Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc engages in the manufacture and trade of health, hygiene and

home products. It operates through Health and Hygiene Home segments. The Health
segment focuses on infant and child nutrition; health relief; health hygiene; and vitamins,
minerals and supplements. The Hygiene Home segment focuses on the household sector.
The company was founded in December 1999 and is headquartered in Slough, the United
Kingdom.

Harpic now used by over 100 million Indian homes, says

consumer products major
Global consumer health and hygiene company, Reckitt Benckiser (RB) on
Wednesday said India, US and China were the “largest contributors” to the
company’s growth in 2020.
Stating that it has made significant progress in driving penetration of its products
as consumers increasingly seek trusted hygiene brands during the pandemic, the
company added that Harpic is now used in over 100 million households in India.
In its fourth quarterly and full year earnings release for 2020, the British consumer
products major said, “All geographic regions have grown, with the largest
contributors to growth including the US, India and China. Around 70 per cent of
our category market units by revenue either gained or held market share, with the
strongest gains in many hygiene and health categories.”
In an earnings call, Laxman Narasimhan, global Chief Executive Officer, Reckitt
Benckiser, said “the growth has been broad-based geographically. In particular,
there was strong double-digits in the US and India, as well as high single-digit in
China. These three businesses make up almost half of our revenues. And our top
10 markets have delivered an average of 15 per cent growth.”
He said both Dettol and Harpic delivered strong growth in markets like India.
“Dettol’s position in India, where our performance, relative to our leading
competitor, was very strong,” Narasimhan added. It’s toilet cleaner brand Harpic is
now used in over 100 million homes in India, up by nearly 30 million compared to
2019, as a result of “purpose-led marketing campaigns centred around behaviour
change”, the company claimed.
Informal trade
On efforts of players like Reliance to digitise Indian kirana stores, Narasimhan
said the company is closely monitoring the digitisation of informal trade in
emerging markets. “Clearly it's something that we are closely monitoring, it's
something we are closely work with. We work with a variety of players that
actually also provide that. We're also building our B2B capabilities. We think this
is a clear opportunity,” he said.
In its half yearly earnings released in July last year, RB had said that Dettol had
become the leading soap brand in the Indian market for the first time, in terms of
value share.
According to Nielsen IQ, hygiene and immunity building categories continued to
witness high value growth of 46 per cent in the country in the October-December
period, over same period in 2019.