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Summary of our market study
The French toilet paper market is estimated at 6 billion euros.
The global toilet tissue market is growing at an average annual rate of 5% to 2027, and is estimated at $22 billion.
Trends in the French toilet paper market
The average French person uses between 90 and 110 rolls of toilet paper a year, or around 6 kg per capita. With a population of almost 70 million, annual toilet paper consumption in France is between 400,000 and 420,000 tonnes.
Average annual expenditure is close to 90 euros per person, which puts the market at 6 billion euros.
In recent years, the price of toilet paper has risen by around 20%. This evolution has favored the growth of private labels, whose growth rate is more than 2% higher than that of the market as a whole. The volume of toilet paper sold fell by almost 3%.
A quarter of consumers take ecological impact into account before making a purchase. Sustainable options such as FSC- and PEFC-certified toilet tissue, or those made from recycled fibers and bamboo, are emerging, but still account for only a small percentage of the market.
The number of companies producing sanitary paper is around 50.
The French domestic market is dominated by major players such as Essity, the leading Swedish manufacturer with 7 plants in France, Lotus and Okay. New players are emerging, such as Popee, which offers responsible products.
Players in the French toilet paper market
- Swedish conglomerate Essity, owner of brands such as Lotus and Tork, is a giant in the sector
- Carrefour, Auchan, E.Leclerc and the major food retailers are the leading distributors of toilet paper.
- Professional distributors such as Metro France, Materiel CHR pro and Hypronet are also important distribution channels
- Popee, an online distributor, has adopted the subscription model, delivering recycled toilet paper to customers' homes,
- Jhana targets the ecological segment with its 100% bamboo-based products.
- C-Discount and Amazon offer both in-house brands like Presto! and consumer brands like Lotus.
- Kleenex, has found a niche with moist toilet paper products.
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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Definition and scope of study
Toilet paper, generally sold in rolls, is a sub-segment of paper hygiene, a market that includes handkerchiefs, paper towels, cotton pads, cotton buds and so on. Toilet paper is a basic necessity, and is prone to so-called "panic buying" in response to crises. For example, the French rushed to buy toilet paper as soon as the health crisis began in 2020.
The global toilet paper market has been growing slightly for the past decade. This growth is set to continue in the coming years, with an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 5.5% until 2027. The European market represents around a quarter of the global market.
As a result of the pandemic, the French toilet paper market saw a significant rise in 2020 (+4.5%), followed by a slight fall in 2021 (-1.2%), mainly due to the use by some consumers of stocks prepared the previous year. The French market is relatively fragmented, with industry giants such as Lotus and Okay competing with private labels, and new entrants such as Popee.
The supply trend is towards "made in France", while consumers are looking for more responsible products. What's more, high inflation in the first part of 2022 is driving French consumers to reduce their purchases in the hygiene department, or to turn to more affordable products of inferior quality.
1.2 The global toilet paper market
The toilet paper market can be segmented in a number of ways:
By materials used: wood pulp, recycled paper. By type: one-ply, two-ply, three-ply (***) By market: B*C, B*B
The global toilet paper market will be worth $**.** billion by ****. This corresponds to growth of *.*% over ****, which is high due to ...
1.3 The national toilet paper market
On average, a French person uses *** rolls of toilet paper a year, equivalent to * kg of toilet paper. [***]
In France, toilet paper manufacturers are registered under NAF code **.**Z.
This NAF code covers the production of paper for sanitary or household use (***). Although this NAF code is fairly broad, the evolution ...
1.4 Balance of trade
The UN Comtrade database enables us to track trade in HS code ******, which covers trade in the following products: "Paper of a kind used for toilet paper and similar paper, cellulose wadding or webs of cellulose fibers, of a kind used for household or sanitary purposes, in rolls of a width ...
1.5 Inflation and toilet paper
Inflation in **** has particularly affected the paper industry, where costs have risen bycosts increased by **%. This high inflation is the result of a wood industry that found itself under pressure in **** due to a sharp rise in demand and the high energy dependency of paper manufacturing companies(***).[***]
Effect of inflation on ...
2 Demand analysis
2.1 Toilet paper, an essential hygiene product
In France, toilet paper is an essential hygiene product, found in every bathroom. In the second half of the twentieth century, bidets (***) gradually disappeared as toilet paper became more widespread.
Annual toilet paper consumption is around *** rolls per person, or * kg of toilet paper. [***], this corresponds to ***,*** tonnes of toilet paper ...
2.2 More eco-friendly toilet paper
According to a study by the Observatoire de la Consommation Responsable, published in **** and carried out among *,*** people representative of the French population in ****, **% of French people consider the ecological impact before purchasing a non-food product . [***]
Toilet paper was the subject of a scandal in February **** following the discovery by researchers ...
2.3 France's favourite toilet paper brands
The graph below is based on OpinionWay's survey of French people's favorite brands in March ****. It shows respondents' answers to the question "Do you like this brand of toilet paper?" for each brand, with the percentage corresponding to the proportion of respondents who answered "yes".
French preference for different toilet paper ...
3 Market structure
3.1 Structuring the industry
Here's a simplified value chain for the toilet paper market.
This study focuses on the last two stages of the value chain. We can simply note that for the harvesting of raw materials, most of the toilet paper used is made from South American or Scandinavian forests. [***] Recycled toilet paper comes ...
3.2 Toilet paper production
The toilet paper companies listed in section *.* are all diversified into the production of other toilet papers: paper towels, handkerchiefs, ... Thus, "paper products for sanitary or domestic use", registered under NAF code **.**Z (***), includes companies that produce toilet paper.
