By Bill Corcoran and Hanna Lange-Chenier
South Africa’s personal care market grew steadily in 2013, according to research group Euromonitor International, which put the total value of mass and premium products sold in the country at South African rand ZAR35bn (US$3.16bn) for the year.
The top four selling sub-sectors in the market that year were as follows: fragrances (ZAR9.20bn, $830.57m), skin care (ZAR5.20bn, $469.46m), bath/shower (ZAR3.80bn, $343.07m) and deodorants (ZAR4bn, $361.13m).
Euromonitor analyst Zeenat Ebrahim tells SPC that looking at growth rates, the sub sectors that stood out were those with new, multifunctional products, particularly in the areas of facial make-up, colour cosmetics, and bath and shower products. For instance, BB and CC creams – which are often mixed with moisturisers or contain sun protection properties – arrived in South Africa in 2012 and sold very well throughout 2013.
“Consumers like the value-added benefits these products offer, and as a result they have recorded the largest growth rate in the personal care range in 2013, and we would expect this to continue,” notes Ebrahim.
She adds: “We also forecast that facial make-up will have a compounded annual growth rate over the next five years of 70%.”