While the leading brands for hygiene products based on nonwovens continue to grow through establishing local operations in emerging markets, China’s own Hengan International has risen spectacularly as a major player in the past few years.

Procter and Gamble leads the field in the global Top 10 retailers of tissue and hygiene in respect of turnover, followed, in order, by Kimberly-Clark, SCA, Georgia-Pacific, Unicharm and Johnson & Johnson.

Hengan, however, is now in sixth place, having climbed above established competitors such as Kao Corporation, Oji Paper and Saio Paper and achieved compound annual growth of 30.1% between 2005 and 2010.

In 2011, it registered a further increase in turnover of 26.9% to a total of US$2,197 million, with tissue accounting for approximately 47%, sanitary napkins 24.1%  and disposable baby diapers 16%.