Announcements

RB press release - 02/12/09

Reckitt Benckiser proposes to integrate UK Healthcare and Household/Personal Care commercial businesses

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has announced today a proposal to integrate its UK Healthcare and Household/Personal Care commercial businesses into a single business unit, with effect from April 2010.

It is proposed that the integrated business will operate from the company’s existing UK Household office in Slough, and will be led by Camillo Pane (currently UK Healthcare General Manager), reporting to Brendan Collins, Reckitt Benckiser’s SVP Regional Director Northern Europe.

Camillo will be supported by UK Marketing Directors – Stefan Gaa (Healthcare) and Phil Thomas (Household/Personal Care); and UK Sales Directors - Kerry Miller (Household/Personal Care) and Nick Sedgwick, (Healthcare). All other senior managers in the two businesses in future will either focus on the new RB UK integrated business, or move to a role in the expanded N European Region.

The new integrated UK business will be one of the UK’s leading FMCG companies and one of the market’s major advertisers – both in conventional media and online.

The UK is the only major RB market where the Household/Personal Care and Healthcare businesses are still operated independently, and this will now bring it into line with other countries where the businesses are combined.

The creation of the integrated business will provide much greater focus particularly in today’s challenging marketplace. The UK is already the lead development market for many of the company’s product categories, and it will now have even greater influence in driving innovation both across RB’s global Powerbrands such as Finish, Dettol, Vanish, Nurofen, and Strepsils, as well as key ‘local’ UK/European brands such as Lemsip, E45 and Optrex.

One of the primary objectives of the integration is to provide quicker, more efficient service to customers. This will be through fully integrated systems and improved processes, and a new southern location which is closer to a significant proportion of RB’s major customers.

A single location, close to RB’s global headquarters, will also enable greater flexibility and career opportunities for existing employees across the wider business. RB UK’s objective is to become the preferred UK FMCG employer, not just for its existing team, but to a wider talent pool in the future. The company believes its size and status in the market, clear strategy and unique culture, together with the proposed new location of the integrated business will facilitate this.

The change will mean moving around 90 commercial roles from Hull to Slough, and the company will offer significant financial and logistical support to assist relocation in the hope that all those currently in those roles will move with them. Consultations with those individuals affected have already begun and are expected to be completed by early February.

Hull will also remain a key global site for RB. It is the company’s primary centre of excellence for Global R&D and a key healthcare manufacturing site, as well as continuing to house other important centralised services and business functions. The site has also seen a more than £50 million of capital investment of over in the last 3 years, including a £13m development programme for the manufacturing plant announced in June this year, which has resulted in the creation of some 300 jobs.

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About RB

RB is a world leader in household, health and personal care.
It is a FTSE top 25 company and since 2000 net revenues have doubled and the market cap has quadrupled.

Today it is the global No 1 or No 2 in the majority of its fast-growing categories, driven by an exceptional rate of innovation – near 40% of revenue comes from innovations launched in the prior 3 years. It has a strong portfolio led by 17 global Powerbrands which are: Finish, Lysol, Dettol, Vanish, Woolite, Calgon, Airwick, Harpic, Bang, Mortein, Veet, Nurofen, Clearasil, Strepsils Gaviscon, Mucinex and French’s, and they account for over two thirds of its net revenue.

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the company employs 23,000 people worldwide, with operations in 60 countries and sales in over180 countries.