Rising personal care products demand driving packaging market

In today’s business world, retailers, OEMs, and packaging suppliers are feeling strong pressures from both their supply chain and consumers to reduce all packaging and use packaging materials that are more environmentally sustainable. At the same time, pressures to manage costs, enclose products in ways that increase shelf-life, reduce tampering, confirm items are not counterfeit, and showcase products in an appealing manner continue to be important.
 
Fundamental function of packaging
The function of good packaging is to lure the retail customer at the counter and appeal to the consumer's senses and emotions. There is usually only seconds to grab a customer's attention as consumer choices are often intuitive, particularly in the cosmetics market.

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Packaging innovation and development of new cosmetic packaging materials, as well as the ways in which they are applied gives that intuition a nudge in the right direction. Good packaging not only tells the story of the product contained within, but also protects the product during transportation and use, and is cost-effective, functional and innovative so that the product and the brand can be differentiated from the competition. Since the package is the consumer's first impression of the brand, it must also leave a lasting impression.
 
The booming personal care market
The global personal care market, estimated at about $ 300 billion at the retail level, is a highly attractive segment of the consumer products space. The market has seen steady growth of 4.5% per annum in the last few years, from low capital intensive asset base, providing high return on capital to investors. Significantly, the industry has come out of the recent economic turmoil relatively unscathed compared to other industrial segments, thanks to highly sustainable drivers such as demographics that work in its favour.
 
According to estimates by Kline & Co, a leading consultancy firm, the anti-ageing segment is the single largest product type in the personal care market and is the key growth engine. Skin care and hair care - the two largest segments of the market - are also the fastest growing, providing sizeable growth opportunities for suppliers.

Global personal care markets by product class

Segment	% market share
Skin care	29

Hair care 21 Toiletries 15 Make up 15 Fragrances 11 Oral care 9
Cosmeceuticals, which are cosmetic products with drug-like benefits, has become the fastest growing segment of the cosmetics and personal care industry. The global cosmeceuticals market offers huge potential among Asian countries like Japan, China and India, which are set to attract major players in future. Though the market is at a nascent stage in developing countries, such as India and china, there remains a large untapped potential, with the desire to look young and fair.
 
According to a report ‘Global Cosmeceuticals Market Outlook 2016’, the global cosmeceuticals market should reach $ 32 bn by 2016, as it expands a rapid growth rate of 7.7% annually between 2012 and 2016.
 
The report finds that within the skin care and hair care segments in the global cosmeceuticals market-tooth whitening and lip protection are emerging as key segments for significant growth.
 
Intermaterial competition in cosmetics packaging solutions
Materials can advance design, with knowledge of material properties and their strengths/weaknesses being the key to bridging the ‘material to design-world’ gap. Thick-walled resin resembling glass is a trend that offers the upscale look of glass without its cost.
 
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Leading multinational cosmetics and toiletry companies increasingly favour the use of plastics, driven by its advantages over glass not only in cost, but also for its versatility and durability. Surlyn by DuPont, Glass Polymer by Eastman Chemical and Zylar 631 by Nova Chemical are examples of plastic materials offered as a glass substitute in packaging applications.
 
Interestingly, a transparent resin, cellulose diacetate (acetate) - long used for high-end packaging due to its excellent clarity; ability to be printed, glued, and foil blocked; moisture permeability; food-contact approval; and processability - is gaining new attention as a ‘green’ alternative to styrenics and polylactic acid (PLA).
 
Each of these polymer solutions offers various packaging benefits to cosmetics manufacturers.
 
In addition, the use of PET and polypropylene for inserts as well as multilayer polymer inserts produced by extrusion blow moulding are also being developed to supply enhanced resistance to chemicals in lotions or chemically aggressive formulations.
 
Sustainable packaging
Global trend seems to reflect an approach to seek effective alternatives to traditional polymers employed in packaging of cosmetics. Many emerging polymers like PLA, biodegradable PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), bio PTT (polytrimethyl terephthalate), etc are slowly getting acceptance, however, cost remains a deterrent. It will be interesting to keep tracking these developments and examine the scenario after five years and review the status on deployment of bio-based and sustainable polymers in cosmetics packaging.
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The author is the Director at SIES School of Packaging, Navi Mumbai
 
Reference: Various Internet Resources and articles on cosmetic packaging in www.omenxus.com and www.specialchem4polymers.com
 
(The article is based on the presentation made by the author at the recently concluded Chemical Weekly Annual Business Outlook Conference in Mumbai)