| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Traded as | LSE: RB |
| Industry | Consumer goods |
| Founded | 1814 1938 by merger of Reckitt & Sons and J&J Colman 1999 by merger of Reckitt & Colman and Benckiser |
| Headquarters | Slough, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Adrian Bellamy (Chairman) Rakesh Kapoor (CEO)[1] Colin Day (CFO) |
| Products | Cleaning products, healthcare, condiments |
| Revenue | £8,453 million (2010)[2] |
| Operating income | £2,130 million (2010)[2] |
| Net income | £1,570 million (2010)[2] |
| Employees | 27,200 (2010)[2] |
| Website | www.rb.com |
Reckitt Benckiser plc (LSE: RB) is a global consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of household products and a major producer of consumer healthcare and personal products.[2][3] Its brands include Dettol (the world's largest-selling antiseptic), Strepsils (the world's largest-selling sore throat medicine), Veet (the world's largest-selling depilatory brand), Air Wick (the world's second largest-selling air freshener), Calgon, Clearasil, Cillit Bang, Durex and Vanish.[4] It has operations in over 60 countries and its products are sold in over 180 countries.[5]
Reckitt Benckiser is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately £23.2 billion as of 23 December 2011, making it the 20th-largest company on the London Stock Exchange.[6]
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Colman's was founded in 1814 when Jeremiah Colman began milling flour and mustard in Norwich, England.[7] Reckitt & Sons started in 1840 when Isaac Reckitt rented a starch mill in Hull, England.[7] He diversified into other household products and in due course passed on his business to his four sons. Reckitt & Sons was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1888.[7] In 1938 Reckitt & Sons merged with J&J Colman to become Reckitt & Colman Ltd.[7] The company made several acquisitions, including the Airwick and Carpet Fresh brands (1985), the Boyle-Midway division of American Home Products (1990), and the Lehn & Fink division of Sterling Drug (1994). Reckitt & Colman sold the Colman's food business in 1995 but still has some food brands.[7]
Johann A. Benckiser founded a business in Germany in 1823. Its main products were industrial chemicals.[7] Benckiser went public in 1997.[8]
The company was formed by a merger between Britain's Reckitt & Colman and the Dutch company Benckiser NV in December 1999.[9] Bart Becht became CEO of this new company and has been credited for its transformation, focusing on core brands and improving efficiency in the supply chain . The new management team's strategy of "innovation marketing".[10] – a combination of increased marketing spend and product innovation, focusing on consumer needs – has been linked to the company's ongoing success. For example, in 2008, the company's "rapid succession of well publicised new product variants" were credited for helping them "to capture shoppers' imagination".[11] Business Week has also noted that "40% of Reckitt Benckiser's $10.5 billion in 2007 revenues came from products launched within the previous three years."[12]
In October 2005, Reckitt Benckiser agreed to purchase the over-the-counter drugs manufacturing business of Boots Group, Boots Healthcare International, for £1.926 billion. The three main brands acquired were Nurofen in analgesics; Strepsils sore throat lozenges; and Clearasil anti-acne treatments.[13]
The company has held Platinum status in the Business In The Community CR Index,[14] since 2005 and in 2009 entered the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index[15] and the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index.[16]
In January 2008, the company acquired Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, for $2.3bn: one of the major brands acquired with this purchase was Mucinex.[17]
RB was ranked 6th in the 2008 European Business Week 50,[18] the magazine's annual ranking of the best performing companies within the S&P European 350.
In July 2010, the company agreed to buy SSL International, the makers of Durex condoms and Scholl's footcare products in a £2.5bn deal.[19]
On 27th August 2011, Reckitt Benckiser recalled all remaining stock of its major analgesic product, Nurofen Plus, after packs were found to contain an antipsychotic drug. Sabotage is suspected (27th August, 2011). [20]
In April 2011, Bart Becht announced he was to retire as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, to be replaced by executive vice president of Category Development Rakesh Kapoor from September 2011. Rakesh Kapoor has worked for Reckitt Benckiser for 25 years in India, the UK and northern Europe. An MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Rakesh Kapoor played a key role in helping the group acquire Boots Healthcare International, SSL International Plc and India’s Paras Pharmaceuticals.[21]
The company divides its brands into six categories: surface care, fabric care, dishwashing, home care, health and personal care, and food.
