Home workers let grooming standards slip
Unilever reports fall in demand for personal care products, while Pot Noodle sales have grown
WORKING from home has certainly got some perks.
But as the nation’s workforce beavers away in pyjamas at the kitchen table, it appears to have prompted a rather alarming trend.
Personal grooming has taken a distinct back seat, with the art of washing hair – or even applying deodorant – deemed more of an inconvenience than a necessity. Unilever, the consumer goods company, has revealed that shoppers are increasingly shunning shampoo and deodorant. It revealed a slump in demand for bodily cleaning products as consumers spend less time on their appearance while trapped indoors. Many customers are now holding off on shaving and washing their hair, it said.
Around a quarter of personal care products relate to consumers getting ready to go to school or work, according to Graeme Pitkethly, Unilever’s finance boss, meaning it is suffering a major hit while normal life is on hold.
Unilever, an Anglo-dutch company, is one of the world’s largest players in the industry and makes Lynx deodorant, the haircare brand Toni & Guy and Radox shower gel. Its sales during the three months to March were flat at €12.4 billion (£10.8 billion). Panic buying among customers boosted sales across the US and Europe during the period, but sales across China were 4 per cent lower compared with a year earlier.
Ice cream sales were hit badly as consumers stay at home under social distancing restrictions. Around half of sales for Unilever ice cream – which includes Ben & Jerry’s – come from purchases consumed out of the home.
In line with many other companies, Unilever has ripped up its sales and profit forecasts for the rest of the year as the coronavirus wreaks havoc with the global economy.
Alan Jope, the company’s chief executive, said: “We have been able to maintain the supply of product and we are keeping our factories running through the many unpredictable challenges in local operating environments across our value chain.
“We are also opening up new capacity where it is most needed, such as in hand hygiene and food. We are adapting to new demand patterns and are preparing for lasting changes in consumer behaviour … as we move out of the crisis and into recovery.”
Mr Jope said the pandemic would cause long-term changes to shopping habits, including higher demand for soap and cleaning products.
He said: “People will continue to wash their hands more, there will probably be more concern for surface hygiene in homes. The whole hygiene thing will carry on.”
Growth in online grocery shopping is also likely to accelerate, he said, adding: “I think we will be able to look back and see this as a point of inflection for online grocery shopping.
“Good luck getting an appointment for a grocery delivery. I think that will persist and we will adjust our approach to reflect that.”
Sales of Unilever’s food products have benefited as restaurants and bars remain shut under lockdown. The company said brands such as Hellmann’s
mayonnaise, Pot Noodle and Knorr stock cubes have seen a surge in demand after years of flat sales.
“We underestimated initially the positive impact this would have on our food business for at home cooking,” Mr Jope said. “We didn’t expect to see such an increase in demand.”
Mr Pitkethly said the relaxation of social distancing measures in China, where Unilever makes around 5 per cent of its sales, provided an indication of how other countries might operate when they end lockdown. “China is leading in terms of coming out of lockdown so it’s a fantastic window on what we might see elsewhere,” he said.
About 70 per cent of restaurants are back up and running, he said, although they are only handling between 50 and 70 per cent of normal business because diners must sit further apart.