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28 March 2024

UAE residents spend billions on personal care

Published
By Waheed Abbas

The UAE residents’ love for spending on personal care products are getting fatter year on year due to increasing middle-class consumption and improved penetration of premium products.

Last year, UAE residents spent nine per cent more on personal care products to Dh5.3 billion ($1.445bn) and will see it jumping to by another half a billion dollar to Dh7.34bn ($2bn) in five years mainly on fragrances, grooming products, bath and shower, cosmetics, deodorants, hair care, men’s grooming, oral care and skin care.

Based on the country’s population of 9.34 million, each UAE resident on average spent about Dh567 per annum which will rise to Dh785 over the next five years provided the population size remains unchanged.

“In five years, more than $500 million (Dh1.83bn) will be added in UAE sales, yielding around $2bn sales market by 2019, which includes all personal care products such as fragrances, grooming products, skin care products and hair colour care products,” said Dr. Iyad Hijjawi, Regional Business Consultant for Mena and Turkey at Euromonitor International.

In terms of each segment, the spending proportion on fragrance and haircare by the men and women in the UAE is almost equal while women dominate – more than 95 per cent – of skincare products and men are the biggest consumers of grooming products in the country, Hijjawi told ‘Emirates24l7’ in an interview.

He said the use of illicit and cheap personal care products has substantially gone down due to the government’s crackdown against the sale of such products.

“Because of strict regulations of UAE government, the proportion of illicit personal care products is extremely small and not a considerable figure unlike 5-10 years ago; maybe it’s just a fraction, one or two per cent of the industry,” he added.

Hijjawi was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the Beautyworld Middle East 2015 exhibition, which will run on May 26-28, 2015 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The three-day event will feature 1,450 exhibitors from 60 countries covering 48,600sqm of exhibition space - 9.5 per cent larger than the previous edition.

The 20th edition will coincide with the launch of a three-day live educational showcase highlighting the latest trends and regulations in the regional beauty industry. The conference will feature leading educators from Europe and North America who will bring the latest in hair and skin education and techniques to the Dubai exhibition.

Hijjawi said Middle East and Africa has overtaken Latin America as the fastest growing beauty market.

Consumers in Saudi Arabia spent $4.8 billion (Dh17.6bn) on bath and shower, cosmetics, deodorants, fragrances, hair care, men's grooming, oral care and skin care last year.  They join big spenders in Iran ($3.5bn; Dh12.84bn) and Egypt ($1bn; Dh3.67bn).

According to Euromonitor International, the retail value for the Middle East and Africa’s beauty and personal care market was $26bn (Dh95.42bn) in 2014, while its estimated 4.8 per cent annual growth rate between 2014-2019 is almost twice the global average of 2.6 per cent.

[Image: Shutterstock]