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Published on February 6, 2008

At the same time, it will spend Bt70 million to build awareness of the new product.

The company has been inactive in the liquid detergent market over the past five years, because washing machines, which allow the convenience of using liquid detergent, had not achieved their present market penetration, said Wannipa Bhakdibutra, vice president for home and personal care.

By launching the new super-concentrated detergent, which employs Stainlifter technology, the company believes that more consumers will soon be persuaded to use liquid detergent, increasing the overall size of the market.

It said the formula removed stains from clothes using only a small amount of detergent. The new package reduces the use of plastic by 35 per cent and is also recyclable.

At present, liquid detergent accounts for 8 per cent of the Bt12.5-billion detergent market. Standard powder detergent represents 48 per cent and concentrated formula products, 44 per cent, Wannipa said.

The concentrated-detergent segment grew 12 per cent last year, followed by the liquid segment at 5 per cent and the standard segment at 3 per cent. Overall, the detergent market grew 7 per cent.

Unilever has a market share of 57 per cent in the concentrated segment, 50 per cent in the liquid segment and 40 per cent in the standard segment.

To build awareness of the new product, Unilever Thai Trading has planned a full-scale advertising campaign, including media activities, print ads and distribution of samples.

Breeze is one of the company's three brands, and it contributes 43 per cent of detergent sales. The other two brands are Omo, which contributes 18 per cent, and Surf, 39 per cent.

Len Davies, director of local-technology management, said that in launching new products, the company had not focused on saving manufacturing costs, even though it had encountered rising costs of raw materials.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation