The company outlined its plans to grow the sector, which includes shaving, epilating and skin care devices, at an analyst day held this week.
According to the head of the personal care business Caroline Janssen-Clarke, the personal care division has been recording double digit growth and she assured investors it would continue to show strong growth in the future.
Skin care - ‘right to win’
One of the key tenets of future growth is growing categories with innovative launches, and Janssen-Clarke highlighted skin care as an area were Philips could triumph.
“Many women tell us that they are not satisfied with a lot of the skin care solutions they use at home. Philips has a right to win in this category; we can take the technology in the professional world and bring it into consumer homes in an easy to use and safe way,” she told analysts during the presentation.
Currently, the company is working on a laser-based treatment in collaboration with Solta which claims to help improve skin tone and reduce pigmentation.
According to Janssen-Clarke, the clinical trials have now been completed and results successful.
“[the solution] performs better than cream can in isolation in terms of skin tone and pigmentation,” she said.
The company is also growing in the skin care domain through intellectual property acquisition, as well as partnering ‘with a big cosmetics company’ to develop other propositions for women.
Photo light hair re-growth control
In the hair removal sector for women Janssen-Clarke highlighted another recent new product launch of note, Lumea, which uses photo light to put the hair follicle to sleep. According to Janssen-Clarke the company has had a very good consumer response to the product.
The entrance into new markets like skin care is also allowing the company to engage with consumers in different settings.
“As we develop new spaces and new business like skin care, we will be partnering with different types of retailers,” she said, giving the example of a partnership with Douglas in the Benelux countries.