Guardian sees surge in sales of essentials ‘related to the Covid-19 pandemic’

PETALING JAYA (June 5): Hand sanitisers, masks, vitamin C, anti-bacterial products and “anything that is used for disinfecting” is selling well, Guardian Health & Beauty Sdn Bhd (Guardian) revealed in a report by The Edge Malaysia this week.

“It has been a year since Guardian Health & Beauty has had the opportunity to demonstrate the important role we play in society. This is linked to our portfolio and the range of products we sell and how important they became during the pandemic,” Guardian’s CEO Soren Lauridsen told the weekly.

Other interesting developments include “a surge in the sales of hair colouring products owing to the closure of hair salons while the wearing of masks “often and for long periods” has resulted in “an increase in acne and tired facial skin”, contributing “to the jump in sales of acne creams and beauty facial masks”, said Lauridsen.

The announcement of tighter MCO rules on May 28 may have worked in Guardian’s favour, wrote The Edge – “The retailer saw sales doubling during the weekend of May 29 and 30, with a particularly robust response towards its own brand of hand wash and paper products as well as items such as Antabax, Dove, Panadol, Flavettes and Guardian Vitamin C. Customers also bought more face masks, hand sanitisers, disinfectant sprays and other vitamins”.

Meanwhile, sales of cosmetics “declined overall as wearing a face mask covers half the face, and moreover, people mostly stayed at home” but while lip products such as lipsticks were left on the shelves, “sales of eye make-up fared better as people accentuated their eyes, which they use to help in communication”. Interesting.

Guardian, which operates 465 stores, “hopes to do even better this year, supported by the healthy growth in e-commerce sales and increase in new customers at its store-within-a-store outlets”.

Its decision to “lower and lock in prices” of 1,500 essential items until year-end is “also expected to help retain existing customers and attract new ones” wrote the weekly.

“During the pandemic, the big winners are the high street stores … the mall stores, in general, are suffering. When there is a fairly big fall in mall traffic, such as during the first MCO or now, there is also a decline in food and beverage patronage.

“Others (retailers) too feel the decline in sales, and we are not spared. On the other hand, we have seen very strong growth in our high street stores, which is positive. And we have seen an even bigger increase in our online business,” Lauridsen revealed.

“We do think that we will do better than in 2020 as there are a lot of indications of that,” said Lauridsen, but he also cautious since “this could change should the current MCO be extended for two or three months”. “It will hit Guardian and everyone else in the retail sector too. For now, we believe we can do better … but it is a very volatile environment.”

Read the full report in this week’s The Edge Malaysia

Get the latest news @ www.EdgeProp.my

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