Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped consumer behavior and has encouraged people to take more precautionary measures concerning personal hygiene, especially hand hygiene. The Indian Government has issued several guidelines to educate consumers about the application of hand sanitizers frequently, to mitigate the spread of the infection. The growing awareness about hand hygiene has spawned numerous growth opportunities and hand sanitizers have become an essential commodity in every Indian household.
The hand sanitizer market in India was valued at INR 1,098.12 Mn in 2019 and is expected to reach a value of INR 4,056.33 Mn by 2025, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~22.44% during the 2020-2025 period.
Organic Personal Care Market 2020
Impact of COVID-19 and the way forward:
The demand for hand sanitizers skyrocketed in early February 2020, due to the spread of the COVID-19 in the country. By the end of February, hand sanitizers went out of stock. The exponential increase in the demand created a massive gap in supply; and industry players utilized their manufacturing proficiency to expand production to avoid supply shortage. This also paved the way for companies from different sectors to foray into the Indian hand sanitizer space. Furthermore, to stabilize the price of sanitizers amid the huge demand and avoid any exploitation within the industry, the government had capped the market price of hand sanitizers sold in the country. However, hand sanitizers were removed from the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 as supply normalized post-July 2020.
Competitive landscape:
The hand sanitizer market in India had a few established players such as Reckitt Benckiser, HUL, Himalaya Drug Company, and Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) at the beginning of 2020. However, post the spread of COVID-19, smaller players entered the market to take advantage of the demand surge and grabbed more than 60% of the market share as of September 2020. New entrants primarily included distilleries that had easy access to the extra neutral alcohol (ENA) required in manufacturing sanitizers, after the government granted them production license. Moving forward, high demand is expected to come from institutional buyers; and the larger, established players are likely to capture market share.
Companies covered:
• 3M India Limited
• Colgate Palmolive India Ltd (Palmolive)
• Dabur India Limited
• Godrej Consumer Products Limited (Protekt)
• Hindustan Unilever Limited
• ITC Limited (Savlon)
• Herbal Strategi
• Reckitt Benckiser India Limited (Dettol)
• The Himalaya Drug Company
• Vi-Jon Group