The company's strategy is to have a highly focused portfolio concentrating on its 19 most profitable brands, which were responsible for 62% of net revenues in 2008.[22] 35% of net revenues come from products launched in the past three years, this focus on innovation was recognised by The Economist Corporate Use of Innovation Award in 2009.[23]
RB has a very fast-paced and challenging working culture and likes to portray a truly global outlook by placing management staff out of their 'comfort zones'. For example, a German manager wouldn't necessarily be left to work in Germany; they may be posted in Brazil for two years, followed by India for the next role. This allows employees to have an international focus.
The company runs a number of graduate programmes,[24] in most of its markets, with over 200 graduates joining the schemes worldwide. Once hired, graduates tend to work for a couple of years as a trainee in the country in which they were originally employed, followed by a posting overseas for those who have excelled during initial training. Graduate trainees start off in one of the firm's business areas: Marketing & Sales; Supply Chain; Research & Development and Information Systems.
The European Graduate Programme,[25] for example, starts with a placement on the sales team of a country where the candidate can speak the local language. After a year, the graduate is moved to another European country for their marketing assignment.
As part of its recruitment initiative, RB launched a blog, myRBopportunity, which features blog posts and commentary from graduates who have recently joined the company. The blog also features guest contributions from leading RB management and industry experts.
In 2011, Reckitt Benckiser was named as one of the top 300 recruiters in the UK by British newspaper The Guardian, and was placed at number 11 in Forbes' list of the World's Most Innovative Companies.[26]
The current CEO of Reckitt Benckiser is Rakesh Kapoor.
Current members of the board of directors are: Adrian Bellamy, Colin Day, Dr Peter Harf, Ken Hydon, Graham Mackay, André Lacroix, Judith Sprieser and David Tyler.
Current members of the executive committee are: Colin Day, Rakesh Kapoor, Rob de Groot, Amadeo Fasano, Heather Allen, Freddy Caspers, Gareth Hill and Simon Nash.[27]
In 2008, the BBC's Newsnight programme broadcast a report[28][29] which accused Reckitt Benckiser of attempting to delay the introduction of a competitive, generic version of one of its most popular products, Gaviscon, a treatment for heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Introducing the report, reporter Martin Shankleman said, "Gaviscon is hailed as a power brand by its owners, Reckitt Benckiser." He continued,
"Reckitt Benckiser like to claim that the profits flow from their expertise in marketing. But we know that there's another way in which they've been coining it in—by ripping-off the NHS; as a whistle-blower has told us.
The "whistle-blower" was shown in silhouette and his words were spoken by an actor: "Reckitt's cheated the National Health Service. It could have saved the NHS millions of pounds. But not just the NHS, patients, doctors—they've cheated health professionals. I felt it had to be exposed".
Newsnight claimed that Reckitt Benckiser had a "secret plan to ensure that it kept its stranglehold" after the Gaviscon patent expired in 1999, and that Newsnight had seen the plan. The Department of Health asked Newsnight to hand its documents to the NHS counter-fraud service.
The investigation was widely reported in the British press. The Guardian quoted a leaked memo in which the product's manager explained that the company could use "the rationale of health and safety" to design a switched product to "muddy the waters."[30] The newspaper quoted Reckitt Benckiser as stating that the leaked memos were "inappropriate and did not reflect Reckitt's eventual actions".
The Independent quoted Warwick Smith, director of the British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA): "The sort of evergreening alleged by Newsnight can cost the NHS tens of millions of pounds with no patient benefit."[31] It also quoted a statement issued by the company: "...Reckitt Benckiser is a responsible company and we have therefore instigated an immediate internal investigation and will take action. However, we do not accept much of what has been alleged."
The Times noted that "Although Gaviscon has been out of patent for almost ten years, no other manufacturer has developed a cheap generic version. Such a drug could have saved the NHS up to £40 million."[32] It stated that the Office of Fair Trading was expected to examine whether Reckitt had acted illegally. It also printed verbatim extracts from several of the leaked memos.[33] The Times report included an extract from the statement issued by the company (see below).
In response to the Newsnight report and the reports in the press, Reckitt Benckiser issued a statement which began:
We are shocked by the allegations made as Reckitt Benckiser is a responsible company in the way it conducts its business.
Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned by the inappropriate sentiment expressed in some of the historic internal correspondence reported. We take this very seriously and have instigated an immediate internal investigation, and will take action. We also refute much of what has been reported which implies a power and influence we simply do not possess.
The company has never objected to a monograph driven generic name being published. The timetable of which is not, and never has been, within our control a monograph/generic name could have been published at any time by the regulators without reference to any third party.
