Vivaness 2009: The world of natural personal care in Nürnberg!

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The natural beauty Vivaness, the daughter of the world exhibition BioFach, has every reason to radiate: Some 215 exhibitors celebrate the industry's annual occasion from 19-22 February 2009, once again together with more than 46, 000 trade visitors. Natural beauty care is attracting more and more people and a growing fan community reaches for cosmetics with natural ingredients in the shops. Vivaness, the World Trade Fair for Natural Personal Care and Wellness, reflects all the facets of the whole market. Almost 20 % of the total 46,484 trade visitors at BioFach and Vivaness in 2008 travelled to Nürnberg exclusively for Vivaness. 56 % of the visitors included a tour of Vivaness, which registered 196 exhibitors from 22 nations at its second edition. Altogether 2,900 exhibitors are expected at BioFach and Vivaness 2009.

Sales of natural personal care in Germany reached 613 million EUR in 2007, a market share of 5 % of the total cosmetics market. Approx. 4, 000 certified natural personal care articles are available from almost all trading forms in the German market. A large choice of inexpensive products offers more and more consumers the possibility of entering the world of natural personal care.

Natural personal care: Growing customer reach, new sales forms
"18 % of German consumers bought certified natural personal care products at least once between August 2007 and July 2008, which means customer reach has increased by almost 40 % in the past two years, " confirms Frauke Scheffer from the consumer research institute GfK. Elfriede Dambacher, sector expert and publisher of the Natural Cosmetics Report 2008, thinks the whole cosmetics market is driven by the natural personal care sector. According to her report, German customers spent the lion's share of 44 % in the classic shopping facilities for certified natural personal care. These include the organic food shops (22 %), the health food stores (17 %) and natural cosmetics shops (5 %).

Apart from these traditional sales channels, more and more drugstores are making their mark with appropriate ranges and achieve a market share of 29 %. Pharmacies generated 10 % and the conventional retail food trade 8 % of total turnover of natural personal care products. Perfumeries, a relatively new sales channel, have managed to achieve a 4 % market share in a short space of time.

Market insiders forecast outstanding future prospects for perfumeries in terms of sales and making an impression on the market. The demand situation in the natural personal care market has changed. This is shown by the above-average growth rates for certified natural personal care outside the classic forms of outlet like organic food shops, organic supermarkets and health food stores. The producers of certified natural personal care also develop new trading forms with their initial brands. For example, there are pilot projects in selected department stores, drugstores, perfumeries and the conventional retail food trade.

Dynamic sales markets around the globe
Internationally, certified natural personal care has long been sold successfully in a wide variety of sales forms. Supply and demand for natural personal care are growing worldwide. The dynamic sales markets are located in Europe, especially in France, Great Britain and Italy, but the USA and Asia also have growing sales to show. Italy recorded significant growth in 2007.

The Italian certification organization ICEA reports over 70 % more products and sales outlets and 85 % growth of sales to 6 million EUR. Approximately 1,800 products are available with the ICEA label for certified natural personal care. The natural personal care market in France excelled with annual growth rates of 30 % in the past two years. International cosmetics concerns have recognized the potential of natural personal care and are preparing to capture the market with certified products. The worldwide range of products is rapidly becoming more varied.

To maintain quality and transparency at a high level, associations and certification organizations in Europe and the USA are making efforts to harmonize national standards. The harmonization is to take into account the internationalization of trade and the growing demands of consumers.

New labels for certified natural personal care
Guidelines and labels that guarantee certified quality for natural personal care products and help to guide consumers have been developed in various European countries since the '90s. The claim to create even more transparency for customers but also the increasing internationalization in the trade caused leading natural personal care producers to join forces at European level in 2007 and draw up new, more differentiated standards for real natural personal care. The European interest group NaTrue of Brussels presented a label with three quality levels and associated standards in early summer 2008.

The highest level "organic cosmetics" guarantees products in which 95 % of plant ingredients originate from organic cultivation or certified collection from the wild. The middle level "natural cosmetics with organic ingredients" stands for 70 % organic plant ingredients. For the basic "natural cosmetics", organic ingredients are to be used as far as possible, but no compulsory minimum share is stipulated. According to Julie Tyrrell, NaTrue General Secretary, the three-level label and the final edition of the standards will be presented in the autumn. The first products with the NaTrue label are then to be launched on the market at the end of 2008.

The four-year consultations between European labelling organizations for natural personal care products are also about to be completed. The aim of the group of representatives from the German industrial association BDIH, the British Soil Association, the French producers association Cosmebio and the certification organizations Ecogarantie of Belgium, Ecocert of France and AIAB and ICEA of Italy is to harmonize the different standards.

The applicable minimum international standards are to provide comparability and simplify orientation for consumers. BDIH, which awards Germany's best-known label for certified natural cosmetics, has provided its label with a standard English logo to take internationalization into account: BDIH Standard – International Natural and Organic Cosmetic Corporation.

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