The Growth of Personal Products

The global personal care industry is known for its almost purely oligopolistic nature. The top 50 companies in the world hold a combined share of 85%, while in the US alone there are nearly a thousand companies trying to get a hold on the international market.

The US, UK, Brazil and especially the EU have the highest shares in the global personal care industry, with markets lucrative enough to drive demand high and companies already established and reaping the benefits of economies of scale. The main risks in the sphere are toxic materials, illegal practices such as animal testing and the overlapping with other sectors such as raw materials and chemicals.

The big giant of such industry Colgate stock has shown positive results over a past couple of years. However, the industry is booming with the demand for women’s beauty products growing seven times faster than the market can manage to catch up with. L’Oreal, as one of the market leaders and one of the most known companies internationally on the other hand, has proved that the high rivalry in the industry can offset its booming performance. The French company experienced fluctuating share prices, which resulted in a general decrease by 3% in its stock price for the last year. Analysts poison it as an example for investors to consider other factors than industry performance, even for the market leaders in a sector.