Magazine: Consumer demand targets quality paper products

The household paper market is stable, with a small restructuring taking place. Experts agree that the crisis is not over yet, consumers are price-conscious and promotion-sensitive. According to Judit Tóth, brand manager with Kimberly-Clark Kft. shoppers in Hungary buy toilet paper focusing on two criteria: the size of the packaging unit and the number of layers.

Réka Nagy, SCA Hygiene Products Kft.’s marketing manager informed Trade magazin that retail sales in Hungary are declining and if we take a closers look at paper sales we can see that 2011 brought stagnation in both value and volume. Zita Viktória Radajkovics, Vajda-Papír Kft.’s sales manager emphasised that consumers became much more price-sensitive and always read promotional leaflets. They keep looking for the best quality at the most favourable price. Sándor Gödri, commercial director of Metsa Tissue Kft. is of the opinion that the category’s stability is the result of toilet paper and paper towel being obligatory presence in households. At the same time the product mix changed and manufacturers are competing for buyers with price promotions. From market data it can be seen that consumers prefer bigger toilet paper packages, sometimes buying 24- and 32-roll units. These are the most often promoted so people get them at relatively low prices and manufacturers also like them because there are few private label products in this segment. 3-layer toilet paper sales are still growing strong (their share from value sales is 65 percent, according to Nielsen). Toilet paper is not a seasonal product but the usage of seasonal patterns can bring a little excitement in the category, e.g. Zewa’s lilac toilet paper for the spring season or the winter design before Christmas – we learned from Judit Sándor, customer marketing manager with SCA Hygiene Products Kft. This year Metsa launched two new scents in the 3-layer segment: Sweet Flowers and Fresh Morning, plus they came out with a white toilet paper called ‘Pearl White’. Kimberly-Clark appeared in stores with Kleenex Chamomile 8-roll, 3-layer toilet paper: the product is not simply chamomile-scented but the sheets contain chamomile extracts too. Vajda-Papír introduced its Ooops! product line in 2011 with great success, which serves all needs from simple to luxury demand. These products are dermatologically and gynecologically tested because consumers are increasingly concerned with health issues. This year Ooops! Premium and Sensitive toilet papers won ‘Product of the Year 2012’ in their category. Tissue: sales of both the 10 per pack and the 100 per pack version were decreasing, only the box version was able to increase sales – this process is not in line with the current trends of economic recession and is the result of product launches concentrated to this segment, for instance in the spring Zewa brought out lavender-orange 4-layer tissue in a box. Summer barbeques may increase paper towel sales but only when the crisis is over will real upturn take place – say the experts. 1- and 2-roll products are the leaders of the category and 3-layer towels managed to grow a bit to the detriment of 2-layer versions, we learned from the expert of Metsa (the distributor of the brands Tento and Lambi). Napkin sales contracted; the best seasons are the Easter and Christmas periods, thanks to multi-layer and seasonal-design products. Vajda-Papír is present in 7 countries with Mickey Mouse, Cars and Tom&Jerry napkins, kitchen towels and tissues. Their Ooops! Green Line is a product range that earned the Nordic Ecolabel qualification and targets environmentally conscious shoppers, mainly in Scandinavia and the neighbouring countries.