The demand for professional lawn care services is booming, which is good news for marketers of pesticides and fertilizers used by lawn care operators (LCOs). Younger households in the United States are increasingly inclined to hire gardening, lawn care, and landscape maintenance professionals, resulting in a paradigm shift in the landscaping industry, after the downturn witnessed during the economic recession. However, a wide gap has emerged in the demand and supply of skilled labor in the industry in recent years, as the total number of lawn, landscaping, and groundskeeping workers fell – for example – from 913,480 in 2018 to 912,660 in 2019. While the overall demand for pesticides and fertilizers has increased – with sales rising by 2.9% per annum to over $500MM in 2021 – there has been a decided change in products usage: Continue reading
Author Archive: Laura Mahecha, Director, Agrochemicals and I&I Cleaning Products
Online Purchasing Surges in Vibrant I&I Cleaning Wipes Market
The away-from-home cleaning wipes market registered healthy gains driven by the unprecedented sales of hard surface disinfectant and sanitizing wipes in 2021. While almost half of the I&I professionals we surveyed stated that the impact of COVID-19 on businesses was rather neutral, more than 75% of them noted dynamic changes in cleaning procedures. Here are four of the most important ones:
How Away-From-Home Cleaning Protocols Have Changed Since COVID
Cleaning in the away-from-home environment takes place two or three times more frequently now than in the pre-COVID era, according to our latest survey with over 600 industrial and institutional end users. A majority of 56% of respondents see increased cleaning frequency as the new standard and expect it to continue for the foreseeable future.
Key I&I Market Trends Remain Strong Post-Pandemic
The pandemic accelerated key market trends in the industrial and institutional cleaning industry over the past two years, causing dynamic changes and driving growth. Today, these trends continue strong.
Evolving Industry: Consumer Healthcare Categories Pivot Toward Wellness
The consumer self-care industry is shifting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with both consumers and retailers focusing on wellness.
According to the University of California, Davis, “Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. Wellness is more than being free from illness; it is a dynamic process of change and growth. It is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Continue reading
Environmentally Friendly Cleaning is Back After a Brief Lull
The majority of industrial and institutional facilities are expecting an upturn now that COVID-19 is under control in the United States, according to a recently released, structured survey by Kline.
Nearly 83% of respondents foresee a return to pre-pandemic business operations by the second half of this year or the first part of 2022, largely due to a drop in coronavirus cases, wide distribution of the vaccine, and lifting of lockdowns; some 45% had said that COVID-19 had a negative impact on their business overall. A total of 750 I&I facilities were polled. Continue reading
Foodservice Cleaning Products: Impact of the Pandemic on Back-of-House Cleaning
Despite a reduction in the number of U.S. restaurants that are operational, with estimates as high as 33% having closed permanently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of professional foodservice cleaning products looks bright. Continue reading
Immune Support Has Been Accelerated by the Pandemic
While prevention and boosting immunity have always been important tools in self–care, since the COVID-19 pandemic started in the United States in March 2020, consumers have wholeheartedly embraced using various vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other products to ward off illness and help support their immune systems. Immune support products can span multiple product types but typically include one or more of the following:
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Impact of COVID-19 on I&I Cleaning Wipes
Surface disinfecting and sanitizing and hand cleaning are areas of the industrial and institutional cleaning wipes segment that have experienced strong gains due to the outbreak of COVID-19 — but, still, they have faced challenges. Continue reading
Radical Transformation on the Horizon for Sanofi
Earlier this month, Sanofi announced a new strategic vision for its Consumer Healthcare division. The new head of the division, Julie Van Ongevalle, shared that the company will focus on core brands and categories while pursuing first-in-class Rx-to-OTC switches in the ED and flu categories in the United States. Key components to future growth of Sanofi’s OTC business in the United States are novel Rx-to-OTC switches. The company is entrenched in its work to develop nonprescription versions of Cialis for erectile dysfunction and Tamiflu influenza medication in the States. As of December 2020, Sanofi has more than 16 clinical studies either complete or underway to support applications for OTC marketing of these two medications. Actual–use trials to understand how consumers behave and interact with these medicines will be key factors in the success of the switches. These brands have the potential to be blockbusters, as there are currently no medications for either condition available without a prescription in the United States. Detailed analyses of both of these medications and the likelihood and timing of approval and sales forecasts are included in Kline’s Rx-to-OTC Switch Forecasts study. Continue reading