Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The European small appliances market grew 8% in the first six months of the year – but while Western Europe saw a 5% sales increase over the previous year, Eastern European countries put on a remarkable 25%.
According to the latest findings from GfK Retail and Technology, Russia is the most important growth market in Europe, owing to its size and the positive developments in the first half of 2011.
However, says GfK, consumers in the UK, Germany, France were also eager to spend on small electrical products.
The sales increases in Western Europe in the first half of the year were primarily down to automatic coffee/espresso machines, robotic vacuum cleaners, food prep appliances, electric toothbrushes and espresso pump portioned closed systems.
Both types of coffee maker achieved double-digit growth. But, says GfK, 80% of sales of automatic coffee/espresso machines in Western Europe are attributable to Germany, making the impact of increased purchasing by German consumers important when analysing the overall market.
Growth in Eastern Europe was mainly thanks to cylinder vacuum cleaners, water kettles, food prep appliances and steam irons, as well as automatic coffee/espresso machines.
GfK says there are two reasons for the growth across Europe as a whole: consumers are buying a significantly higher number of appliances than in the previous year and they are also spending more on their new appliances.
