Durex condom sales have fallen sharply in China after the government removed a long-running tax exemption and clamped down on the marketing of contraceptives as part of sweeping efforts to revitalise the country’s birth rate.
Sales of China’s leading condom brand, owned by FTSE 100 consumer goods group Reckitt, fell by 5 per cent in the country during the first quarter, according to estimates based on company earnings by Jefferies. That marked a dramatic slowdown from Durex’s sales growth last year, which topped 40 per cent in China, Jefferies calculated.
Jefferies attributed the decline principally to the introduction of tougher advertising rules which resulted in China’s dominant social commerce platform Douyin, owned by TikTok parent ByteDance, banning live-stream marketing of condoms last October.