ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Americans feeling flush with money have a new favourite way of spending it - luxury toilet tissue. Sales in the US of quilted, perfumed and ultra-soft products climbed to $1.4 billion (1.3 billion euros) - more than any other kind of toilet tissue for the first time in nearly a decade.

According to the market research from Euromonitor, luxury toilet paper sales have grown by more than 70 per cent since 2000, and they're expected to carry on rising faster than all other categories every year until at least 2018.

"Higher growth is expected out of the luxury segment as the improved economy allows consumers to satisfy their desire for comfort," Euromonitor analysts wrote in a recent industry report about toilet paper's "increasing premiumisation". "While the idea of luxury toilet paper may be slightly odd, its performance suggests otherwise."

Before last year, luxury toilet paper's sales growth last beat the other rolls in 2000 and 2005, both boom years for the US economy and consumer spending. The luxury toilet paper business is expected to grow by nine per cent over the next five years, compared with six per cent for the cheapest 'economy' lines.