Shampoos
MARKETS
(Millions of dollars)
>
Boom in Aerosol Bombs Household aerosol market could double by I 9 6 0 , with new water-based products pushing sales up JL HE
HOUSEHOLD AEROSOL
INDUSTRY,
now a. lusty 10-year-old, is growing like Topsy-. Sales of household aerosols will post a 30*7* gain this year over 1955, and 1^960 should see 600 million units produced—double that of 1956. L e o D. Callans of Allied Chemical's General Chemical Division gave this optiirostic forecast to the Chemical Specialties Manufacturers Association at its -43rd annual meeting. Wrmat does aerosol packaging do for a specialty? It increases the total market usually, if the aerosol package is practical a n d properly introduced, says Callaos. The aerosol form also takes over s n ever increasing share of the market. T a k e household insecticides, or "bug b o m b s / ' t h e first products to be commercially available in aerosol form. Household insecticide sales in 1947 were about $70 million, with aerosols accounting for only about 15%, or $12 millio~n. Only six years later, aerosol insecticides commanded 5 0 % of a market tlhat h a d grown to $100 million. The outlook for 1960? A whopping $80 million-two thirds of the household insecticide market, says Callans. Fotir products made up 72% of the 1955 aerosol market: • H a i r sprays, 54 million units •Sliave lathers, 45 million units • Space insecticides, 39 million units • S]pace deodorants, 32 million units T h « 1960 target for :hese top four prodmcts i s 80%? market saturation, says Callaais, or about 400 million units. Dtheir existing products now account for 7C million units, and Callans feels that a n increase to 100 million can be achieved, bringing the total for 1960 to 5O0 million units. Where will the remaining 100 million come from? Mew products, says Callans, and especially water-based products. ÎNlew Type Aqueous Aerosols. From. General Chemical comes a new approach to water-based aerosols. The technique involves dispersing the usually water-insoluble propellant in water- with t h e aid of low-cost detergents-, instead of using expensive cosolvents siicli as alcohol. These products fall somewhere between emulsion type 6226
C&EN
DEC.
17.
1956
and solvent type aqueous Some of their advantages:
aerosols.
• Low cost. T h e detergents are much less expensive than solvents. • Propellant requirements are cut sharply. Dispersion-type aqueous aerosols use 3 to 5% propellant as compared to 80% or more used by t h e older nonaqueous types. • Pressure remains constant throughout the use-life of the container. The old bugaboo, container corrosion, is the only problem which has arisen with the dispersion type aqueous aerosol, says General Chemical, but its solution is practically a certainty. Aerosol products made possible by this new technique include shampoos, more acceptable personal deodorants, floor waxes, auto polish, h a n d lotion, and furniture polish. Shampoo sales in 1960 should hit $155 million, if no aerosol product is available. An acceptable aerosol shampoo would boost the total market to $170 rnillion, says Callans, with $50 million going for aerosols. Another success story such as that rung u p by the $80 'million (1955) aerosol hair spray business, says Callans, could make t h e 600-million unit prediction look like the work of an amateur. While these predictions look good, there is still a lot of potential business around. R. A. Crane, of D u Pont's Kinetic Chemicals Division, cites some results of the company's 10th annual survey of the aerosol industry. Nearly 8 5 % of about 2000 households surveyed use some form of external personal deodorant—a $70 million market. Yet only 3 4 % of the families quizzed knew that deodorants in aerosol packages even existed, and only about half of these actually used the aerosol form. Du Pont says that awareness of aerosols in other products is even lower—only 4% of the surveyed families knew that burn preparations are available as aerosols. Even the insecticide aerosols have managed to collar only about 50% of the potential market. The industry, says Crane, must sell the consumer nn the advantages of a push-button, self-spraying package.
External Personal Deodorants (Millions of dollars)
Floor Waxes (Millions of dollars) g [ w o ) projectionsfareishownlfolfel 96041 Kl>i^°fîPa^9^0wth;;WifhoutWéÎ:osbîs^ 4
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