PAPER products break down into three main sub-categories – toilet tissue, kitchen roll and facial tissue.
It’s probably fair to say that toilet tissue is an everyday essential. In years gone by it was probably bought in bulk in supermarkets and as a distress purchase, by householders who were close to running out, in convenience outlets. That’s perhaps different these days when more shoppers are using c-stores for general shopping visits.
We asked Kantar Worldpanel’s Strategic Insight Director – Scotland, Amanda Brown, for an overview of how the category is doing and for any special Scottish trends.
The research company’s findings for the year to 27 March suggest pricing has been tight in the category in Scotland in the last 12 months.
The paper tissue and towel category is now worth £1.78bn in Great Britain overall and is growing at 0.8% across GB, she explained. Scotland, which has around 8.6% of the GB population, accounts for about 9.5% of the total with sales worth £170m. But, unlike GB overall, sales were down by 1% at a time when volume sales were up by 0.4% – so more product sold but for less cash. Toilet tissues account for 67% of total paper product spend across GB and is the only paper products sub-category growing at both a GB and Scottish level. Shoppers are spending £47.58 per year on average on toilet tissue, 65p more than last year.
Across the combined three sub-categories average spend in Scotland is £67, £1.25 less than last year. 62.2% of paper products spend in Scotland goes on branded products, compared to 57.6% of overall GB combined spend.
The brand-favouring purchasing pattern in Scotland is still more marked for kitchen roll where 64% of sales value goes on branded lines.
The most promoted sector is facial tissues where almost 47% of sales in Scotland is accounted for by items on promotional deals. With toilet tissue the figure is 40%.
