I stumbled across this newspaper article from 1990 while searching (still in vain!) for pictures of the Kimbies nappies sold in Australia in the 1980s. I do like the reference to Huggies being an ‘unusual’ nappy because it used SAP. Huggies is the only brand of nappy mentioned in this article still sold in Australia, and they are no longer manufactured here.
A marketing battle is developing over the sales of disposable nappies for babies. Three aggressive marketers are battling for a top share of the nappy trade. Their weapons are overseas-developed “high-tech” nappies that are thinner and more absorbent than other throwaway nappies and cloth nappies. The prize is a substantial share of the booming, $180-million-a-year disposable nappy market.The three combatants - market leader Kimberly-Clark, number-two player Johnson & Johnson and newcomer Procter & Gamble - are convinced the Australian disposable nappy market has room to grow. But nappy habits are hard to change: despite heavy promotion over the past decade, disposables still account for less than one-third of the market.Sales of throwaway products have grown strongly in recent years. Sales volume rose by 21.8% during 1989 and dollar sales by 44% from $125 million. But the use of disposable nappies in Australia remains low compared to other Western markets: the 30% share in Australia compares with 77% in the US, 60%in Britain and 45% in Japan.Nappy makers hope the launch of new, high-tech products will convince more Australian parents to switch from cloth to disposables. Kimberly-Clark has a market share of more than 60%, and has most to gain from a swing to disposables. The company has been heavily promoting its disposable brands over the past year, particularly the new Huggies line. Huggies was launched nationally in October 1988 after a 12-month test in Adelaide. It is Kimberly-Clark’s fourth disposable nappy brand - joining Snugglers, VIPs and Kimbies - and the company’s first high-tech line.Greg Griffiths, general manager of Kimberly-Clark’s consumer products division, said at the launching of Huggies that early types of disposable nappy had not been good enough to persuade people to switch from cloth. He said on that occasion: "The tradition of cloth nappies is very strong in Australia and very difficult to break. Without top-quality products, disposable-nappy makers have not made a lot of progress."Kimberly-Clark has invested more than $50 million in new nappy manufacturing facilities over the past two years, spending $32 million at its factory in the outer Sydney suburb of Ingleburn and $23 million on a new nappy factory at Noarlunga in South Australia. It has also spent heavily on advertising and promotions for Snugglers (which it acquired from Colgate-Palmolive in 1985), VIPs and Huggies. Huggies has been supported by an estimated $2.5 million in television and magazine advertising over the past year. There have also been in-store promotions, direct mailings and sampling programs in supermarkets and hospitals.Huggies is an unusual nappy. Locked between two layers of paper “fluff” is a layer of sodium polyacrylate powder, an absorbent material that turns into a gel when urine hits it. As a result, it can be made thinner than other disposable nappies and remains comparatively dry. Huggies was developed in the US five years ago by Kimberly-Clark US, which owns half of Kimberly-Clark Australia. The other half is owned by the paper manufacturer Amcor. The US company launched Huggies Supertrim in late 1986 and its Australian subsidiary started planning the local launch in early 1987. US-produced nappies went into an Adelaide test-market in October 1987, priced at the top end of the nappy business. Local production of Huggies started in August 1988.A month after the test marketing started, Huggies held 8% of Adelaide disposable nappy sales. Its share climbed to 22% in May 1988 and 33% in July 1989. It now holds an estimated 40% of the Adelaide market.The national roll-out of Huggies started late in 1988. The brand now has an estimated 22% of disposable nappy sales in Australia, and is second behind Snugglers. The success of Huggies has eroded sales of Kimberly-Clark’s other disposables, but a spokesman for the company says that its total sales of disposable nappies have increased. In Adelaide the market share of disposables has advanced from 18% before Huggies was introduced to more than 30% today.Rival nappy makers claim the success of Huggies has been achieved at the expense of Kimberly-Clark’s other brands, particularly VIPs and Kimbies. The company’s total market share slipped slightly last year, falling to 63.1% in 1988. But its dollar and volume sales increased thanks to market growth last year: growth largely generated by Huggies.Johnson & Johnson, which makes Stay Dry, Panty Nappy and Chix nappies, responded to the launch of Huggies by introducing Stay Dry Ultra late in 1988. Stay Dry Ultra is a premium-priced version of the Stay Dry economy brand, and also contains a layer of sodium polyacrylate powder that traps liquid in the nappy. The new product has obtained an estimated 6% of national nappy sales over the past year, but Johnson’s rivals claim most of Stay Dry Ultra’s share has come from the main Stay Dry brand. Stay Dry’s market share has dipped from 20% in late 1988 to an estimated 15% today.The disposable-nappy market became a three-way fight in May last year when Procter & Gamble launched its first Australian nappy brand, Ultra Pampers, in a South Australian test market. (It was launched in New Zealand at the same time.) Pampers is one of Procter’s big global brands. It is sold in more than 20 countries and has 32% of disposable nappy sales in the US, 22% in Britain, 40% in West Germany and 42% in Hong Kong.Looking for a way into the Australian market, Procter began selling Ultra Pampers in blue for boys and pink for girls. To increase absorbency, extra padding was placed in the centre of the pink nappies and in the front of the blue ones. Both versions have what Procter calls a “customised leakage-protection system”.Procter’s boy/girl nappies were unveiled in the US and Europe late in 1988 under the name Ultra Luvs. But Pampers is the main focus of the company’s global nappy business, and Procter has invested $US500 million in Pampers around the world since 1984.The Ultra Pampers in Australia are imported from Japan.Rival nappy makers claim that Ultra Pampers has not been a hit in South Australia. Kimberly-Clark claims the new product’s share of Adelaide disposable nappy sales has moved from 4.7% in May 1989 to 19.8% in June, 16.8%in July and 7.2% in August. Ultra Pampers is estimated to have 10% of the Adelaide market, and local retailers report that sales are improving. Procter is rumored to be planning to launch the product nationally in the next few months.Procter is a heavy advertiser, pouring millions of dollars into advertising for brands that include Pert 2-in-1 shampoo (one of the most successful new products of 1989) and Flash cleaning products. The continuing promotion of Huggies and Stay Dry Ultra, and the heavy marketing push expected for the national launch of Ultra Pampers, is likely to give disposable nappy sales a healthy boost, Kimberly-Clark believes disposables will account for 40-45% of the market by late 1990, with the dollar value of the market rising to about$220 million.