Few if any tissue markets are more challenging than that across the wider Asian landmass in which South Korea does business, where near-regional neighbours China, Japan and Indonesia operate at diverse levels of dominance. The national economy is strong enough, despite domestic issues such as demographic decline and an ageing population, to support low but continued tissue demand – current value growth of 1% to reach KRW1.7tn – even against this fierce competition.
But the tech giant’s performance nevertheless faces systemic challenges: no new tissue capacity added since 2014, a tissue trade balance heavily dependent on imports, and a heavy reliance on recovered fibre. Consumers used to sophisticated products know what they want of tissue. While bamboo and recycled fibre currently dominates manufacturing, consumers are trending towards “pure and clean” products. As the pace of lifestyles undergo fundamental changes – smaller or solo households, long working hours, hectic transport systems – they want practical tissue solutions which combine premium, versatile products, convenience, value-for-money, sustainability, and delivery via a highly developed e-commerce infrastructure.
Is tissue nearing a breakthrough in India?
Tissue use in India has long been a story of extreme contrasts. Sumit Khanna, Director of the New Delhi-based Beeta Machines, sums it up well in TWM’s MarketIssues: historically a “relatively low-priority niche” product operating against the yawning potential of the largest number of consumers in the world at 1.4bn. All that growth, long out-of-reach. Yet
Beeta Machines reports that tissue is now “one of the fastest-growing segments within the paper and hygiene industry.” Key enablers are increased awareness of the importance of hygiene following the Covid pandemic, structural changes within the industry to increase capacity, significant government investment in infrastructure across the country, and increased foreign direct investment. The commercial sector has seen rapid development with formalised RTO policies, quick-service restaurants and HoReCa, and the rapid growth of cloud kitchens – delivery-only commercial cooking spaces that operate without a physical storefront, dining room, or dine-in seating.
The tissue market is opening up.
Skills crisis: funded, integrated and agile training systems the answer
Apprenticeships need to be taken seriously. Much has been said about the skills shortages facings companies as tissue manufacturing technology becomes ever more advanced. That was before large language and numerical models loomed. Shortages of advanced level personnel is a recurring problem for the future of manufacturing worldwide. An Industrial Strategy introduced by the UK government aims to provide an integrated multi-level solution.
In ExitIssues, Bethany Windsor, Head of Multimodal and Skills Policy at UK-based trade association Logistics UK assesses its aims.