Number of companies registered under NAF code **.**Z France, **** - ****, in units Source: ...
4 Offer analysis
4.1 Toilet paper in supermarkets
The toilet paper range differs from one product to another according to the following characteristics:
Number of rolls (***) Number of folds (***) The color of the sheets (***) The tube (***) Other: sheets can be scented or moistened. Wet toilet paper differs from wipes in that, unlike wipes, it can be flushed directly down ...
4.2 Toilet paper for professionals
Likewise, on April *, ****, we raised the offer of products for professionals.
4.3 The development of e-commerce
We've also taken a look at the prices of various products offered on e-commerce.
Online sales make it possible to place wholesale orders at much lower prices. New inputs are more likely to be positioned in online sales.
5 Regulations
5.1 Current regulations
There are currently no regulations governing the marketing of toilet paper.
TheInternational Organization for Standardization has clarified the physical properties of tissue paper products, of which toilet paper is one, through ISO *****-*:****. The aim is "to enable manufacturers, converters and customers to have a common understanding of the various terms ...
6 Positioning the players
6.1 Positioning the players
- Popee
- Antalis France
- Carrefour Groupe
- Lidl France
- E.Leclerc
- Casino Groupe
- Amazon
- Jhana
- Materiel CHR pro
- Kleenex
- Metro France
- Hypronet
- Essity
- Papeco
List of charts presented in this market study
- Trends in toilet paper sales
- Projected toilet paper consumption by volume
- Sales trends in the manufacture of sanitary and household paper products
- Breakdown of household paper hygiene sales
- Percentage of the population within 5 euros of buying groceries
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Latest news
Casino CEO Philippe Palazzi takes over Monoprix and Naturalia - 24/09/2024
- Monoprix sales: 4.3 billion euros.
- Total number of Monoprix stores: 861, including 338 integrated.
- Total number of Naturalia stores: 232, including 170 integrated and 62 franchised.
- Share of Monoprix sales in the new Casino: 50% of the total (4.3 billion euros out of 9 billion euros at December 31, 2023).
Carrefour has switched to the more dynamic franchising model - 21/02/2024
- - Carrefour has passed the tipping point towards a model based increasingly on franchising.
- - By 2023, half of its sales in France will come from franchised or leased stores.
- - As part of this strategy, Carrefour has added 653 neighbourhood stores by the end of 2023.
- - In 2023, Carrefour recorded sales of €94.13 billion, up 10.4% on the previous year.
- - Carrefour-branded products now account for 36% of food sales, up from 33% in 2022.
- - Carrefour's e-commerce sales volume rose by 26% to 5.3 billion euros (+16% in France).
- - Carrefour plans to acquire 60 Cora hypermarkets and 115 Match supermarkets for a hefty billion euros in 2024.
Another international buyout for Antalis - 06/02/2024
- - Antalis recently completed two acquisitions, including Pakella and Tecnoprimaf.
- - Tecnoprimaf is an Italian company specializing in wooden transport packaging.
- - The company is based in Castelfranco Emilia, near Modena, and has 80 employees.
- - Tecnoprimaf's sales are expected to reach 26 million euros in 2023.
- - Tecnoprimaf has five production sites.
- - Tecnoprimaf's main markets are production equipment and ceramics.
- - With this acquisition, Antalis is now the leader in custom packaging solutions in Italy.
Casino: Intermarché and Auchan win the bid - 18/12/2023
- Casino: Intermarché, which had joined forces with Auchan to buy the 320 stores, finally won the bid.
- The value of the transaction would be close to 1.6 billion euros, or 37% of the sales taken over (3.6 billion euros).
- A social issue
- In addition to the takeover of dozens of supermarkets and hypermarkets, Carrefour PROPOSED to take over 7,000 convenience stores under the Petit Casino, Vival and other banners. This possibility was rejected by Casino and its receivers
- Intermarché has opened up its internal rules for independent groups to franchising, to accommodate the 60 Casino franchisees.
- Intermarché and Auchan will share the 313 outlets sold in roughly equal parts, with Auchan taking over almost all of the 42 hypermarkets.
- Monoprix and Franprix will remain under Groupe Casino control
Hygiene: Essity invests in Eure to improve recycling of food cartons - 22/11/2023
- The Hondouville plant in the Eure region of France produces toilet paper, handkerchiefs and paper towels for professional markets (hotels, restaurants, businesses, industry, etc.), marketed under the Tork brand.
- To manufacture these products, the company has been recycling food bricks for over fifteen years
- In each food carton, paper fibers (75%) are mixed with aluminum (5%), plastic (14%) and cork (6%).
- The Stockholm-based international group, whose products are marketed in some 150 countries, has sales of 15 billion euros by 2022 and 48,000 employees worldwide.
- In France, the Group's fourth-largest market, it operates eight sites with 2,500 employees.
- Its Eure plant also manufactures cotton personal care products under the Demak'Up and Lotus brands.
- Over the past three years, investments at the Normandy site have totalled 47 million euros, reassuring the plant's 360 employees
80 Carrefour hypermarkets operated under franchise or leasing agreements - 14/11/2023
- On October 20, Carrefour announced its intention to switch 37 stores (comprising 15 hypermarkets and 21 supermarkets) to lease management.
- Since 2018, 80 hypermarkets have left integrated status, representing around a third of all hypermarkets.
- Around 75% of supermarkets (784 out of 1038) are currently leased or franchised.
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The toilet paper market | France
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