ABSTRACT
The soap and detergent industry has seen great change in recent years, requiring it to respond to the shifts in consumer preferences, requests for sustainability, the availability and cost of raw materials and energy, demographic and social trends, as well as the overall economic and political situation worldwide. Currently, detergent product design is examined against the unifying focus of delivering performance and value to the consumer, given the constraints of the economy, technological advancements, and environmental imperatives. The annual 2-3% growth of the detergent industry and the faster growth in personal care products re ect impressive developments in formulation and application. The detergent industry is thus expected to continue its steady growth in the near future in response to the ever-increasing demands of consumers for products that are more ef cient, act fast, and are easier to use. For the detergent industry, the last decade of the twentieth century was one of transformation, evolution, and consolidation. On both the supplier and consumer market sides (both remain intensely competitive), the detergent industry has undergone dramatic changes, with players expanding their offerings, restructuring divisions, or abandoning the markets altogether. This has resulted in changing hands and consolidation of the market, especially in the last several years. This trend appears to be gaining momentum. Yet, the key concepts have been and still are innovation, consumer preferences, needs, multipurpose products, cost/bene t, ef ciency, emerging markets, partnership/cooperation/collaboration/merging (locally, regionally, and globally), and technological advancements. Although substantial gains and meaningful rapid changes with respect to the preceding concepts have been experienced by the surfactant/detergent markets, the same cannot be said for detergent/surfactant technology itself. The $9-billion-plus detergent ingredient market and the annual global consumption of ∼13 million tons of “surfactants” in 2006 have many entrenched workhorse products. This may suggest that the supply of “solutions” to most cleaning “problems” confronted by consumers in view of the increasing global demand for formulations having high performance and relatively low cost and the need for compliance with environment-related regulation are based on modi cations of existing technologies.
