While antibacterial varieties of washing-up liquid performed well for a time, their popularity has dropped off over the past couple of years, perhaps because of the public's new-found preference for aromatherapy products.
Fairy owner Procter & Gamble leads the manufacturers in this sub-sector, while Reckitt Benckiser's Finish is top of the dishwasher brand pile. P&G has also grown its sales in the dishwasher arena with Fairy Active Bursts, which plays strongly on its environmental credentials.
Fairy Original is its core hand-washing product, but P&G is tapping into the exotics trend with the Sensations range, which includes Lime & Lemongrass and Strawberry Flame variants. This year it also introduced Fairy Clean & Care, a premium sub-brand that claims to pamper users' hands.
Not all P&G's product innovations have been successful. Fairy Active Foam, designed to be used directly on dishes under running water, drew criticism from environmental groups and was withdrawn in August 2006. P&G admitted that sales never reached its target so the product could not be sustained.
While P&G has established itself in both sub-sectors, Reckitt Benckiser operates only on the machine side. Its Finish brand has positioned itself as the epitome of convenience. Launched earlier this year, its Max in 1 line is a wrapper-free tablet in a resealable pack.
Reckitt Benckiser's range of ancillary products includes Turbo Dry, which gives machine-washed crockery a cupboard-dry finish, and Protector, which prevents glasses from clouding.
Other manufacturers in this sector include PZ Cussons, which makes Morning Fresh, Persil's owner, Unilever, and Henkel, which makes Glist.
Environmental awareness has led to the rise in green products entering this market. Ecover has long led the pack, but supermarkets have started to follow suit with own-label rivals, such as Sainsbury's Cleanhome range (which includes a phosphate-free dishwasher tablet) and Tesco's Naturally.
While Ecover's growth across the household-cleaning sectors has been strong, its market share in the dish-washing category remains small. The brand could also face strong competition from Aquados, which has entered the green fray with its Simple Dishwash ecological tablets, which are available in Co-operative and Robert Dyas stores, as well as direct from its website.
Growth in this sector is set to con-tinue, albeit at a slightly slower pace. Mintel expects average growth to be about 5% between 2009 and 2013, when the market will be worth £428m. By then, the gap between the machine- and hand-washing sub-sectors will have grown, with sales in the categories worth £289m and £139m respectively. This will give machine dishwashing a 68% share of the market's total value.
Analyst comment
Vicky McCrorie Managing editor, Datamonitor
With more than a third of British households owning a dishwasher, it is not surprising that market growth for hand-washing detergent is slowing. This has led brands to develop imaginative fragrances and novel bottle designs. In addition, there has been an emergence of environmentally friendly products.
Worth £202m in 2007, the hand-dishwashing sub-sector grew at an annual rate of 2% between 2002 and 2007; this growth is expected to slow to 1.9% between 2007 and 2011 as dishwashers become more prevalent. Over the same period, dishwashing products are forecast to grow in value by 5.7%.
Procter & Gamble's Fairy is the leading dishwashing product in the UK, with a market share of 37.6% in 2006. The brand, which launched a machine variant in 1995, introduced an upgraded product, Fairy Active Burst, in 2006. However, Fairy has not given up on hand-dishwashing and its portfolio includes a plethora of fragranced varieties. Persil has taken a similar tack, with fragrances including Green Tea & Lime, Berry Burst, Lemon Zest and Tropical.
According to Productscan, 14 'biodegradable' dishwashing products have been launched in the UK since the beginning of last year, including Lakeland Ecoclean Kitchen Washing-Up Liquid and Tesco's Naturally line. The latter highlights the rise of supermarket own-label brands in the green detergent arena.
Another relative newcomer here is US brand Method. The company specialises in 'natural' products in sleek packaging. Its washing-up liquid is presented in a tear-shaped bottle, mixing sleek design with environmentally friendly ingredients - a trend to look out for in the near future.
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