The German market for fabric care products totalled nearly €2 billion in 2002, registering a decline of 0.9% on the previous year and 1% on 1998. While specialist laundry detergents found new impetus over the review period through new niches (eg products for dark clothes or jeans), the all-purpose detergents sub-sector (taking 60% of overall value) is more mature. Suppliers of branded lines in laundry detergents therefore need to spend significant sums on research and development, mainly on format innovations, to maintain and gain further market share. Two financially strong multinationals thus lead the market: the local Henkel, the clear number one, and the US giant Procter & Gamble. However, distributors' own-labels are steadily gaining ground and the leading discount store Aldi increasing its share of sales, placing more pressure on prices.
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