Reckitt

Reckitt, officially Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, United Kingdom. It manufactures health, hygiene, and nutrition products.

Reckitt's brands include the antiseptic brand Dettol, the analgesic Disprin, the sore throat medicine Strepsils, the toilet cleaner Harpic, the hair removal brand Veet, the immune support supplement Airborne, the Australian insecticide brand Mortein, the indigestion remedy Gaviscon, the baby food brand Mead Johnson, the air freshener Air Wick, and other brands and products like: Calgon, Clearasil, Cillit Bang, Durex, Lysol, Mycil, Enfamil, and Vanish.

The company was formed in 1999 by the merger of British company Reckitt & Colman plc and Dutch company Benckiser N.V. Following the merger, the company was known as Reckitt Benckiser until 2021.

Johann Benckiser founded a business in Pforzheim, Germany, in 1823. Its core business was industrial chemicals. Ludwig Reimann, a chemist, joined the business in 1828 and married Benckiser's daughter. Benckiser died in 1851 and the business came under Reimann's ownership. Reimann opened a new chemical plant and, in 1858, moved it to Ludwigshafen. Under Reimann's descendants the business grew rapidly in the latter half of the 20th century: it acquired Coty, Inc., a North American beauty products manufacturer, in 1992. Benckiser's other products included Vanish and Cillit Bang. It went public in 1997.

Reckitt & Sons started in 1840 when Isaac Reckitt rented a starch mill in Hull, England. He diversified into other household products and after his death in 1862, the business passed to his three sons. In 1886, Reckitt opened its first overseas business in Australia. The firm was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1888. Harpic Lavatory Cleaners was acquired in 1932, and that same year, Dettol was launched.

In 1938, Reckitt & Sons merged with J. & J. Colman, which had been founded in 1814 when Jeremiah Colman began milling flour and mustard in Norwich, England, to become Reckitt & Colman Ltd. The company made several acquisitions, including the Airwick and Carpet Fresh brands (1985), the Spanish cleaning products company Camp (1989), the Boyle-Midway division of American Home Products (1990), and the Lehn & Fink division of Sterling Drug, maker of Lysol disinfectant (1994). The Lehn & Fink purchase doubled Reckitt & Colman's American business in one stroke. It acquired several brands from DowBrands in 1998.

Reckitt & Colman also made several divestments during this time, including the fine arts and graphical products (with brands such as Winsor & Newton) and Conimex Dutch food business in 1990, Colman's of Norwich UK food business and Robinsons soft drink products in 1995 to Unilever, and Keen's Australian and Canadian food business in 1998.

The company was formed by a merger between Britain's Reckitt & Colman plc and the Dutch company Benckiser NV in December 1999. Bart Becht became CEO of the 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" – 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". 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."