Global Yoghurt - What Next for Functionality?

Functional yoghurt is seeing mixed retail prospects for 2010-2015 according to Euromonitor’s latest research on the global dairy industry.

Growth prospects in Western Europe and North America remain greatly constrained thanks largely to tighter regulations on marketing claims and recent legal action in the USA. However, opportunities remain significant in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Middle East/Africa as consumer demand for health and wellness gains traction and continues to expand.

Join Euromonitor at in-cosmetics Asia

Conference: in-cosmetics Asia  
Dates: November 2-4, 2010
Location: BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand

Euromonitor International is pleased to speak at in-cosmetics Asia 2010, which will be held from November 2 to 4 at BITEC in Bangkok, Thailand. Paulene Ong, Research Analyst from Euromonitor International, will speak about the marketing trends in Asia and the world. in-cosmetics Asia is an established trade show designed for cosmetic manufacturers, formulators, scientists and sales & marketing experts keen to meet exhibiting personal care ingredient suppliers.

The show is a unique platform combining acclaimed seminars and a live showcase for new product development. 2010 highlights include:

• 201 exhibitors (+50% vs 2009), 41% of which are new to the show

• New: Innovation Zone showcasing innovative ingredients and finished products

• Conference on anti-aging, anti-acne and skin-whitening

• Regulations for Exporting to Europe + Basic and Advanced Formulation workshops

For more information: Click here to visit the conference website

Africa sets sights on pan-African airline carrier

by Paz Casal.

The travel and tourism industry in sub-Saharan Africa was remarkably resilient during the recent economic crisis and although the industry remains small compared to other regions, growth in arrivals was maintained throughout 2009, and revenues in all sectors increased.

The positive economic and business climate in Africa, coupled with the increased demand in both leisure and business tourism, has led to overseas airlines strategically positioning themselves to capture a larger share of the continent's air transport market.

Airline routes expanding fast

Major carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Turkish Airline, Swiss International and Delta have introduced new African routes on their networks, increasing frequency to tap into the economic development of Africa.

Ghana is gradually becoming the hub of air transport in West Africa. Only in the last few months, the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has experienced the opening of a number of flights to Accra, including Asky from Togo, Delta's new flight from Atlanta (US), United Airlines from Washington (US), Virgin Atlantic from London (UK), Brussels Airlines from Belgium and the latest of Turkish Airlines from Istanbul (Turkey) in July 2010.

Furthermore, nine new international airlines are looking to operate there in the near future - mainly from countries such as China, Singapore, Qatar and Brazil.

Overseas airlines are benefiting from partnerships and alliances such as oneworld, Star Alliance and Skyteam in order to reach more destinations and increase air traffic. KLM has a partnership with Kenya Airways and India's Jet Airways entered into a code sharing agreement with Kenya Airways (KQ).

In addition to oversees airlines, African airlines such as Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Egypt Air and the Royal Air Morocco have also been increasing their presence in the region and connecting their hubs to other international routes.

South Africa leads the way in LCCs

The home-grown low-cost carrier (LCC) market is very much in its infancy in sub-Saharan Africa. With air travel restricted to a small percentage of the population, development has so far centred in South Africa, which has a population with a much higher average annual disposable income. Nevertheless, as emerging markets grow more important as trade partners, LCCs are expanding their network to other regions in line with investment prospects.

There are currently four LCCs based in the region: Kulula, Mango and 1time in South Africa, and Fly540 in Kenya. Kulula is owned by British Airways' regional franchise Comair, whilst Mango was established by South African Airlines.

There are also a number of European and Middle Eastern LCCs serving destinations in Africa, including Djibouti by Felix Airways and flydubai, Kenya by Air Arabia, and Sudan served by Nas Air, Air Arabia and flydubai.

Kulula operates an entirely domestic schedule within South Africa, as does Mango. 1time has recently started flights to Zanzibar, and Livingstone in Zambia. These LCCs came onto the market just as online purchases were starting, and today Kulula remains one of the country's largest on-line retailers, with over 80% of all flights booked online.

1time is the largest of these three LCCs, offering the most seat capacity on its routes, and is the only one currently to operate any international flights. It has a 7% share of the domestic market, which is still dominated by the legacy carriers SAS and British Airways. Its stated target is to achieve a 12% share on its routes.

Kulula follows close behind 1time on seat capacity, flying eight routes from six airports. It is dominant around the Johannesburg area, as it is the only LCC to use the main airport, Tambo, and the strategically placed Lanseria, halfway to Pretoria. As a result, Kulula offers greater frequency when both these airports frequencies are combined, but 1time is the leader for South Africa as a whole.

Fly540 takes on African skies

With the objective of becoming Africa's first budget airline, Fly540, the Kenya-based airline is promising to extend its services to other African regions, according to the airline's marketing.

Uganda is the carrier's first target, spreading then to Tanzania with Mwanza as the first destination due to the increase business travel in this region. There are also plans to extend the services to Dar-es-salaam, Zanzibar, Moshi, and Kilimanjaro, before further extending into Angola and Ghana which will act as hubs for Southern Africa and West Africa, respectively.

The project will make Fly540 the first pan-African LCC, with hubs in 3 African sub-regions, improving travel within the continent, as well as enabling the marketing of the East African brand as a single tourism destination.

Men's Grooming Grows in China Despite Recession

 

Kevin Zhu, Research Analyst at Euromonitor, explains how the men's grooming category in China was the most dynamic sector in all of beauty and personal care last year. Industry trends attribute the growth in this sector to the following categories:

• Skin care
• Hair care

The reasons for this dynamic growth are as follows:

• Chinese Male consumers have become more comfortable in buying their own grooming products
• Emotional advertising campaigns were launched by several large manufactures of men's grooming products
• New product developments in men's grooming

As for future market development, Zhu states that he expects the men's grooming sector will still grow over the next several years. Compared to the women's personal care market in China, the men's is still relatively undeveloped, meaning there is room for new products and innovation. As the male population in China continue to buy their own personal care products, affordable and widely distributed products are expected to grow the most.

