18 April 2019
By David Palmer, Co-Fund Manager HC Verbatim Portfolio 5 Income Fund
Our evolving consumption theme is a huge and ever-changing global source of investment opportunities. The diversity of change within this area, which represents about 70% or so of global economic activity, is enormous. When researching this theme, we do not simply stereotype different types of consumers but rather attempt to tease out sub-themes and crosscurrents that could provide ideas for pockets of enduring, secular growth.
Inevitably, a number of these effects overlap with other themes we look at – for example the democratisation of healthcare within ageing, or a variety of ideas within digitalisation involving music and gaming. We purposely avoid rigid analysis like solely focusing on a particular country and income threshold - for example, the emergence of the Chinese middle classes - as this puts the emphasis on the symptoms rather than the causes. Chart 1 illustrates the multitude of different versions of consumers together with their sizes, growth rates and degree of urbanisation, but even this is a simplification.
Observing how humans change consumption over time
The late, great social thinker Hans Rosling intended to steer away from what he called the “gap instinct” of observers to look at things in black and white. In his book, Factfulness, he talks about “the stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts”. Rather, he proposed a variety of more nuanced ways of looking at the world – among them an income hierarchy of levels one to four defining the points through time where humans have changed consumption. The distribution of income looks similar to an ice-lolly; the largest part of the population sits in the $2 - $8 a day part of the distribution, while incomes of $8 - $32 a day occupy the section largest section of humanity.
It is profoundly important to attempt to gauge the tastes, motivations and consumption changes for these particular consumers over the next generation as they make up the majority of the population. By 2030, developing countries and emerging markets will be home to an estimated 80% of the world’s middle class. Urbanisation, falling demographic dependency ratios, higher standards of education and governance are all leading to improved standards of living for hundreds of millions of people as incomes converge with those in the developed world.
New patterns are emerging
In the developed world, too, new patterns of consumption are emerging. The millennial generation is entering the workplace and thus becoming influential consumers with different priorities to those of older generations. Consumers are spending an increasing proportion of income on fitness and health and wellbeing. Diets are also improving. Experiences and travel are becoming higher priorities, and entertainment preferences are shifting towards gaming, E-Sports, smartphones and on-demand video.
Our thinking around the evolving consumption theme takes us in many directions with numerous stocks to consider:
Finding the most exciting opportunities through thematic investing
Global consumers are hugely diverse, and new product channels are constantly being created through technology and innovation. Frugal consumers everywhere are benefiting from improved price transparency; retailers with the lowest prices are able to rapidly win share, and those without are struggling. Collectively, these evolving consumers lead to a broad range of exciting investment themes. Personal consumption expenditure represents the largest single component of GDP. Changes in demographic, technological and socio-economic factors are transforming global consumer behaviour. As part of our thematic investment process, we map out pockets of consumer development that we believe will enjoy excellent secular growth, as well as remaining mindful of the areas to avoid.
Chart 1
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