Press Release / Home & Family / RB INDIA AND HUL TO SLUG IT OUT IN HAND HYGIENE SPACE: BONAFIDE RESEARCH

RB INDIA AND HUL TO SLUG IT OUT IN HAND HYGIENE SPACE: BONAFIDE RESEARCH

Premature players, understanding of Indian consumer behaviour, distinctive marketing and strong promotional strategies, effective pricing strategy, availability of stock on the shelf of retailers, introduction of various variants & delivery formats by the leading players are some of the factors responsible for the dominance.

Reckitt Benckiser India with its flagship brand Dettol, the most trusted brand among Indian consumers from decades. Dettol majorly is a leading player in the liquid hand wash soaps and hand sanitizer segments. Hindustan Unbeliever which is India’s largest FMCG Company severs the hand hygiene industry with its oldest brand Lifebuoy along with the great presence in both of the liquid hand wash and hand sanitizer categories of India. The company holds the second largest market share in hand hygiene market of the country. Both these players mutually account for about 78% share of the overall hand hygiene market in India. The innovative packaging, delivery format, right pricing strategy, unique ingredients and strong promotional activities are the main strengths of these companies which helps them to sustain their position in India hand hygiene market since a long time.
Reckitt Benckiser (India) and Hindustan Unilever limited are strategically utilizing the PM Narendra Modi’s initiated “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” platform to push their sales within the segment by expanding the reach of their products. Furthermore, the aggressive campaigns and strong promotional activities through these players are appealing the consumers to adopt the hand hygiene products to maintain hand cleanliness in order to protect from infectants. By this, they could reach the rural parts of India from where the sales are initiated to generate for liquid hand wash products.

On the other hand, the players such as Colgate-Palmolive India, Dabur India, Wipro Consumer Care & Lightening, ITC Limited, Godrej consumer Products Limited, Herbal Strategi, The Himalaya Drug Company, etc are also having an existence in hand hygiene market of India and majority of these serve both the segment of hand hygiene market with their popular brands. Despite of having well-known brands, these were not able to create a noise in the market so far when compared to Dettol and Lifebuoy. However, Godrej with its Protekt and ITC with Savlon, are expected position themselves in hand hygiene market in near future. Currently, these companies are making efforts to expand their presence into the segments of hand hygiene market.

According to recently published report of Bonafide Research “India Hand Hygiene Market Outlook, 2021”, hand hygiene products are expected to register more than 15.8% CAGR in the next five years. Growing awareness of infectious disease and improving hand washing practice with adoption in commercial and residential spaces driving hand hygiene products market in India. Hand sanitizer, comparatively a new category for Indian consumers is gaining momentum within the hand hygiene market of the country. The chemist/medical stores are enhancing the sales of hand sanitizer products in urban India, though rural is still far away from this product. The availability of various formats of hand hygiene products along with different flavours in liquid hand wash and hand sanitizer products increases the consumption of such products in commercial and residential spaces. Moreover, the growing trend of organic/herbal hand hygiene products ensures the new category within the market due to health conscious people show more trust on natural hand wash and hand sanitizer products. Thus, innovation and product development have been driving the hand hygiene market in recent years and this will also remain the key aspects of the industry growth in near future.