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Mexicana has its wings broken by debt

by Lisandra Minussi.

Following a series of unsuccessful attempts to negotiate salary cuts and staffing, Mexicana Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection on 2 August 2010 in Mexico and the US with a debt of more than US$1 billion.

Mexicana cancelled three flights including one domestic and two international. Additionally, its frequency and routes changed for another 28 flights. Two days after the announcement, Mexicana stopped selling tickets but continued to fly to protect passengers with tickets. By 9 August 2010, however, the airline started to gradually suspend international flights in face of its deteriorating financial performance.

Direct Selling in Developing Regions

 

In this episode of Globalcast, Daniel Latev, Head of Non-Store Retailing research at Euromonitor, continues his discussion of direct selling with a focus on developing regions. Latev explores direct selling across each continent, and gives a look into the future of this channel.

Latev examines:

• How direct sales are performing across each market
• What the key advantages of direct sales are versus sales through traditional channels
• What the challenges are of direct sales
• Who the star performers in direct selling are
• What the future holds for direct sales

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Medical tourism in the Americas: Spotlighting consumer interest during recessionary times

It is quite hard nowadays to talk about wellbeing in most parts of the world, for that is what the recession has taken away from millions: their welfare, health and other reasons to be happy.

However, in the Americas, the crisis that began with the credit crunch in the United States has had a positive effect on another trend within the wellness megatrend: medical tourism.

Why is this happening? Firstly, because the health centres in the south of the continent – according to consumers - are very cheap. Secondly, because the recession has added weight to the main argument people use when they go to a spa: stress.

And last but certainly not least, because the latest trends linked to wellbeing have to do with the spiritual vibe and even ancestral cultures, competitive advantages that many tourist destinations are now enjoying.

Global Packaged Food Industry - Is Baby Food Recession-proof?

Global baby food retail values should remain fairly robust in 2010, despite continued economic uncertainty throughout much of the world, increasing more than 4% from 2009.

That said, Euromonitor’s forthcoming update to its global baby food research indicates a mixed picture at national level, with many developed markets struggling while the category becomes increasing reliant on key emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, China and Argentina. Will these markets be able to sustain continued growth?

Shrinking global child population

 

27 Aug 2010

The number of children worldwide aged 0-14 fell by an average annual rate of 0.1% in the decade between 2000 and 2010. Changing social and cultural habits have been the main causes, with migration and government policy also influencing the situation in individual countries. These trends have implications for businesses, households and also for government policies, with the highest proportion of children being in developing countries.

Key points

The total number of children globally aged 0-14 shrank in the decade from 2000-2010, dropping by an average annual of 0.1%. This is a comparatively recent trend, as the child population experienced growth of 0.6% per year between 1990 and 2000 and 1.0% per year between 1980 and 1990. As of 2010, 0-14 year-olds made up 26.2% of the total global population compared to 35.2% in 1980;

This trend reflects cultural and social changes towards smaller family sizes in both developed and developing markets. Regionally, Eastern Europe has seen the largest decrease in the child population, at an annual average rate of 2.4% between 2000 and 2010, which is partly due to large-scale migration to Western Europe and also due to the transition period from communism in the 1990s and 2000s when fertility rates and life expectancies fell due to economic hardship;

However, many of the world's developing countries still have sizable and rising child populations. In 2010 45.8% of Afghanistan's population was composed of 0-14 year-olds. The child population in some developed countries is also rising, for instance, in the USA, numbers grew by 0.3% between 2000 and 2010 on average per year;

The overall downturn in the child population globally has meant smaller household sizes and greater consumer expenditure per child, which has created more allowance for discretionary spending on non-essentials for children. This has important implications for businesses targeting parents of 0-14 year-olds;

Longer-term, a shrinking child population will feed through to smaller numbers of working-age people, which will make it more difficult for governments and companies to support retired consumers. The number of 65+ year-olds rose by an annual average 2.5% from 2000 and 2010 to account for 7.9% of the total population globally.

Consumers Questioning Health Products

 

Samantha Chmelik, Head of Global Consumer Health Research, explains how more consumers are becoming wary of products in the health care market. With recent recalls and negative press, purchasing health care products can be a confusing ordeal. Chmelik discusses how consumers are seeing more health care opportunities in vitamins, dietary supplements, and herbal remedies. Consumers are even looking to certain food and beverage products as alternatives to pills and supplements. Chmelik talks about traditional over the counter products, their counterparts in vitamins and dietary supplements, and their equivalents in food and beverages.

The first example is vitamin C, which:

• Can be taken in a pill form
• Is found in orange juice
• Can be found in a power dietary supplement which can be mixed with water
• Can be found in a drink such as Vitamin Water

Pain relievers, or analgesics, is the next category. Consumers are turning to different pain relievers, such as:

• Pills such as ibuprofen
• Hot and cold patches
• Hot and cold gel packs

An upset stomach is a common problem for many people. Many health and wellness options exist to relieve upset stomachs, and consumers are relying on:

• Antacids in a chew or gum format
• Liquid products that coat the esophagus and stomach lining
• Ground ginger or ginger root

The last category Chmelik explores is children's medication. Parents are especially concerned about what kind of drugs they give to their children. Chmelik discusses the following types of products:

• Cough and cold medication
• Mucus relief
• Dietary supplements designed to boost the immune system

Chmelik ends with a reminder to parents to always read the labels when buying health care products for their children.

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