By Jamie Barrie U .S. fertility rates hit a record low in 2017, extending a decline in the number of American births that started in 2008. The U.S. fertility rate fell 3 percent to 60.2 births per 1,000 from 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. With current economy pressure and job uncertainty causing would-be parents to push back parenthood in favor of their careers and waiting to have children until later in life, if at all. Companies that provide expecting mothers and baby products are feeling the effects and it does not seem that this downward trend is going to end any time soon. Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers, has been vocal about the hit it’s taking from declining birth rates. As the company announced in January it would cut about 13 percent of its workforce globally, about 5,000 jobs, in a bid to reduce costs as sales for baby related products continue to fall.
Care, the maker of Playtex baby bottles, have also reported sales decline in their baby businesses this year.
With a shrinking market, it becomes even more important to perfect your pitch. Baby care heavyweight Johnson & Johnson’s has seen a 20 percent sales decline in its Baby Care unit since 2011 and plans to redesign its Johnson’s Baby products to appeal more to modern-day moms.
With the new line emphasizes more natural ingredients to try and bust sales.
The U.S. has experienced birth rate declines before so this is something that companies have dealt with before as the longest period of continuous decline on record in the U.S. happened between 1958 and 1968, according to the CDC. Now the big question is, now that some millennials are well into their late 30s will they start to make the move to parent- hood and have children, you can bet that this is something that will be watched very closely by leaders in the Baby products industry.
Pampers-maker Procter & Gamble and Edgewell Personal
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MAY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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