Using their market power, the grocery companies use aggressive strategies and lower-price store-brands such as President’s Choice to kill competition. One reason Kleenex, the marketing pioneer of tissue paper, lags Scotties in Canada goes back to 1995-7. Another constraint on Kleenex would be that Kruger just launched Bonterra, a new “sustainable” brand of tissue products for the Canadian market. Grocery chain purchasing policies, which favour lower prices, are important contributors to the shape and size of the tissue market — but as enhancers of competition. The editor of Tissue World Magazine summarized the publication’s latest expert reviews of the transforming North American tissue market.
