The talk about RB

Who is saying what about RB? Here's a selection of some of the Reckitt Benckiser stories making the news.

"Medicine and condoms gives Reckitt [Benckiser] a lift"
The Independent, 22 April 2013
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"Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, the maker of Dettol handwash, said it remains confident of achieving full-year goals after ... it post[ed] the strongest first-quarter revenue growth in four years."
Businessweek, 22 April 2013
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"Reckitt [Benckiser] has made a good start to the first quarter 2013..."
City AM, 22 April 2013
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Condoms and air freshener spur Reckitt Benckiser
"While much has yet to be done and markets remain challenging, we approach 2013 with the confidence that we have the right strategic focus, the right organisation and culture, and with the right innovation platforms," [CEO Rakesh Kapoor] added.

Andrew Wood, an analyst at Bernstein, kept his "outperform" rating on [RB] in light of the results. "It seems that 2013 is going to be another strong and exciting year. [RB] seems to be recovering its vigour and swagger," he said."
The Telegraph, 13 February 2013
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Reckitt Benckiser Forecasts Sales Will Advance as Much as 6%
"Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc reported the strongest quarterly sales increase since 2009 and forecast growth this year, helped in part by acquisitions.

Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Kapoor has put acquisitions at the forefront of a push into health care, while seeking to boost emerging-market revenue to combat weakening economies in Europe."
Bloomberg, 13 February 2013
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RB Makes Push in Consumer Medicines
"Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC is prioritizing sales of over-the-counter medicines to boost profit following a string of acquisitions across the lucrative global consumer health market.

[RB] said its higher-margin health and hygiene businesses are growing faster than expected and will account for 72% of revenue by 2015, a year earlier than planned."
Wall Street Journal, 13 February 2013
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"Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of food and household products, climbed 0.8 per cent to £43.99 after reporting a 5 per cent increase in operating profit to £2.44bn thanks to growth in health and hygiene sales.

The company, whose brands include Dettol and French’s Mustard, said it saw strong growth in gross margins, driven by easing cost pressures and improved pricing, and it targeted revenue growth for 2013 of 5-6 per cent."

“Overall, Reckitt Benckiser’s results are very strong, but we also see them as an early indication of what the company will be delivering for a number of years to come,” said Harold Thompson at Deutsche Bank, who rated the stock at buy and raised the target price to £48 from £46."
FT.com, 13 February 2013

"RB is trying the joint-business-planning approach with Facebook in the U.S. before considering moving it to other countries and media outlets, Mr. [Laurent] Faracci [general manager of US marketing] said. As part of a second phase, he said the company is doing projects "with stepped-up investment" on two brands -- Finish and Air Wick -- and evaluating the impact using "a full econometric model." His goal, he said, is to find where Facebook best fits for RB, "not to do fake social."

Mr. Faracci said the retailer is fine-tuning efforts to take better advantage of online video and digital media, where it's generally been happy with its investments."
AdAge, 5 November 2012
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"Reckitt Benckiser is attempting to offer relief for colds and flu faster than outbreaks of the viruses that cause them, through a partnership with WebMD.com ... The strategy is a window into the future of marketing, in which advertisers will monitor consumers’ activities in real time, then use the data to tailor and target their messages."
FT.com, 5 November 2012
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Knowing the value of marketing
"The trading update from Reckitt Benckiser, which has been at the heart of the discounting wars, suggests that in Europe and North America the picture may be improving. Like-for-like growth here in the third quarter was 2 per cent."
The Times, 25 October 2012
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"Shares in Reckitt Benckiser climbed higher yesterday after the maker of Finish dishwasher tablets and Nurofen painkillers said strong emerging markets growth helped push third quarter like-for-like sales up by five per cent."
City AM, 25 October 2012
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Reckitt Benckiser rises on polished performance
"Reckitt Benckiser’s strong third-quarter results were underpinned by an excellent performance in emerging markets and an improved performance in Europe North America." – Rakesh Kapoor, CEO
Telegraph, 24 October 2012
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"Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc rose to a record in London trading after the maker of Nurofen posted revenue that beat estimates, defying a slowdown that has hurt competitors, boosted by increased sales of health-related products and a turnaround in developed markets."
Bloomberg, 24 October 2012
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"The household, health, and personal care products manufacturer has seen its sales double and its market cap quadruple over the last decade, building on a corporate philosophy of “If it ain’t broke, make it better.”

While competitors have been complaining of flagging sales in some markets, RB has been seeing improvements. With RB’s peers blaming a downturn in business in emerging markets on economic conditions and market slump, how is it that RB can pull of such stellar results in the same field? Here’s a clue: How many times have you seen a report where a company blames its failure to meet expectations on the success of its competitors?"
ADVFN, 24 October 2012
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"[RB] said it was well positioned to meet its 2012 goals, with market growth now expected to be at the top end of a 1 to 2 percent range. The company is targeting underlying sales growth 200 basis points ahead of its market growth – a 3 to 4 percent increase – with margins held steady."
Reuters, 24 October 2012
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"Reckitt Benckiser’s open innovation toolbox covers patent and literature searches, trade shows and conferences, sup- plier networks, alternate industry sectors, technology brokers and crowd-sourcing companies, plus a number of networks for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as academics.

