Body washes generate $200 million in sales…

Drug Store News, Oct 9, 1995

Energizing. Revolutionary. Explosive. Invigorating. No matter what term they use, retailers and manufacturers alike are pretty excited about the body wash category.

They have good reason: Manufacturers report that this year-old category is generating about $200 million in sales, and with a host of new players entering the fray, several predict sales at least to double in two years.

That prediction is based in reality, assert several chain buyers. In fact "a doubling of sales may be conservative," said a buyer at a national chain. "If you take a look at Europe body washes are the predominant method of washing."

Few manufacturers ever imagined that in one year liquid body cleansers would comprise a whopping 25 percent of soap sales. The gains in body washes are hurting sales of liquid hand soap and contributing to flat sales in bar soap, say category watchers.

While bar soap sales are flat, buyers are still pleased with overall soap performance. "Bar soap have always been a good leader item in the drug class of trade," said a buyer who is merchandising body washes in the bar soap aisle. "People go down that aisle, and there is an opportunity to trade them up to a body wash."

As a result, some chains are cutting back facings of bar soap to add more body wash SKUs. Though with the growing number of body wash brands (at least 13 were on the market at press-time) in the category, buyers can't possibly fit all of them on the shelf.

Some chains are carrying only those brands offered by bar soap manufacturers. Others are stocking the biggest sellers (Oil of Olay, Jergens, Dove and Caress comprise the top four). "If you have nine brands, you will cannibalize all the others," said a buyer from a mid-sized chain, who is only carrying the best-selling brands.

Still others are carrying several brands but displaying them in different parts of the store. Revco is carrying seven brands: Oil of Olay, Dial, Jergens, Caress, Dove and Calgon brands are displayed next to commodity bath products. Across the aisle, the chain has several SKUs of Vaseline Intensive Care's new body wash to the left of bar soap.

To the right of the bar soap, the chain has a moisturizing body wash shelf talker over additional SKUs of Caress, Dove and Oil of Olay to call attention to the category. The shelf talker urges consumers to "experience skin that feels clean, moisturized, ever younger every day." It also indicates that more body washes are located in the bath aisle.

At the Genovese Drug Store on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Vaseline Intensive Care, Jergens, Oil of Olay, Dial, Dove and Caress body washes are merchandised together within a 24-foot bath aisle that includes upscale bath brands, such as Sarah Michaels, Yardley, San Francisco Soap Co., Lissee and Naturistics. Calgon's body wash is placed next to other Calgon bath products.

The body washes "are doing wonderfully" and building more traffic in the bath department, said Susan Carfagno, head cosmetician for the store. "Once a few people are in the department, others walk over to see what they're looking at. Before you know it, there are six people in the aisle."

Indeed, the advent of body washes doesn't appear to be cutting into sales of traditional bath products. For example, sales of Vaseline Intensive Care bath products rose 9 percent through July even with the explosion of body washes, according to Chesebrough-Pond's.

Body washes are also becoming a recurring item in circulars or endcaps at chains including CVS, Rite Aid, American Stores, Walgreens, Rock Bottom, Revco and Brooks. When the category was formed last year, chains often promoted the body washes with a bar soap heritage along with the bar soap in circulars, but quick acceptance with consumers has allowed many chains to promote them on their own.

Mass merchandisers devote huge sections to bar soaps, and some body wash manufacturers believe drug stores could lose the body wash category to mass merchandisers if they don't fully support it.

"Retail space is not keeping pace with the growth in the category," said Scott Mesbitt, senior marketing manager, The Andrew Jergen Co. "The stores that will do best with it are the ones who take a gamble on how large it can be."

"It's a hot, growing category, and certainly consumers are excited about it. "If drug stores want to re-establish themselves as a skin care destination, they have to be excited about it as well," said Gary Pardue, senior accounts manager of national drug accounts at Lever.