Drug chains experience solid growth in beauty care

Drug Store News,  May 17, 1999  by Andrea M. Grossman

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Products helping consumers maintain beauty care, including products for shaving, ethnic consumers, skin care, hair care, deodorant, bath and body, oral care, sun care and color cosmetics, had a great year in 1998. Hair color alone experienced increases of 12.3 percent to $1.175 billion. The mass color cosmetics category saw dollar sales climb 12.4 percent to $2.976 billion.

Overall in color cosmetics, the majority of categories experienced increases, and for the first time, drug store sales were parallel with mass sales. Three of the four key category segments were up in double-digit increments in three-outlet dollar sales: face makeup, up 11.9 percent; eye makeup, up 12.7 percent; and lip makeup, up 13.7 percent. Three-outlet dollar volume for the nail category was up 8.9 percent.

Only one relatively small dollar volume category showed a decline in 1998: nail care and treatment products were down 0.4 percent to $85.3 million.

For the first time in a long time, drug stores generated as much growth in color cosmetics as mass merchandise stores. Dollar sales for drug and mass merchandise stores were up 13.4 percent and 13.5 percent respectively.

The growth came from all five of the highest-volume brands, as well as from two other brands in the top 10: No. 9-ranked Bonne Bell and No. 10-ranked Jane Cosmetics.

In personal care, five segments helped drive dollar sales within their respective categories in food, drug and mass: shower gel sales grew 16.2 percent, hair color increased 12.3 percent, toothpaste gained 4.9 percent, sun care grew 5.7 percent, and refill razor blade sales exploded 13.7 percent. Three of the remaining personal care categories also experienced growth: skin care grew 20 percent, ethnic grew 2.6 percent, and deodorant grew 5.6 percent.

Drug sales did keep pace with the other channels in several categories, such as skin care, razors and hair color, where sales jumped 16.1 percent, 13.2 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively. The growth in these categories came from innovations throughout 1998: Gillette's launch of Mach3 in 1998 reaped sales of $70.4 million; Oil of Olay's moisturizers, which included some improved formulas, saw sales exceeding $140 million. In hair color, Revlon's ColorStay, which hit shelves in late 1997, recorded sales of $40.2 million.

The toothpaste, sun care, ethnic products and deodorant categories each experienced at least one turning point that either positively affected the category last year or will help 1999 sales. The launch of Colgate Total helped overall sales of the Colgate brand leap 36.2 percent. Sun care's Neutrogena experienced 23 percent sales increases attributed to its SPF 45 variant, a new one for 1998. Ethnic product makers and retailers may have access to new scan data to make managing the category easier for 1999, and deodorant brands, such as Lady Speed Stick, launched clear gels, 1998's main driver of sales.

Overall, beauty care and personal care categories saw growth for similar reasons: stronger promotions, aggressive innovation and improved partnerships between retailers and manufacturers.

                     Beauty care drug chain performance

                            $ sales   % change
Department                in millions vs. 1997
Hair care                  $1,303.2      9.0%
  Hair coloring               463.6     13.3
  Shampoo                     299.8      7.9
  Hair conditioner            225.4     10.6
  Hair styling gel/mousse     141.7     13.3
  Hair spray/spritz           127.0      4.5
  Home perm/relaxer kits       45.7     -2.9
Facial cosmetics            1,009.5     19.2
Oral care                     843.1      5.9
  Toothbrush/
   dental accessories         331.6      9.8
  Toothpaste                  277.2      4.9
  Mouthwash                   140.8      3.2
  Denture products             93.5      3.1
Skin care products            817.1     14.1
  Skin care                   569.5     22.0
  Hand and body lotion        247.6      5.6
Shaving products              551.7     11.6
  Razors                      321.3     19.0
  Shaving lotion/
   men's fragrance            161.3      4.0
  Shaving cream                69.1     11.3
Nail cosmetics                379.0      8.0
Sanitary protection           375.5     11.3
Deodorant                     301.3      8.6
Women's fragrances            287.7      3.9
Soap                          251.7     18.8
Hair accessories              202.9     11.7
Suntan products               137.8      5.4
Cotton balls                   74.1      3.5
Hair growth products           73.0     -3.7
Bath products                  37.5      4.8
Breath freshener
 sprays/drops                  20.9     -6.2
Cosmetic storage                7.7     -2.2


Source: Information Resources Inc. for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 31, 1998

           Beauty care channel performance in drug, food and mass

                       Drug [*]             Food                 Mass
                         1998       %       1998        %        1998
Department             $ sales   of U.S.   $ sales   of U.S.   $ sales
                     in millions market  in millions market  in millions
Hair care             $1,412.3    28.2%   $1,567.9    31.3%   $2,025.8
Skin care                655.5    26.4       866.4    34.9       959.7
Shaving products         624.2    27.0       708.2    30.7       974.2
Sanitary protection      425.4    22.7       801.2    42.7       650.6
Face cosmetics           381.0    40.9       111.4    11.9       438.5
Lip cosmetics            380.0    51.5        76.1    10.3       271.4
Oral care                371.5    24.8     1,540.5    39.4     1,392.7
Eye cosmetics            339.1    42.4       116.7    14.5       344.4
Deodorant                332.1    20.8       624.4    39.2       636.2
Women's fragrances       326.5    37.9        62.8     7.3       472.3
Soap                     272.1    12.3     1,023.8    46.1       925.1
Nail cosmetics           239.4    50.6        47.7    10.0       186.3
Hair accessories         220.0    30.8       124.5    17.4       370.0
Suntan products          167.2    36.2       111.2    24.1       183.8
Hair growth               81.4    58.4        16.2   116.6        41.8
products
Cotton balls              80.2    24.6       116.1    35.6       129.6
Ethnic products [**]      74.0    41.8        36.3    20.5        66.5
Bath products             43.5    26.0        42.7    25.5        81.2
Breath freshner           24.0    44.9        13.7    25.7        15.7
sprays/drops
Cosmetic storage           6.5    18.0         0.7     2.0        29.0



                        %
Department           of U.S.
                     market
Hair care             40.4%
Skin care             38.6
Shaving products      42.2
Sanitary protection   34.7
Face cosmetics        47.0
Lip cosmetics         37.1
Oral care             35.6
Eye cosmetics         43.0
Deodorant             39.9
Women's fragrances    54.8
Soap                  41.7
Nail cosmetics        39.4
Hair accessories      51.8
Suntan products       39.8
Hair growth           30.0
products
Cotton balls          39.8
Ethnic products [**]  37.6
Bath products         48.5
Breath freshner       29.4
sprays/drops
Cosmetic storage      80.0


Source: Information Resources Inc. for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 3, 1999
(*.)Including independents
(**.)For the 52 weeks ended March 28, 1999

COPYRIGHT 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning