The market
The global soap and detergent market is estimated at $ 38 billion, the equivalent of 35 million tonnes of products. It is a very concentrated activity with 50 companies holding 90 % of the market. Although the sector is not characterized by two -digit growth rates, it continues to grow in industrialized countries and developing countries at a constant rate of 1 to 3 % per year. Law detergents represent 40 % of the market, 20 % soaps and dishwasher detergents 15 %. The soap and detergents sector has been described as the SUV of consumer products. It is old, wastey, expensive for the consumer and profitable for producers.
In the past, soap cost dearly and was only used by the rich until the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc finds a cheap way to make soap from salt. For centuries, olive oil, widely available in France, Spain and Italy has been used as the main ingredient. In the 19th century, palm oil gradually replaced olive oil in formulations. The Germans first produced synthetic detergents from coal tar in 1916 and in the 1950s the industry was dominated by oil derivatives. It is a high capital industry whose average income per worker amounts to $ 700,000 per year. Due to a tendency to automation, the industry employs fewer workers. US soap and detergents companies have increased their turnover by 18 % in the past decade while reducing employment by 28 % during the same period.
The market is very diverse with a standard supermarket offering 40 different detergents including liquids and powders. The industry is constantly evolving. Introduced for the first time at the turn of the millennium, liquid detergents surpass all other cleaning products in a report of 4 to 1, which is remarkable since liquid cleaners are generally more expensive than powders, thus ensuring better profitability and low market growth.
Innovation
The industry was constantly attacked for its negative impact on the environment. Synthetic detergents simply do not deteriorate in cold climates, which allows "continue to wash the fish and frogs of weeks after the end of the detergent". The return to palm oil as an active renewable and biodegradable ingredient seemed a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, a spectacular increase in demand for fatty acids from palm oil has led to an expansion of palm plantations in Asia and Latin America, accelerating the destruction of the tropical forest, including the erasure of the 'Orang Outang habitat.
Yusuke Saraya, president of a manufacturer of medium -sized Japanese detergents, realized the damage caused, creating a negative trend far from being appreciated by consumers. Following this he created corridors of wildlife refuge, including the dwarf elephant, registered on the list of endangered species in Kalimantan, Indonesia. And although large companies have agreed to exploit palm trees in a sustainable way, the reality is that cleaning of rivers in Japan, the United States and Europe cannot be done to the detriment of wildlife housing in the world in development. The main innovation is not the ease of use or the increase in performance, but rather the search for ingredients which have no involuntary consequences and which do not cause collateral damage.
While market leaders put their research teams on the track of less toxic, more effective enzymes, soaps that act in cold water, detergents that require less water, vivian stars of Louisiana endeavors to find alternative use of the remaining orange zest of local factories. By increasing the consumption of orange juice, the transformation has developed, the remains, which were previously animal food, have been transformed into waste thanks to the conservation agents used to maintain the freshness between the harvest and transformation. Once the tanker trucks filled with juice, the Brazilian producers quickly started to extract the bark lemonene. As the extraction is quite simple, by using liquid CO2, which could also be harvested in a sustainable way, a new economic model has started to emerge.
The first cash flow
Vivian then created the company Naturally Yours Inc. in Louisiana and it managed to penetrate the institutional markets thanks to another type of life cycle analysis (ACV). Rather than just arguing in favor of price and performance, producing a very concentrated product because the market is increasingly demanding towards the effort to reduce packaging which tends to be a major pollution factor, it argued that the use of a raw material extracted from peels waste which otherwise rot and generate gas methane, creates a major "systemic" advantage. Using what is available locally and giving value to what has no value is one of the fundamental principles of the blue economy.
