There is no information on the key players in the massage devices and massage chairs category in Europe. However, some key players in the sector with European operations include Panasonic, OSIM International, HoMedics Group, Casada International and ARES. Below are some useful findings.
Industry Snapshot
- According to the market research report published by Technavio, the global massage equipment market size is projected to grow to $24.38 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of close to 6% over the forecast period of 2017-2021.
- Europe is the second largest region with significant market share in the massage chair and devices industry. The region accounted for around 43% of the market share of the global luxury massage chair market in 2015 and is expected to grow significantly through 2020.
- The key growth driver of the massage equipment market in Europe is the increase in travel and tourism, as massage chairs are increasingly being deployed in airports and other places such as hotel lounges and lobbies where tourists can relax. Enhanced awareness regarding massage techniques and its importance, changing lifestyle, and several health benefits associated with various types of massages are the other key growth factors.
- The market is primarily segmented into: Back Massagers, Handheld Massagers, Neck and shoulder Massagers, Leg and foot Massagers and Eye care Massagers. Back Massagers held the largest market share at 32.54%, followed by Handheld massagers at 30.13% and Neck and shoulder Massagers at 25.34%. Leg and foot Massagers had a market share of 9.98% while Eye care Massagers had the least market share of 2.01%.
- Back Massagers, Handheld Massagers and Neck and shoulder Massagers are the fastest growing segments within the massage devices industry with an expected CAGR of 6.04%, 5.98% and 5.93% respectively over the 2016–2021 period.
Few Key Players Profile With European Operations
1) Panasonic
- The company's European operations are conducted under 'Panasonic Europe Ltd' which operates as a subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation and is headquartered in UK.
- The company manufactures and markets consumer electronic and electrical products under the brand name Panasonic. The company’s products include television, microwave, mobile phones, compact-disc (CD) players, car radios, video recorders, and vacuum cleaners.
- The company manufactures massage chairs and devices as part of its "Home Applications' segment in Europe. Panasonic offers various control devices for Massage Chairs such as Control ICs, Analog ASICs for Sensor
measurement, Motor Driver ICs, LCD Display Controls, Human Interface Controls, Pressure Sensors and general electronic components.
- The company's 2018 revenues stood at $75,125.82 million with Europe representing 10% of the total revenues thereby aggregating to $7,512.6 million. The company reports its massage devices revenues under 'Beauty & Living Business Division' along with other categories like beauty appliances, cooking appliances etc but does NOT break out the revenues.
2) OSIM International
- The company operates as a global leader in branded healthy lifestyle products. It creates, designs, develops & markets well-being and healthy lifestyle products through its specialty retail outlets worldwide.
- The company's products include massage chairs, foot massagers, neck & shoulder massagers, head massagers, fitness equipment, diagnostic equipment, vitamin & supplements and luxury tea.
- The company operates a wide point-of-sales network with more than 397 outlets in 85 cities across 18 countries in Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
- The company has revenues of $399.36 million and a net income of $36.22 million.
3) HoMedics Group Ltd
- The company supplies health and wellness products and deals in massagers, spa products, hair reduction systems, sensory products, blood pressure monitors, thermometers, hot and cold therapy products, pain relief products, body analyzer scales, mattress and pillow protectors, and backrest support products. It is a global player with operations around the world.
- The company markets and sells its products through a network of retailers in the United Kingdom, as well as online and is based in Tonbridge, United Kingdom.
- The company had revenues of $59 million.
4) Casada International
- The company is based in Paderborn, Germany and operates as a premium manufacturer of massage chairs, massage equipment and fitness equipment. The company was founded in 2000, and has become one of the best-
known premium manufacturers in the massage and fitness sector.
- The company has expanded its operations globally with roots in Europe. It leverages a test plan and also uses a simulation and testing processes, with real users, function tests, temperature tests, tests for durability and performance for all of its products.
- The company operates as a private entity and has estimated revenues of $5 million.
5) ARES
- The company was formed in 2009 as the first company in the European region that provides luxury and high quality massage chairs and massage equipment worldwide.
- The company continues to lead the market in Europe, Asia and the Middle East Region and has offices located in Amman–Jordan.
- The company's massage chair features separate inflatable air cells that compress to massage arms, legs, feet and hands and other innovative features like zero gravity functionality, pre-configured massage sessions and heating system on waist and foot areas.
- There is no revenue information available for the company either on the website or externally.
Research Strategy:
This has been presented as a client update because there is no list of top companies ranked by market share in European massage devices and massage chairs (together referred as 'massage equipment') market could either be found pre-compiled or could be triangulated based on revenue, market share, volume, distribution network or any other related parameter. While we were able to find few leading European players in the massage equipment industry as corroborated by various research and industry reports, there was no information that could be garnered around their revenues/market share or any other comparable metrics to regard or rank them as top.
