Western Europe: Gains in the Technical Consumer Goods market
Results for GfK TEMAX® Western Europe for the second quarter of 2014
Nuremberg, 28 August 2014 – The Western European market for Technical Consumer Goods increased by 1.1 percent in the second quarter of 2014, compared to the same quarter of 2013. This corresponds to a turnover of €44.9 billion.
The strong second quarter also boosted the accumulated figures for the year to date, meaning that a small increase in growth (0.3 percent, compared to last year) can be reported. The Consumer Electronics sector turned out to be the driver of this positive trend which was observed in most countries, albeit to varying degrees. It was noted that Portugal and Greece reported some dynamic development in this period.
Consumer Electronics: growth in innovative segments
In the second quarter of 2014, the Western European market for Consumer Electronics gained new momentum. Turnover amounted to almost €6.9 billion, corresponding to an increase of 5.8 percent, compared to the same period last year. New technologies such as Ultra HD, UHD Curved, OLED and the further development of Smart TVs gave fresh impetus to this sector. In addition, sound bars and audio home systems for streaming offered innovative solutions that created potential for growth in the audio segment. Finally, the omnipresent FIFA World Cup gave a major boost to the market in the second quarter of 2014. The impact was particularly apparent in Greece, the UK, and Portugal.
Small Domestic Appliances: positive development continued
In the second quarter of 2014, the Western European market for Small Domestic Appliances continued its dynamic development and grew by 3.4 percent, up to nearly €3 billion. In particular, double-digit growth in Portugal and the UK were responsible for this development. While kitchen machines, hair styling products, electric toothbrushes and several premium vacuum cleaner segments contributed to growth, the coffee machines market declined slightly.
Office Equipment and Consumables: back to growth
For the first time in years, the Office Equipment and Consumables sector grew again. With a 2.3 percent increase compared to last year, a turnover of nearly €3.9 billion was achieved. Greece, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy contributed significantly to this result. On the product side, data and video projectors, in particular, showed very strong growth – mainly due to the FIFA World Cup. Despite this trend, the printer market remained under pressure.
Major Domestic Appliances: growth in Western Europe continued
With an increase of 2.1 percent, the Major Domestic Appliances market continued its good start to 2014. In the second quarter, nearly €7.4 billion was generated. Drivers for this growth were the UK, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and Germany. In particular, strong demand for refrigerators, and dishwashers was experienced. Energy efficiency remains a core feature of the market dynamics.
Information Technology: focus on mobility
In the second quarter of 2014, the Western European market for Information Technology returned to positive growth, with an increase in sales of 1.2 percent, up to €12.4 billion. Germany was the most significant driver for this development, while many national markets continued to decline. Devices offering special design features, and the option of mobile use (Ultra-mobile, Ultra-thin, mediatablets), and computing tablets were instrumental in this positive development. In addition, the end of the support period for the Windows XP product brought a surge in demand in the computing market.
Telecommunications: smartphones – the central interface
The Telecommunications market in Western Europe closed the second quarter of 2014 with a small fall in growth. Nevertheless, despite the slight decline of 0.3 percent, the total turnover amounted to just over €10 billion. The Iberian Peninsula stood out positively with double-digit growth rates. Smartphones experienced a decline in average prices. At the same time, the share of products with a purchase price of over €300 was well above 50 percent. Moreover, the features of smartphones are improving all the time. Thus, smartphones are increasingly becoming the central interface of our lives. They are also propelling innovation in many other technology areas, such as mobile payment, ‘smart home’, and mobile health.
Photography*: growth in high-end segments continued
In Western Europe, the Photography market recorded a double-digit decline of 20.5 percent, down to nearly €1.4 billion. This development was reflected in all the countries surveyed in the GfK TEMAX® Western Europe. However, some interesting trends could be observed in particular segments: fixed-lens cameras with large sensors grew by 5 percent, compact system cameras increased significantly more than the market – with growth of 3 percent – and the corresponding high-quality lenses also showed positive trends. Sales in the travel zoom camera segment (cameras with a zoom greater that 20x, combined with a thin housing) increased by 3 percent.
* Photography includes cameras and accessories
GfK TEMAX® Western Europe: the Technical Consumer Goods market gained momentum
In the second quarter of 2014, the positive trends noted in the first quarter were turned into actual growth in the Western European Market for Technical Consumer Goods. In particular, good news came from the previously extremely weak Consumer Electronics sector which now tops the growth ranking. The FIFA World Cup in Brazil was mainly responsible for this. In addition to the demand for high-end TVs, the World Cup boosted sales of video and data projectors in the Office Equipment and Consumables sector. Continuously encouraging signals came from Portugal and Greece, which reported strong development, despite being small markets. The consumer climate in Western Europe revealed diverse consumer expectations, with many positive impulses. Consumers from Germany, the UK and Spain were ultimately very optimistic about the future.
Please note Telco figures are with non-subsidized prices from Q1 2013 onwards. Back data were reworked accordingly.
The Survey
GfK TEMAX® is an index developed by GfK to track the technical consumer goods markets. The findings are based on surveys carried out on a regular basis by the retail panel of GfK. The retail panel comprises data from over 425,000 retail outlets worldwide. Since 2009, GfK has also been compiling the GfK TEMAX® index at international level in more than 30 countries. It is the first index that includes all of the markets for technical consumer goods in different countries.
GfK TEMAX® Western Europe directly includes the following countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, UK and Sweden. All directly included country reports and press releases are available at www.gfktemax.com . Besides them, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Switzerland are represented by extrapolated data.
If information from this press release or www.gfktemax.com is cited, GfK TEMAX® should be explicitly indicated as the source.
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