Kimberly-Clark plans to focus its innovation on the moist toilet tissue category in an attempt to help grow the market 10-fold to £150m.
This week it launched Andrex Kids - as predicted by The Grocer in February -in the first plank of NPD intended to broaden the category's appeal.
It is ploughing £2m this year into promoting the £16.2m moist category, of which it has a 54% share.
With conventional dry tissue achieving almost 100% household penetration, it was essential to look beyond the core line to add value, said brand manager Chris Carter. However, he insisted, the move was not a ploy to take on rival Procter & Gamble's Kandoo kids' brand.
Andrex Kids was targeting five to 11-year-olds rather than under-fives, said Carter. By introducing kids to the category, it would create future customers for its adult range, he added.
"We need people to get to know the category as 86% of people do not see the moist fixture when they go to the supermarket," he said. "The kids range will give consumers a new route in."
Kimberly-Clark predicts the moist toilet tissue category will grow to £150m in the next eight years and that it will command the same share as it does now, equating to £80m.
It hopes to replicate the success of its kids' lines in Europe and the US and that Andrex Kids will eventually account for 25% of the UK moist tissue category by value. Later this year the £8.7m Andrex Moist adult range will be relaunched as Andrex Fresh.
The marketing campaign for both the adult range and Andrex Kids kicks off mid-July and will include TV, press, experiential marketing and in-store activity supported by promotions. The ads will focus on educating consumers about the benefits of moist tissues.
Andrex is the biggest toilet tissue brand in the UK, with sales up 4.3% to £344m [Nielsen 52w/e 12 April].
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