P&G increases its European market share
PROCTER & Gamble, the maker of Gillette razors, said yesterday that new product ranges and cheaper versions of existing brands were boosting its market share in Europe in a particularly difficult economic climate for retailers.
The world’s biggest consumer goods group has launched new automatic dishwasher and stain removal products over the last two years, while a new Gillette Fusion ProGlide razor blade is due out in Europe.
“We have been growing market share each month over the last seven months,” Procter & Gamble’s Western European president Gianni Ciserani said, speaking from a global consumer goods forum summit in London.
Ciserani said the group’s new Ariel stain remover, Fairy automatic dishwasher products and Pampers Dry Max nappies had helped boost sales in Western Europe, a region which contributes around 25 per cent of the group’s overall worldwide sales.
By selling the nappies at a much lower price, the group has managed to garner a 10 per cent market share in the struggling economy of Greece and a 4-5 per cent share in the UK.
The US giant competes against Reckitt Benckiser’s Finish and Vanish in automatic dishwasher and stain removal products, against Unilever and Henkel in detergents and Kimberly-Clark for nappies.
“Europe is very volatile. The worst is behind us but the recovery will be much slower than people expect,” Ciserani added. In April, Procter & Gamble – which is listed in New York and Paris – reported a seven per cent increase in net sales for the first quarter of 2010, to $19.2bn (£12.8bn).