The company made appropriate challenges where it felt it was justified in order to ensure patients are prescribed the right treatment. These were within the law and relevant regulations. We stress that the regulators only take a comment into account when it is valid.[34]
On 15 October 2010, Reckitt Benckiser was fined £10.2m by the Office of Fair Trading after the company admitted anti-competitive behaviour.[35]
Reckitt Benckiser has implemented an environmental initiative called Carbon 20.[36] The initiative, which was announced in November 2007, aims to cut the total carbon footprint of its products – from creation to disposal – by 20% by 2020. As part of the initiative the company has reduced by 70% the amount of plastic in the packaging of its Vanish cleaner.[22]
In January 2010, Reckitt Benckiser announced that they had already reached the halfway mark on their carbon reduction target in the third year of the Carbon20 initiative. RB states "Over 3 million tonnes of CO2 was avoided last year by a 11% reduction per unit dose in the carbon impact across our products’ life cycle – the same impact as taking nearly 1,000,000 cars off the road." RB cited new programmes to redesign products using fewer materials and less energy, packaging and waste, along with moving a number of factories and plants to combined heat and power energy systems as the main contributors to achieving the target so far.[37]
The Independent characterised the Carbon 20 initiative as "a typically savvy bit of marketing"[38] on the part of Bart Becht, the company's former CEO. It observed that Reckitt Benckiser's initiative seemed to go further than similar green initiatives by other companies, and that it would lead to increased profits.
In New York in February 2009, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against Reckitt Benckiser and others. The petition[39] seeks to compel the companies to identify all of the ingredients used in their products. Earthjustice contacted several companies in September 2008 requesting that they comply with a 1971 law requiring them to disclose the ingredients in their products and make available any associated health or safety studies. Reckitt Benckiser and the other defendants ignored or refused the request.[40]
In June 2006, Reckitt Benckiser launched Trees for Change, a major forestation project designed to offset the greenhouse gasses created as a by-product of its manufacturing processes.[41] The project aims to create over 25 square kilometres of forest by planting more than two million trees on previously deforested land in British Columbia, Canada.[42] Over the next 80–100 years the forest will absorb over two million tonnes of CO2, making the company effectively carbon neutral every year since 2006.
Reckitt Benckiser has now removed PVC packaging from all household product formulas worldwide. The company also has a number of Ingredient Removal programmes in place, finding 'better' alternatives to improve the safety profile of their products.
In 2008, in the U.S., RB was one of 40 companies awarded Champion Status in the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI). The SDSI "recognizes environmental leaders who voluntarily commit to the use of safer surfactants".[43] In 2010, RB achieved Platinum ranking in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index, a status the company has consistently achieved since 2005. The index is an audited "voluntary, self-assessment survey, comprising 88 sets of questions on how companies are managing, measuring and reporting their social and environmental impacts".[14]
The company are Save the Children's "most valuable UK-based corporate supporter".[44] Their staff fundraises in many different ways, from football tournaments and silly hat wearing to payroll giving and marathon running. Members of staff in 2009 completed a global employee trek, facing the challenges of natural disaster and altitude sickness in order to raise almost £250,000 for the charity.[45] In 2011, a group of 65 RB employees took part in a Global Challenge in Brazil, some undertaking a dangerous trek and others volunteering on a community project.[46] In 2010, RB announced a new programme in conjunction with Save The Children, 'A Million Brighter Futures', which has a target of raising £6million by 2015.In July 1997,Reckitt Benckiser Has Getting Merged With Procter & Gamble and GlaxoSmithKline
In 2009, Reckitt Benckiser revamped its corporate identity to reposition its brand as 'the power behind the Powerbrands'. This saw the launch of a new logo to replace the logo which had been introduced at the time of the Reckitt/Colman merger in 1999. The new logo is a pink kitemark containing the letters 'RB'. The logo is often used with the company's full name Reckitt Benckiser in grey alongside the kitemark logo, using a typeface designed especially for the company
The new logo, created by branding agency The Workroom, was inspired by a sports kite and is intended to reflect the 'loud, confident personalities of its Powerbrands'. The identity has been introduced on packaging, and is used on internal and external communications.[47]
RB has 19 "Powerbrands" following the acquisition of SSL International.
RB's "Powerbrands" accounted for over 70% of Reckitt Benckiser's net revenues in 2010:[48]
This is a list of other brands owned by Reckitt Benckiser:
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