Incontinence Products

No one really wants to talk about incontinence products, but the category is growing at double-digit annual rates and becoming a must-carry for retailers.

Information Resources, Inc. reports that the incontinence category posted an 11-percent sales increase to $700 million in 1999 in mass market outlets. Supermarkets and discount stores both registered better growth rates than drug stores. However, drug chains still control more than half of all sales.

The American consumer, on average, is aging and living longer, meaning that incontinence has become a greater concern. At the same time, managed health care and home health care has led to an uptick in incontinence sales at retail, and a slowdown in growth in the institutional end of the business. Kimberly-Clark reports that more than 19 million Americans use incontinence products.

"It's all about aging and how people take care of themselves," says Dan Murphy, regional vice president of sales and marketing for First Quality Hygienic, a Great Neck, N.Y.-based manufacturer of private label and value branded incontinence products. "As the demographics get older, we will continue to see a big increase in sales well into the future."

The category is so hot that Kimberly-Clark, the industry leader with more than 50-percent market share, miscalculated the popularity of its Depend Disposable Protective Underwear introduced last year. The product, worn much the same way as training pants, has been out of stock in many retail outlets since its introduction. In fact, Kimberly-Clark posted an announcement on its Web site, apologizing for the lack of product and promising to correct the problem as soon as possible.

Kimberly-Clark's Depend and Poise brands are the best known names, but private label items grab a hefty share of business. "Our figures show that private label registers about 35 percent of sales," says Murphy. "Private label products are about 20 percent less than the national brands. Since incontinence products are used by consumers who are often retired and on fixed incomes, price pays a huge role in what product is selected."

First Quality, Murphy says, supplies product to such supermarket chains as Ahold's Bi-Lo and Giant-Carlisle (Pa.) divisions, Giant-Landover (Md.), Publix, Winn-Dixie and Bruno's. Murphy says that First Quality is introducing a private-label version of the protective underwear to fill the vacuum left by Kimberly-Clark's manufacturing and distribution problems.

Supermarkets can make further inroads simply by telling as many consumers as possible that they carry a broad selection of product, and placing it in easy-to-reach spots. "Don't put incontinence on the top shelf and expect it to sell," says one retailer. "Older consumers can't reach up there."