EXCLUSIVE: Kao Starts Selling Paper Diapers in India

July 27, 2018

Islamabad- Kao Corp. has started selling its Merries paper diapers in India, informed sources told Jiji Press on Friday.

India is a massive market with over 25 million babies born a year.

With Japan's Unicharm Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co. of the United States competing for top spot in the local paper diaper industry, Kao hopes to sell the diapers mainly to people in the wealthy and middle classes, which are growing in number.

Prices for a pack of 44 large-size diapers are set at 1,499 rupees, equivalent to around 2,400 yen.

A single Merries diaper costs two to three times that of a Unicharm diaper manufactured locally, as Kao exports such products from Japan to India.

A Kao official, however, highlighted the Merries product "being gentle to the skin, which is highly evaluated overseas."

Cloth diapers are more commonly used in India, with the penetration rate of paper diapers standing at around 5-6 pct. In 2017, companies sold some 4.6 billion paper diapers in the country.

Meanwhile, the number of dual-income families is rising, mainly in the urban areas, on the back of social advances for women.

The usage rate of paper diapers is increasing by one percentage point every year, with research showing that the Indian market would have demand for 80 billion paper diapers if the situation were similar to that of a developed country. Jiji Press