GIFAM highlights an exceptional year 2021 for household appliances


Chance of the calendar, it was on Valentine’s Day that GIFAM retraced the results of the year 2022 in the household appliance sector. And we have to believe that the love story between the French and their different equipment has only just begun.

If 2020 had already been a good year for the household appliance sector, 2021 is likely to go down in history. Indeed, during its annual conference, the GIFAM (interprofessional group of manufacturers of household appliances) lifted the veil on insolent sales figures, both in terms of volume and values. The GEM (large household appliances) and PEM (small household appliances) markets generated revenue of 9.9 billion euros, an increase of 7.6% compared to 2020. According to the organization, the pandemic is no stranger to these excellent figures. “The French have found refuge within their homes by creating real cocoons”, underlines Véronique Denise, president of GIFAM; cocoons which therefore had to be made even more comfortable by equipping them with silent washing machines, coffee machines with grinders and other oil-free fryers. Covid-19 has also pushed our fellow citizens (mainly city dwellers) to change their place of residence. And who says new home very often says acquiring new household appliances.

Record year for EME

This is what partly explains the very good health of the GEM. In 2021, 16.6 million new devices were sold with an increase of 4.6% in volume and above all 10.8% in value: the French are buying more and are ready to spend more. Built-in led the way in this incredible growth, with sales up 16.5% in value terms. And for good reason, in 2021, 69% of French people say they own a kitchen. This trend should also continue this year since 22% of our compatriots say they have a project in the pipeline for 2022.

In addition to these desires to change the place of life, the craze for cooking and homemade products explains the 13.2% growth (in value) of the cooking sector with, in detail, an increase of 15.7% for hobs, 13% for ovens and 12.7% for extractor hoods.

Despite its slightly less “pleasurable” side, the washing sector posted good growth of 10.3% with, at the top of the shelf, two types of comfort appliances: the dishwasher (+13.2%) and especially the dryer (+14.9%) which manages to break away from its label of energy abyss thanks to heat pump technology. Finally, the essential washing machine, despite its omnipresence in our homes – remember that the equipment rate in France was 97% in 2019 according to Kantar TNS – also saw its market grow by 7.3% in value . Large capacities, new technologies (steam in particular) and progress made in the field of energy savings explain this very positive spiral.

Finally, the refrigeration sector is also doing very well with growth of 8.7% in value. Of course, it is refrigerators – mainly large capacity ones – that do well in this market (+10.6%). Inevitably, freezers suffer a little from this competition, and their growth, still positive nevertheless, is only 0.8% compared to 2020. Finally, we also see growing interest in wine cellars (+5, 1%).

We still love the PEM

According to GIFAM, in 2021, almost two PEM devices were sold per household: 57.3 million devices found buyers for a total of 491 million devices. Inevitably, compared to that of 2020 (+11.2% in terms of value), the growth of the PEM in 2021 (+2.9%) seems almost innocuous. However, professionals in the sector have reason to keep smiling.

As in 2020, the breakfast sector was a real locomotive of the PEM with an increase of 16.6%. The French have equipped themselves with electric kettles (+8.3% in terms of value) and espresso coffee machines (+12.3%) to, among other things, replace the office coffee machine. But the real star of this year is the automatic coffee machine with grinder, which recorded market growth of 45.8%, still in value. Even stronger, since 2017, the latter has been multiplied by five. This surge is of course explained by the taste of consumers for quality coffee but also, to a certain extent, by an ecological awareness, these devices dispensing with capsules that are so harmful to the environment. For your information, today 1.5 million people own one.

The floor care market recorded an increase of 7.6% in value. This was driven by the good results of sales of stick vacuum cleaners (+2.6%), but above all by the impressive breakthrough of the robot vacuum cleaner sector, which grew by 17.4%.

With a growth of 1.7% in terms of value, the beauty sector is holding up well. Hair straighteners (+19.7%) and electric toothbrushes (+16.8%) were the main contributors to this upward trend.

In 2021, the French had the household fiber and did not hesitate to invest to facilitate the chore of ironing. As a result, the sector is experiencing a nice upturn (+5.1%) after a few more complicated years. Thus, steamers have seen their market grow by 23.6% in terms of value and by 3.8% for steam generators.

Food cooking suffered the repercussions of an exceptional year in 2020 (+18.3% in value, it should be remembered), and this sector therefore only progressed by 1.5%. However, we note that oil-free fryers still have a good love rating (+8.3%).

Cousin of this category, the food preparation sector drops in 2021 and loses 13.2% in terms of value. However, it should be borne in mind that these figures mask a completely different reality, as 2020 had been an exceptional year (+25.2%). If we compare the figures for 2021 with those for 2019 this time, the pastry robot sector grew by 35.1%, that of electric mixers by 19.1% and, finally, that of blenders by 5.2%.

Finally, the difficult weather conditions in the summer of 2021 did not help the domestic comfort category to stand out, if not badly. Indeed, it suffered a drop of 14.7% in terms of value, despite the good performance of certain products, including dehumidifiers (+38.5%).

A very optimistic sector for 2022

Despite the difficulties specific to the global situation (shortage of electronic components, transport difficulties, rising transport costs, etc.), professionals in the sector remain optimistic for 2022. According to forecasts, the figures should be less impressive, but GIFAM all the same expects increases of around 2% for the GEM and 4% for the PEM. This will require attracting consumers by offering them products that are ever more efficient, ever more versatile, ever more solid, but also less resource-intensive.



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