Regional Distribution of Squeezable Plastic Tubes in Beauty and Personal Care 2007/2012

Beauty and personal care applications accounted for some 93% of global squeezable plastic tube sales in 2012, with toothpaste absolutely intrinsic to the pack type’s global positioning. Overall, a solid performance is being recorded in consumer demand for plastic tubes, even among some of the mature regional economies of the Eurozone and North America. Resilience is underpinned by the importance of the oral care category. Oral care alone represented 65% of all squeezable plastic tube sales in the beauty industry in 2012.

Outside toothpaste, plastic tubes exert an important influence and hold good prospects in skin care, with this being the other main avenue where brand owners launch in tubes for the efficacy of dispensing attributes.

Tubes Hold Strong

Tubes hold strong with oral care benefits coming from rising incomes in emerging markets.

In 2012, BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) alongside the U.S. made up the top five national users of squeezable plastic tubes in beauty. Higher disposable incomes among low-income families are enabling more frequent purchase of oral care. India singularly provides the greatest volume growth potential and is set to account for one fifth of global squeezable plastic tube sales in toothpaste by 2016, as educational campaigns by companies such as Colgate-Palmolive India serve to further increase awareness of the importance of oral hygiene among rural consumers. For India, facial cleansers and styling agents have also proven to be exceptionally strong category performers for the plastic tube, liked for its ease of handling. Ongoing development of the retail infrastructure in India and an expected rise in number of specialist beauty retailers like New U, Body Shop and Health and Glow will further support the rapid growth in purchase of beauty products in the country.

Brand owners launch in tubes for the efficacy of dispensing attributes.

Multifunctional Skin Care

Multifunctional skin care solutions are another impetus for growth.

In skin care, facial cleansers and moisturizers, body and hand care creams are the most important beauty end-uses for the tube. The development of products that work on multiple levels is a clear trend in the beauty arena that is serving to grow sales; these products provide value benefits with an increasing number of 2-in-1 products, and the time-saving features of these help simplify the beauty regime.

There is a wider availability of beauty balms and this is not just the foray of female products. LabSeries has extended the concept into the dynamic men’s skin care category with a number of brands repositioning blemish balms as beauty balms. Anti-agers have extended beyond the realm of tackling wrinkles to having additional brightening features, evening skin tone, providing luminosity or a natural glow; it’s not just about wrinkle reduction for beauty brands, but a multifunctional approach, and this continuing diversification is serving to grow the market of anti-agers in both value sales and in volume terms for packaging.

The U.S., globally ranked fourth for squeezable plastic tubes in beauty and personal care, at 1.3 billion tubes in 2012, overall showed positive 1% unit volume growth in 2012, with tube sales in skin care up 2%. Multi-functional and multi-tasking features are apparent, with anti-aging and sun protection being key added components increasingly being included in beauty product formulations to cater to the needs of a broadly aging world demographic, most notably in Western Europe, North America and Japan.

There’s the dual-purpose hand cream from Unilever in the UK, Vaseline Hand Cream 2-in-1 + Anti-Bac, a combined hand moisturizer and hand sanitizer. In makeup, there are foundation and anti-aging serum in-one products, while many skin care products provide higher SPF, sun care protection features such as LaRoche Posay’s anti-aging primer, with a SPF50, that is retailed in a 1.35 floz/40ml tube.

The Biggest Tube Gains

Head East to mete out the biggest tube gains.

The global balance of demand for tubes will certainly continue to shift eastwards, to emerging market economies, with Asia Pacific set to account for some 45% of all squeezable plastic tube sales made in the beauty and personal care industry by 2016, compared with 39% in 2007. Among the more mature developed world economies in North America and Europe there will continue to be some lucrative added-value opportunities for tubes, most especially in the increasingly diversified skin care and men’s grooming categories.

About the Author

Rosemarie Downey is global head of packaging research, Euromonitor International.