Upper respiratory, cold, allergy and sinus category sees ‘impressive’ growth

The upper respiratory, cold-allergy-sinus liquids and tablets segments combined saw a 4% growth in sales across multi-outlets for the last 12 months compared with the previous year, with growth in drug and food channels for both UR segments. Impressive growth of 7% from cold-allergy-sinus liquids in the drug channel was driven by manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser with 16% growth year over year (Figure 1).

The largest number of significant new products came from Pfizer in cold-allergy-sinus liquids during the last year, including four new products in its new Emergen-C sub-brand Energy+ and two new Immune+ Emergen-C products (Figure 2).

Margins for RB consistently were the highest in the mass, food and drug channels for cold-allergy-sinus tablets, while Bayer saw the lowest. For liquids, Pfizer saw the highest margins in the mass, food and drug channels, while P&G saw the lowest (Figure 3). GSK was the only major manufacturer in the upper respiratory cold-allergy-sinus segments that saw list price increases during the last 12 months, with 25 increases in total, averaging approximately 4%.

For cold-allergy-sinus liquids, P&G saw the largest amount of circular print ad support in the food channel, while RB saw the most support from drug retailers. For cold-allergy-sinus tablets, RB saw the largest count of ads in all three major channels. Overall, cold-allergy-sinus liquids were supported more than tablets (Figure 4).