Absorbent hygiene products was the star topic at INDA’s premier Hygienix conference, which was held in St. Petersburg, FL the last week of October. The event combined two successful shows, INDA’s Vision Consumer Products Conference and Insight, Marketing Technology Services’ international conference. INDA purchased Insight last year and combined it with Vision, which it founded in 2002. More than 600 industry professionals attended the event.
 
“Hygienix exceeded our expectations for this new combined event,” says Dave Rousse, INDA president. “The positive response from the global hygiene and personal care markets validated our acquisition of INSIGHT to merge it with VISION. The event provided attendees with valuable market intelligence, product insights and face-to-face interactions that will undoubtedly help them advance their businesses.”
 
A trio of market reports kicked off day one of the conference. Svetlana Uduslivaia of Euromonitor began the session with her report on the Rising Power of Consumers in the Global Hygiene Market. According to Uduslivaia, the size of the global hygiene market reached $97 billion in 2014 and continues to grow as women  play an increasingly important role not only as decision makers but as more financially independent wage earners in developed and developing markets alike. Factors like delaying marriage, higher childbirth ages and more employment outside the home are all playing a role.
 
From a regional perspective, Indonesia reports the highest growth in absorbent product sales at 20%. Meanwhile China’s hygiene market has exceeded the size of the U.S. market and is ontrack to be more than double it by 2019, and India has tripled diaper sales from 2009-2014 and doubled its continence sales.
 
Also presenting market data was INDA’s own Brad Kalil who recently completed a study on the North American nonwovens industry. He reports that 83% of the $9.3 billion North American hygiene market is sold directly to consumers with the largest market being baby diapers. However, incontinence products are growing the most quickly at 6.5%. Key drivers of this market include the boomer echo, which has contributed to record birth rates and more choices and greater acceptance in the adult incontinence market.
 
Pricie Hannah, principal of industry consultancy Price Hanna Associates continues also discuss trends in absorbent hygiene, reporting her company’s predictions for the size of the diaper market. “Birth rates are steadily declining steadily in most developing countries and are flat in most mature markets,” she explains adding that by 2019, 73% of the world’s infant population will live in undeveloped markets. However in mature markets, adult incontinence growth is outpacing population growth in most countries.

Adult incontinence was a particularly hot topic at the event with presentations from Mark Nedvin, Home Delivery Incontinent Supplies; Steven Gregg of the National Association for Continence and Kelly Lewis Brezoczky of Butterfly Health Inc. Brezoczky’s product Butterfly Liners, won the Visionary Award in 2013. The product created a new category—serving sufferers of bowel leakage—in the adult incontinence category.

Other key issues addressed at the conference included destigmatizing incontinence, odor control, fluffless cores, adhesive application techniques, and sustainability in the hygiene market. The conference, which was held at the Vinoy Renaissance Resort October 26-29,  featured some of the world’s most notable thought leaders from organizations that are revolutionizing the absorbent hygiene and personal care industry.

The presentations showed the importance of the segment, which is the largest of 12 in the nonwovens industry accounting for more than 25% of nonwoven fabric volume. A key takeaway was the effect of the “Boomer Echo.” The U.S. is entering a four-to-five-year period of record high births as Millennials start having babies in their 30s versus prior generations having them in their early 20s. Also, aging Baby Boomers are becoming bigger consumers of incontinence products where innovation is now quite strong.

Another highlight of Hygienix was the presentation of the Visionary Award to Sienabena, LLC for BabyBackups, a diaper extender made of superabsorbent materials that adheres to the existing diaper to contain baby diaper explosions. Steve DeFrancesco, founder of the company, said he and his wife were inspired by their own daughter, a frequent diaper soiler, for the new product idea. He beat Always Discreet Bladder Protection by Procter & Gamble and X-Top Pouch for Men by McAirlaid‘s, the other two finalists for the award.

In 2015, Hygienix will return to Florida, this time in Orlando. More information: www.inda.org.