Booming PPE market

Booming PPE market, but manageable growth of textile service industry

The personal protective equipment market in general is booming. The providers of personal protective equipment benefit from a combination of many favourable factors. The textile service industry with PPE, however, is growing much weaker. The market for PPE is in excellent shape. This was clearly demonstrated by the A + A 2017 trade fair in Dusseldorf. Almost all demand-stimulating parameters turned out to be positive. Only the most traditional growth driver, who first created the PPE market, the standardized safety requirements, there is no momentum for textile protective workwear. The emergence of an end-consumer perspective has opened up new potential for this.

Here are the growth drivers at a glance:
• Economic growth has been positive since the financial crisis, allowing for a good investment climate
• The number of employees rises to a record high, the number of potential customers is increasing
• The health and loyalty of employees has become an important factor in the corporate policy
• The demands of employees and companies on protective clothing are increasing. The rising age of employees also plays a role here
• By establishing new end-consumer perspectives, producers and, above all, distributors of workwear and PPE managed to attract new markets
• With the introduction of new standards and regulations there is little demand-stimulation for the textile protective clothing. Here, however, the newly introduced regulation for PPE causes irritation.

 

The PPE market grew by over 9% percent

The market research and consulting firm Macrom, which has specialized in the analysis of the PPE market for many years, updated and expanded its regular biannual market analysis “The German PPE Market” at A + A 2017 in Dusseldorf. According to Macrom, the PPE market grew in the 2015-2016 period from € 1.8 billion to € 1.97 billion. Furthermore, there are two groups of potential new customers; (1) smaller and micro enterprises and (2) parts of the service industry.