Mothers Day Performance in Australia – May 2007  

The Small Domestic Appliance market has, each year, delivered two peak selling periods, Christmas and Mothers Day. And, with the Small Domestic Appliance market in Australia valued at $1.1bn and selling just over 14.8m units for the year ending May 2007, the market continues to perform well, with growth rates for both units and value of 2.6% and 2.4% respectively. Average prices have remained fairly stable at $74.

The Mothers Day month of May showed a healthy 5.3% growth in units and 6.0% in value compared to last year’s Mothers Day, with 75% of categories performing better than last year.

Although Kitchen and Homecare appliances still do well during this gift-giving period, Personal Care categories tend to be the focus when consumers are purchasing items for mum. This segment was valued at $21.2m in May 2007, a growth of 2.0%.

Categories contributing to the healthy growth of this segment include Hair Stylers, which are up 8% in units and 4% in value this year and Epilators, up 19% in units and 14% in value.

While the Well-Being category has helped drive the increase of the Personal Care market for the year, this category did not perform as well as Mothers Day 2006, with a decline in units of 8% and a 10% decline in value for the month of May.

Kitchen Appliance categories also sell well during Mothers Day. This segment is valued at $54m in May 2007, up 9.0% from last year.

Focus continues to be on health based items such as Food Steamers, which maintained its phenomenal performance this month, up 93% in units and 73% in value as new brands enter this category for the first time.

Other items that helped drive the unit sales for Mothers Day this year include Coffee Grinders, up 29%, Espresso machines, up 6% and the surprise return of Breadmakers, up 23%.

For further information, please contact:

Smaragda Bris                               GfK Australia                         02 9900 2814