Britain is turning into a nation of bath-dodgers as households turn off the taps to save cash during the cost of living crisis.
Sales figures from PZ Cussons — the consumer giant whose brands include Imperial Leather soap, Carex handwash and Original Source shower gel — have pointed to a change in washing habits: customers are swapping baths for showers to reduce water and energy bills.
While we are cutting back on most bathing products, there is one reassuring sign that the country is not on a slippery slope to smelliness: sales of soap bars are booming.
Jonathan Myers, chief executive of PZ Cussons, said there had been growth in the soap bar market for the “first time in years, probably decades. The real driver is because the cheapest way to make skin cleaner is a bar of soap.”
Showers are more economical than baths when it comes to water and energy — providing you are in and out in less than ten minutes. Thames Water says the average bath uses about 80 litres of water, compared with 40 litres for a four-minute shower. Britons shower for seven minutes on average.
Figures from supermarkets in July showed how sensitive consumers have become to the prices of personal hygiene products. Sales of handwash were down 23 per cent in the first six months of this year, and bubble bath receipts decreased by 35 per cent. Only hand sanitiser bucked the trend, with sales rising 29 per cent.
One suggestion is that Britons have become increasingly European in their approach to hygiene. Previous research has suggested that fewer than half of French people take a shower or bath every day, compared with more than two thirds of Britons.
PZ Cussons reported a 4.2 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £61.8 million. Revenue rose 10.7 per cent to £656 million. Its shares, which have fallen 28 per cent in the past year, were down 4.4 per cent on Tuesday, at 153p.
PZ Cussons said this was because it had “restaged the brand to make it more premium” as part of its wider company transformation plans. It conceded that this had failed to resonate with cash-strapped shoppers amid the cost of living crisis but added: “We’re confident it will return to growth and we’re already seeing green shoots.”
