Beauty: signs of recovery

The economic survey proposed by the Cosmetica Italia study centre (with a focus on performance in the first half of 2014 and forecasts for the latter half) reveals a timid awakening of some indicators in the beauty market in 2014.

Once again the growth in sales, albeit at less evident rates, was boosted by foreign demand, exports of cosmetics products show a projection of +7%, to a value of close on 3.400 million euros.
Thanks to this positive trend, the total turnover of the sector, namely the value of production, will exceed 9.4 billion euros, an increase of almost two percentage points.
Projecting the indications and the sentiment of the associated companies at year’s-end, the value of the market will be close to 9.500 million euros.
 

The sales channels. The general forecast is affected by the sluggishness of professional channels and beauty centers: the significant drop in average attendance figures is affecting the distribution of products in these areas, down between 3 and 4%.
A slight slowdown is seen in the losses for the perfumery channel (-3% in the first half of 2014 is expected to stabilize in the second half to 2.5%).
As a result of a slight decline in the first half of 2014, down 1.8%, and a more-or-less stable second half of the year, -0.6%, the value of the cosmetics sold by large retailers will amount to 4,000 million euros (hence confirming the leading role of this channel).
Worth noting the significant proportion (although difficult to quantify) accountable to the phenomenon of single-brand distribution, which in the future will be separated from the mass market assessment given the new type and identity of this phenomenon.
The market value attained by the pharmacy channel at the end of the year is estimated to stand at 1.8 billion euros.

And if the herbal channel indicates a slowdown in growth rates (+ 1.8% in the first half of the year, up 2% expected later this year with a market value of over 410 million euros), the contractors report auspicious signs for the first half of 2014, + 2.5%, and the forecasts for the latter half of the year, + 3.5%.
Lastly, a look at direct sales, which account for a little over 5% of cosmetics consumption and express trends superior to other channels: growth is above 2% in the first half of the year, which is expected to further rise by three points, with a volume of sales of over 500 million euros.