An expert in the tissue market: Audrey Salle, Senior Market Analyst, Cascades Tissue Group, revealed the three main trends in the tissue industry for the current year. Here are his comments:

- What will be the main trends of the tissue industry in 2022?
1. The first trend that comes to mind, which is not surprising, is increased hygiene awareness. We conducted an instant survey in the U.S. last October, with a representative sample of 1,108 adults. We found that 3/4 of consumers wash their hands more now than before the pandemic. In addition, 90% of end users stated that the lack of paper towels negatively affects their experience when using a public restroom and 63% stated that it would persuade them to frequent these establishments less frequently.

This highlights the unprecedented importance of cleanliness and hygiene. It affects our industry because we need to make sure we can provide our customers with the right solutions and products. In addition, end-user preferences when it comes to hand hygiene and drying have changed dramatically during the pandemic. Air dryers are considerably less attractive and the paper towel has become by far the favorite method of drying hands.

Our survey revealed that 73% of end users prefer to use paper towels to dry their hands. In addition, contactless technology is gaining traction as consumers are increasingly reluctant to come into direct contact with surfaces.

2. The second trend worth addressing is the changing landscape of B2B transactions. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of e-commerce and omnichannel transactions. Over the past 12 months, e-commerce sales accounted for 40% of the B2B tissue market in the U.S. and 37% in Canada. In addition, the preferred payment methods among B2B buyers are now via website (80%), email (77%) or phone (72%).

Inevitably, this trend is impacting our industry beyond transactional methods. Not only will it force us to reinvent products to make them more e-commerce-friendly, but it will also challenge us to adapt products as e-commerce brings B2B shoppers together with B2C shoppers. Therefore, we expect a long-term impact on products, from packaging to certifications to formats, to be conceived as "e-com ready".

3. The latest trend we should mention is the growing need to find sustainable alternatives and environmentally friendly products, and to be able to obtain certifications for those products. The war on plastic was a trigger, with customers telling us they were willing to switch from plastic to corrugated packaging. Then that environmentally friendly persecution changed to the products themselves.

At Cascades, we have been using recycled fibers since we started our operations, but in recent years the industry has become increasingly interested in sustainable options such as recycled or alternative fibers, which are usually essential to access certain certifications. The use of recycled and/or recyclable material is a key priority, and we are currently working on some innovative projects that optimize packaging by offering the right size and fit while reducing your environmental footprint. We expect the demand for certifications and the race towards more sustainable alternatives to continue to grow in the near future.