The Australian major domestic appliance market has slowed down considerable in Q1 2014 as consumers move to buying small cleaning and food appliances warns GFK.
New GFK data reveals that the MDA market experienced a slow-down in quarter 1 sales, recording its second successive quarter of value decline.
GFK said that this comes as no surprise for such a stable market, where periods of growth are almost always followed by periods of decline.
The negative results at the sector level disguised some strong pockets of growth primarily from the sale of premium cooking and dishwasher products.
Of particular note within the cooking category was a shift towards pyrolytic ovens and induction hobs, both of which are commanding a price premium.
After very strong growth in 2013, the MDA sector will struggle in2014 to remain in growth GFK warns as MDA products are characterised by long lifecycles, and are “somewhat limited by household numbers”.
Researchers claim that continuous, long term periods of growth are therefore very difficult to achieve.
