Local consumption of laundry products has been reduced by an average of 5 percent since 2006 as households try to economize in light of the economic difficulties.

James M. Lafferty, president and general manager of P&G Philippines, told reporters at the launch of “Taba” campaign for its laundry products that Filipino households are trying to load more clothes when they do their laundry for the same amount of powder detergents to stretch the family budgets.

This has resulted in reduced consumption of laundry products and reduced sales for laundry products manufacturers. But Lafferty said that P&G’s market share and sales for laundry products have not been affected by the reduction in consumption and sales because of its focus as they continue to deliver great value products to the Filipino consumers P&G corners 37 percent of the local market share for laundry products, which accounts for 50 percent of the company’s total P30 billion annual sales.

Lafferty also added that P&G did not raise their prices even at the time when prices of oil went up exponentially.

In fact, the company is expected to hire 100 more workers this year to 1,412 workforce at its Laguna plant by next year from the current 1,312 people.

“We are still holding on with our share despite the entry of more competitors in the market today,” said Lafferty.

Lafferty said at the launch of its new initiative “Taba,” in reference to bigger content for its laundry
products at the same price, is just one of the company’s continuing delivery value products for the Filipino market.

This initiative, which will run for six months, will cost P&G over P1 billion as it provides consumers more products for the same price of its sachet powder laundry products Tide, Ariel and Mr. Clean.

Lafferty, however, said the 6-month Taba promo period would enable the company to make a difference in the consumers choice of laundry products that would pave for the company to recoup its investments in the near future.

“It will take time but we are confident we would be able to recoup our investments,” Lafferty said. The Taba initiative would mean free detergents of 14 percent to 35 percent per pack translating to actual consumer savings of between 92 percent to a high of 3.50 per pack. P&G has decided to launch this initiative for the sachet packages because 70 percent of the country’s laundry market is sachet.