All the leading players broadly deal in health & well-being products/consumer appliance industry with massage appliances/equipment as their operating sub-segments and they have not provided any revenue/market share/volume information specific to these sub-segments. Hence, in the absence of any ranking parameter it was not possible to triangulate the list of leading players of European massage equipment. The primary reason for the information to be missing can be its niche nature and the fragmented and unorganized nature of the industry due to which many small key players operate in the same. Also, most of the players are private in nature with limited to no access to the financial filings and financial information which makes it impossible to create a ranked list. Below is the deep dive into the various strategies that we deployed in order to locate the information.
Our first strategy was to scour through the various research reports on the European massage equipment industry from Mordor Intelligence, Market Radar, EuroMonitor, Deloitte, Mckinsey, Forrester Research etc. These industry research reports are a primary resource for the information on key industry players and at times also provide a ranked list based on revenues/market share and hence idea was to garner any such pre-compiled list from these reports. However, no specific reports apropos of the European massage equipment industry could be found. Most of the reports found were apropos of the broader industry segments like Health & Wellness appliances or consumer appliances in general which did not furnish any relevant data.
We were able to locate a report on the European 'Massage Chair' industry which included some key players operating in the European massage chair market but did not furnish any information on their market share or revenues from the massage equipment segment. Most of these like OSIM International, Panasonic, Fujiiryoki etc had global operations and operated across variety of segments like beauty appliances, cooking appliances, health & wellness appliances etc. All the other reports found were global in nature and just highlighted the expected industry CAGR and global market size of the massage equipment industry. Few key players were provided but again no information apropos of their market share or massage device segment revenues was furnished.
Our second strategy was to scour through various media articles from Forbes, Business Wire, Bloomberg, Reuters, Live Mint etc; European home appliances, health appliances and consumer electronics specific blogs such as ArchiProducts, Home Style Blogs, Appliances Connection; and surveys from Pew Research, Nielsen, Deloitte etc in order to check if any information on best or leading European massage equipment based on customer perception or feedback could be found. All these are potential sources where key industry players are discussed by various media houses and hence we decided to follow this research path.
However, this research did not yield any fruitful results. We were able to locate a list of some massage equipment players globally with operations in Europe as well but again no criteria to rank them was available. Also, as indicated above, most of them operated in a variety of segments like beauty appliances, cooking appliances, health & wellness appliances etc.and hence no clear identification of the presence of each of them in the European massage equipment segment could be
stipulated to arrive at a top players list.
Our third strategy was to check through credible databases. The idea behind this strategy was to check if they furnish a list of top massage equipment players in Europe or if there is any way to at least filter the key players in the market based on some parameters like number of employees, locations etc on these databases. We would have then used this broader list to narrow down and check if each of the top players have a presence in the massage equipment segment and what is there revenue share from the same.
We scoured through company databases such as Hoovers, Crunchbase, Craft, Owler, ZoomInfo etc, some European companies specific databases such as Amadeus, ETUI's database on European Companies (SE) etc and B2B list databases such as European Lists and Euro Pages. However, we could not get relevant information from these sources. Most of the information found was either for specific companies and their revenues or behind a paywall.
Our fourth strategy was to try to triangulate the information. The idea was to try to organize the list of individual players operating in the massage equipment sector in Europe (like Casada, ARES etc) or related segments found during the research from the various media articles and blogs and then try to rank them based on their revenues from their European massage equipment segment.
However, the major stumbling block that was encountered in this was the lack of any detailed financial filings or financial information about these players owing to their private nature. Also since almost all of them dealt in majority of other household appliance categories as well, taking overall revenues from databases such as Owler, Crunchbase etc did not make sense as a player with overall high revenues may have a smaller revenue share from 'massage equipment'. We have however listed these as part of our useful findings. Hence, no top players list could be triangulated through this approach.
Our fifth strategy was to locate alternate data points/information in order to find the missing data. As part of this strategy, we searched other ranking parameters such as Market Share, Sales Volumes, Distribution Network (Number of distributors), Customer Rating/Perception from surveys or review websites but no consistent information across the players could be garnered. The idea behind this strategy was to check if there is any possibility of ranking the top players on any alternate parameter. We also tried to look at the international/global brands such as Panasonic, OSIM International etc mentioned in one of the research reports as having a presence in the European massage equipment market.
The idea was to check if any of the non-regional players have a major hold in the European market. We tried to go through their filings, annual reports, presentations etc to check if they have disclosed their 'Massage Equipment' segment revenue but none of the companies had such information in their filings. Only broad global revenues and revenues from key geographies like America, Europe, Asia Japan and China were available. Hence, no information regarding the top players could be garnered from this approach. We have included information on these players as part of our useful findings.
Our sixth strategy was to try to broaden the scope of the research beyond the two-year resource limit. With this approach, we hoped to look for slightly outdated but useful information apropos of any past surveys or research done around the topic which we can use as a proxy for the top European massage equipment players. The idea was to use the past list as a starting point and check if those companies still hold the leadership positions. However, no relevant past surveys or research reports could be located around the topic.