“Two heads are always better than one, so the farther we are able to cast the net when it comes to ideas and technology sourcing, the better we find solutions that will help us solve some of the tech- nological challenges we face,” explained its senior vice-president of global research and development Sharon James."
The Straits Times, 10 October 2012

"RB's new "betterbusiness" strategy builds on its Carbon20 commitment and has set itself a handful of lofty targets. It aims to reduce its carbon footprint per dose by a third across a product's lifecycle; to reduce the water impact per product across its lifecycle by a third, and to create a third of the company's total net revenue from sustainable products, by 2020."
Brand Republic, 1 October 2012
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RB Joins The Sustainability Consortium
“Successful collaboration between retailers, suppliers and producers will enable more transformational change on sustainability,” said Frederic Larmuseau, President, RB North America.
The Sustainability Consortium, September 2012
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Haunting Image Drives RB CEO to Clean Up Poverty
"In [Rakesh] Kapoor's home state of Uttar Pradesh, less than 36 percent of households have toilets, according to a government survey cited by UNICEF... Harpic, an RB business unit, is working with the Save the Children charity, has pledged to fund programs that will build and repair India's community toilets and perhaps, over time, develop more hygienic models. The drive is part of the Slough, England-based company's new sustainability plan."
Bloomberg, 20 September 2012
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"MBA students at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University rode around the university last week on pedicabs provided by Reckitt Benckiser, a global consumer goods company that is a corporate partner of the school"
Bloomberg Businessweek, 11 September 2012
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"[Visual merchandising] laboratories help our decision-making in three ways," says RB's Yelena Idelchik. "They help our brand teams develop packaging for new products by looking at it the way the shopper will see it. They help our retail partners evaluate how their shoppers look at aisles and departments in general, not just the individual categories. And they help develop planograms to optimize how categories look in different retailers' environments."
Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine, August 2012
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RB Ekes Out Higher Net
"Reckitt Benckiser PLC reported a slightly higher first-half net profit, as rising demand for household and medical products in emerging economies offset "challenging" conditions in Europe and North America.

The consumer-goods company said net profit for the six months to June 30 rose 2.6% to £779 million ($1.23 billion) from £759 million a year earlier. Revenue increased 1.1% to £4.67 billion in the first half, but fell 1.1% in the second quarter to £2.31 billion. Like-for-like revenue rose 4%."
Wall Street Journal, 31 July 2012

RB weathers turmoil with £1.1bn
"Cillit Bang, Nurofen and Durex are selling well for Reckitt Benckiser across the globe despite the economic turmoil. Reckitt managed to avoid the profit warnings issued by the likes of arch-rival Procter & Gamble to report that investing in its biggest brands was overcoming the trouble in southern European markets. Half-year operating profits rose 4% to £1.1 billion."
Evening Standard, 30 July 2012

"In the Reader's Digest brand trust survey, first aid product Dettol has emerged as the nation's most trusted brand, with six of the top ten products in the first aid or health category."
Ad News Australia, 25 July 2012
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"Jiri Kulik, senior VP of Reckitt Benckiser's's Latin America operations, noted that RB is focused on putting marketers in key countries within the regions—such as moving headquarters for China from Singapore to Shanghai. While he initially ran Latin America from Miami, he's relocating RB's Latin America headquarters to Sao Paulo.

"It's very nice living in Singapore," he said, "but you are not close enough to the Chinese consumer." By the same measure, he said, "I really struggle being in Miami and being in America trying to sell to a Brazilian consumer. This is the fundamental reason we decided to make this change."

Another good reason for such moves is to reflect the changing global population. "We are staffing up people in the developing markets and moving much more talent from the developed to the developing geographies," Mr. Kulik said."
Advertising Age, 11 June 2012
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"RB, a world leader in health, hygiene and home products, has achieved a remarkable 21 per cent improvement in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions per dose since 2007 – beating its 2020 target eight years ahead of time."
Retail World, 1 June 2012
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"RB sees early boost from new strategy: New chief executive Rakesh Kapoor said the group's results were driven by strong emerging market growth and success with a string of new products."
Reuters, 1 May 2012
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"RB reported first-quarter revenue growth that met analysts’ estimates and said it’s confident of meeting full- year goals amid gains in emerging markets."
Bloomberg, 1 May 2012
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"RB will also put a greater emphasis on its health and hygiene products, which have higher profit margins and greater growth potential in developing markets. 'It's time to change the identity of this company,' [Rakesh] Kapoor said."
The Times, 9 February 2012
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