NEW DELHI, June 12
Savita Singh, a homemaker from Mumbai, finds it convenient to use a liquid dish wash when cleaning utensils. Not only do the vessels look cleaner, she says, she is able to wind up her chore quickly. Once done, she prefers to wash her hands with a liquid soap rather than a bar. She is now increasingly using liquid detergents instead of powders for her washing machine.
Large and traditional fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) categories such as soaps, detergents and dish wash, which depended on the bar and powder formats, are now seeing the liquid variants gain currency. While the market is small, says research agency Kantar, which tracks household consumption, the pace of growth is rapid. Consider this: Mass-market segments such as detergent bars, washing soaps, and washing powders, says Kantar, have either lost volume or did not manage to grow much in the 12-month period ended March (referred to as moving annual total or MAT March 2024) due to stagnant demand. While detergent bars grew 2%, washing soaps declined 7% and washing powder growth was flat at 0.5% for the period. In contrast, smaller categories such as fabric softeners and washing liquids grew 32% and 58% in the MAT March 2024 period, Kantar said, due to higher adoption among premium households. Fabric softeners, for instance, added 14 million new customers and fabric wash added 13.1 million, Kantar had said on household consumption habits in calendar year 2023. The two figured among the top six segments that had bucked the slowdown trend in FMCG last year. “Detergent bars, washing soaps, and washing powders contribute 97% of all the sector’s volume, and this reflects as the volumes slow down. The premium end of the market, in terms of formats, buoyed by fabric softeners and washing liquids, has grown significantly in contrast, albeit on a small base,” K Ramakrishnan, managing director, South Asia, Kantar Worldpanel, said.
FMCG companies have been paying heed to the shift in consumption patterns within home and personal care, launching products to tap into the need for both efficacy and convenience, especially among urban consumers. For instance, Godrej Consumer (GCPL), the country’s second-largest soaps maker, has a powder-to-liquid handwash created by dissolving a powder into water.
This liquid format by GCPL, according to sector experts, is cheaper than existing handwash products and has disrupted the Rs 1,000-crore handwash market in the country. For instance, GCPL’s powder-to-liquid 200-ml sachet retails for Rs 10; combi packs including a bottle and three refills costs between Rs 50-100, according to trade sources. A 200-ml Dettol handwash, on the other hand, costs between Rs 88-92 a unit.
Similarly, GCPL has recently launched a liquid detergent called ‘Fab’ for Rs 99 a litre in south India and has stepped into the foam-based body wash segment under the Cinthol brand at Rs 120 a unit in select markets.
“This product targets the fast-growing body wash segment that is currently at Rs 700 crore and growing at 20% per annum,” GCPL said in a statement during its Q4FY24 results last month.
During Hindustan Unilever’s Q4 recent earnings call, CEO & MD Rohit Jawa said the shift to liquids was a seminal trend within FMCG.
“Broadly, there is a macro, secular trend of consumers moving towards liquids across categories. We have a total liquids business in home care including fabric conditioners, fabric wash and dish wash in excess of Rs 3,500 crore. And this market is growing,” he said.
Nitin Gupta, senior research analyst at brokerage Emkay Global Financial Services, says the liquid category will take off in a big way as price points begin to fall. “Liquids are considered as premium products in India and for them to be adopted by the masses will take time,” he said.
Some experts also say that adoption of liquid products could be limited as consumers take note of their environmental impact. Liquid products require more energy to transport versus bars and powders.
Plus, the plastic packaging for liquid products is far more than that for bars and powders.
