End of More Products: Kleenex to be History in Canada
Do you still greave after Delissio frozen pizza and Stouffer’s microwave dinners? Well the removal of existing products from Canadian supermarket shelves has not ended. The new product to be discontinued in Canada is Kleenex. Kimberly-Clark is ending its consumer facial tissue business in Canada this month, according to news story on Thursday night. The company cited “unique complexities” in the market. Even a farewell message to Canadians was posted online by Kleenex, which describes itself as “Canada’s favourite facial tissue brand” on its website.
Todd Fisher, vice-president and general manager of Kimberly-Clark Canada, stated via email, “We have been operating in a highly constrained supply environment, and despite our best efforts we have been faced with some unique complexities on the Kleenex business.”
“This decision is one that will allow us to shift our resources to better focus on other brands in Canada and meet the needs of our consumers with continued innovation and value,” he said.
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According to some analysts, the real reason why Kleenex will vanish from Canadian aisles is that consumers in Canada buy cheaper brands! And that makes absolute sense! When was the last time you bought Kleenex brand? And taking in account Canadian economy and Canadians struggling to make ends meat, this decision is not hard to understand.
Since the product’s profit margins were already low, buyers are increasingly opting for less expensive options. Analysts suspect the company is simply choosing to keep selling the product to markets where it can reach a greater number of people for the same or less shipping costs because it only has one manufacturing facility in Canada, in Huntsville, Ont., which serves a relatively small local customer base by the standards of a multinational conglomerate.
Now that Kleenex is disappearing from Canada, does that mean that Kleenex plant in Huntsville will have to close down and all the employees will be fired? Kimberly-Clark has not made that plan public yet.
Just few days later Kleenex tissues have been pulled off supermarket shelves!
Trouble in other markets
The diaper market in Europe, where the company had $500 million in yearly sales “but negligible profit,” was one that the company decided to leave in 2012. Kimberly-Clark has already made some difficult decision in closing plants and laying off employees. The company has taken cuts in 2018 that led to the departure of almost 5,000 employees, or around 12% of the workforce, and the closure of 10 plants.
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The most recent brand to depart the Canadian market is Kleenex tissue, yet Nestlé Canada said in February that it would “wind down” and stop selling its frozen food items in Canada, including Delissio, Stouffer’s, Lean Cuisine, and Life Cuisine.
With similar answer to why Nestlé has made decision to remove those products, the answer was “the company’s decision will allow it to invest more in the categories it prioritizes”, in other words, Canadian market is not profitable enough so we will invest in markets that are making us more money.
Canadians are worried about what this negative trend could bring:
As we don’t need Kleenex to eat, saying Goodbye to Kleenex will not be too hard. Let’s hope groceries on Canadian shelves will stay goodbuy.
