Foreign firms find the going tough in China's FMCG market

Growth slowed further in China's fast-moving consumer goods market during the first three months of the year, with foreign brands seeing a steeper erosion in market share, an industry report said on Wednesday.

Fast-moving consumer goods saw growth drop to 4.4 percent during the first quarter of 2015 from nearly 12 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to a report jointly published by global management consultancy Bain & Co and market research firm Kantar Worldpanel. The report tracked the shopping behavior of 40,000 Chinese households.

There were, however, some interesting highlights in the study. Skin care products were the sole exception among all product categories and saw significant growth rebounds in the last part of 2014 and early this year.