During the pandemic, we spent more time at home and more time cooking from scratch and eating together as a family. As a result, houseware sales grew. This won’t be news to many, but what is interesting is that experts are now predicting these changes in consumer habits may be more long-lasting than initially thought, particularly as millions of people will be tightening their belts this winter, spending money carefully and dining out rarely.
Adam Bass is managing director of licensing agency Golden Goose. “I believe the home cooking trend will maintain its growth curve as the ‘cost of living’ crisis worsens,” he said. “Restaurants will be forced to raise prices and the trend for eating at home will stay. All of this will benefit the housewares category.”
Marie-Laure Marchand, svp global consumer products and business development at Chefclub, added: “The current economic situation with growing inflationary pressure will certainly have an impact: it will entice families and millennials to cook more and prepare their own meals at home to save money instead of going to restaurants or buying readymade meals which can be costly.”
She added: “The global cookware market size is expected to reach $41.9 billion by 2030. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2022 to 2030. Demand for cookware products is on the rise thanks to the increase in the popularity of home cooking, increased by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers are not just trying new recipes at home but are also looking to improve their cooking skills.”
Sales of licensed housewares category (i.e. housewares featuring brand names and/or images) are also growing. Worth $8.65 billion in 2021, sales increased by 19% compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic).
Golden Goose works with English Heritage in the housewares sector. According to Adam: “It is a brand that imbues products with a real sense of history and design authenticity. Consumers associate English Heritage with local sourcing, so we are actively looking for a company to develop a range of tabletop products from kitchenware through to cookware, food storage and kitchen fabrics.”
The brand also previously had a strong association with Dualit and, in addition to a wide range of housewares, including mugs, ceramics, drinks and kitchen accessories, English Heritage has enjoyed success with a wallpaper and fabric collection developed by Designers Guild.
“Consumers instantly connect with the English Heritage brand as a sign of quality and the archive-inspired collection of designs developed by Designer’s Guild lend themselves brilliantly to homewares, so this is definitely a category we are looking to explore,” said Adam.
Richard Pink is managing director of Pink Key Licensing, which counts Kellogg’s, Pringles, Laughing Cow and SLUSH PUPPIE among its clients, all of which translate into housewares, Kellogg’s with kitchenware, tableware and more, Laughing Cow with kitchen tiles and the SLUSH PUPPIE machine (brilliant for making those margaritas) is Pink Key’s best-selling licensed product.
Through its brands, the company has worked with several European housewares licensees (the manufacturers who make the products), including CMP in France (ceramics and textiles), Nostalgic Arts in Germany (storage tins) and Bergamaschi & Vimercati (ceramic breakfast sets) as well as Kimm and Miller in the UK which creates Christmas gift sets for their clients, and Pyramid and Dexam who are developing ranges of ceramic sets and textiles, which will be coming into stores in 2023.
While Golden Goose and Pink Key are licensing agents working for brands, Chefclub is a brand in its own right.
Marie-Laure explained: “We have created and developed our own line of child friendly Chefclub Kids’ utensils and cookware. We started in 2019 with our first cookery set launched D2C in France. Since then, we have sold over 250,000 units in France and now offer a full range of 27 creative and high quality products custom designed for the little chefs.
“Thanks to the entertaining recipes on Chefclub Kids, our zany and endearing characters, and utensils adapted to little cooks (such as measuring cups identified by characters instead of numbers that makes weighing ingredients easy for kids), cooking becomes a fun activity, a special moment to share with family in the kitchen, that leads to healthier eating at the dinner table.
“In addition to our Chefclub Kids line, we have also closed a global master licensing agreement with Groupe SEB covering all major cookware categories. GSEB launched a 50-piece range of products branded Chefclub by Tefal which include pots and pans, baking products, kitchen utensils and small domestic appliances. Created with the input from our Chefclub community, this range combines our expertise in the development of creative recipes with Tefal’s sustainable design for simple products to make cooking easier. The line was just released in Europe on Amazon as well as directly to customers (D2C) on the Tefal and Chefclub websites.”
Looking forward, Marie-Laure, Richard and Adam all agree that sustainability and conscious consumerism are trends that will impact the housewares market.
“Thanks to the acceleration of online shopping, consumers are a lot more confident, and retailers are much better equipped to deal with this area. The ‘home’ has become much more important in people’s minds, and I believe that people value their at home time much more than they did. My feeling is that this will lead to a consumer trend of wanting to invest in fewer, quality items to have within the home,” said Richard.
“While consumers won’t want to compromise in this area, with looming recession they will still have tighten their belts. I think, inevitably, this will lead to downward pressure on pricing while there will be an insistence on maintenance of quality from consumers.”
Marie-Laure continued: “Consumers are getting increasingly concerned about their carbon footprint. Eco friendly products are on the rise and are becoming a true selling point of differentiation. Companies that offer sustainable products are gaining interest and market share as consumers look to purchase products from companies that embrace sustainability and environmental consciousness.”
Adam added: “Sustainability is becoming an entry level requirement for consumer products across the board. Environmental messaging is definitely a feature of the housewares category and reusability, and sustainable sourcing are important attributes of any product we develop under the English Heritage brand.”
Marie-Laure also pointed to health and wellness as a trend that will impact the growth of the housewares market: “The increasing problems of obesity are making consumers more conscious about their dietary habits, encouraging them towards new ways of cooking and healthier living practices. This consciousness has triggered consumers to seek healthier recipes to improve their diet. And digital platforms increase curiosity about trying other cuisines or to get cooking among consumers, especially among younger generations.
“Cooking-based hobbies and entertainment choices are also becoming popular: barbecuing, cooking for fun, tailgating, searching for recipes on the internet, using a tablet or computer as a cookbook, and more.”
* Chefclub, Golden Goose and Pink Key Licensing are among many companies exhibiting at Brand Licensing Europe, which takes place 20-22 September 2022 at ExCeL London, opening at 12:00 pm on Tuesday 20th.
* Golden Goose will have food gifting products available to taste as well as showcasing the Designers Guild designs. Pink Key Licensing will present Kellogg’s, Pan Am, Pringles, SLUSH PUPPIE and Laughing Cow – the first four of these brands will also feature on the BLE Food & Beverage Catwalk at 10:00 on Wednesday 21 September.
