Magazine: It has never been truer: Cleanliness is next to healthiness!

Zsuzsa Petrikovics 
brand manager
Unilever Magyarország

Zsuzsa Petrikovics, Unilever Magyarország Kft.’s brand manager reported to Trade magazin that the pandemic induced a 35-percent rise in cleaning product sales in 2020. She revealed that sales grew way above the average in the wipe segment, which offers the fastest and the most comfortable solution for cleaning various surfaces. About sales channels she told: there was a two-digit sales growth in every channel, with drugstores coming up with the best performance. Ms Petrikovics added that consumers trusted major brands much more than private label cleaning products.

Réka Biró-Kőszegvári, brand manager of Henkel Magyarország Kft. talked to us about how people spending more time at home entailed a big sales growth (in both value and volume) in the dishwasher product and toilet rim block segments in 2020.

Growing online product selection

In the ‘eco’ segment of laundry detergents and cleaning products drugstores and hypermarkets are the most popular places for buying. We learned from Lilla Vályi-Nagy, product manager of Florin Zrt. that the COVID-19 pandemic restructured the whole European chemical industry: manufacturers switched as many production lines to making disinfectants as it was possible.

Edit Oláh, marketing manager of Freudenberg Háztartási Cikkek Bt. added that the pandemic also made people buy much more cleaning tools and equipment than they did before. This had a positive effect on the sales performance of Vileda products too. Andrej Botos, Bonus Kft.’s marketing manager called our attention to the fact that the closure of HoReCa units resulted in lower sales of professional cleaning products, such as the company’s Bonuspro range that hit the market in 2019.

Being available is more important than the price

Ms Vályi-Nagy revealed that before the pandemic consumers only used disinfectant products in certain parts of the flat, but now they basically disinfect every surface. This also means that instead of buying these products once in every 1-2 month, they now purchase them every other week. Sales of Florin Zrt.’s disinfectant products soared by 200 percent in the consumer market.

Andrej Botos
marketing manager
Bonus

Mr Botos said: prices increased when there was a product shortage in the cleaning and disinfectant product market due to the surge in demand, and this made shoppers more price-sensitive than before. The marketing manager reckons that shoppers more and more often choose Hungarian-made products – this is good news for Bonus Kft., as most of their products bear the Hungarian Product Trademark.

Environmental consciousness has become less important

Edit Oláh
marketing manager
Vileda–Freudenberg
Háztartási Cikkek

Ms Oláh stressed that nowadays – when people have to perform multiple tasks on a given day, from home schooling to cooking and working – quickness and efficiency in home cleaning are more important than ever before. Vileda’s microfibre products that can kill 99 percent of bacteria in people’s homes play a key role in more frequent and thorough cleaning. Vileda’s Steam and Steam XXL devices do the same thing with the power of steam – in an eco-friendly way.

Ms Petrikovics believes that natural and eco-friendly products will regain their popularity after the slight decline in 2020. A growing number of cleaning products are marketed in recycled and recyclable plastic packaging. Natural product components are used more widely and demand is on the rise for chlorine-free disinfectants.

Innovation work can’t stop

Réka Biró-Kőszegvári
brand manager
Henkel Magyarország

In Henkel Magyarország Kft.’s ProNature range we can find the more sustainable products of the Bref, Clin, Pur and Somat brands, the majority of which are made using natural ingredients, marketed in recycled packaging and bear the EU Ecolabel. Bref ProNature toilet freshener is sold in 100-percent recycled packaging and it is the market leader in the segment. A new ProNature product will come out in 2021.

Unilever Magyarország Kft. gives priority to making its portfolio more sustainable, therefore natural and degradable product ingredients are used, and concentrates and refill variants are being launched. The company will roll out a sustainable new innovation in 2021 and a chlorine-free disinfectant will also appear on store shelves.

Florin Zrt.’s BradoClub universal surface disinfectant kills almost 100 percent of bacteria, fungi and viruses. It can be used on alcohol-resistant surfaces in kitchens, in bathrooms, in children’s rooms and other places too. In 2021 the company is going to complete its production facility modernisation project, thanks to which they are going to make new kinds of products too.

Hygiene quickly and comfortably

Freudenberg Háztartási Cikkek Bt.’s most successful product is the Vileda Turbo mop and bucket set with a foot pedal operated wringer – this is comfortable to use and can eliminate 99 percent of bacteria. In Hungary spray mops is a lesser-known category, but they are already very popular in Western Europe: by pulling a lever on the mop’s handle you can spray water from the tank and remove the dirt quickly – killing up to 99 percent of bacteria.

The majority of Bonus Kft.’s product sales has been realised by prevention and health protection related products in the last few years, e.g. large-size sponges, colour-coded microfibre and universal wipes and mops. Innovation work is done with environmental considerations in mind. In 2021 the company plans to launch special-purpose products in both the domestic and the international market. //

Consciousness and sustainability

Attila Hortobágyi
key account manager
FCB Hungary

There is something positive happening in the cleaning industry: it is becoming more conscious and the importance of sustainability is growing. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic cleaning and hygiene measures are crucial both at workplaces and in our homes.

Werner & Mertz manufactures products that can help in reducing the risk of infection. Tana hygiene products are made in EMAS-certified factories. Although the focus is on disinfecting in the hospitality sector at the moment, the main direction remains the usage of sustainable, innovative and green closed-system products. //