India among RB’s key markets

The company’s toilet cleaner brand Harpic added a record number of new homes in 2020. In India, Harpic is used in over 100 million homes, up by nearly 30 million from 2019 as a result of purpose-led marketing campaigns around behaviour change, it said in its earnings release.

“All geographic regions have grown, with the largest contributors to growth including the US, India, and China. Around 70% of our category market units by revenue either gained or held market share, with the strongest gains in many hygiene and health categories, offsetting difficult trading conditions for our infant nutrition business in China, which represents 6% of group revenue," it added.

For the company which sells Mortein, Durex and Dettol brands, markets in the US, China and India account for almost half of its revenues.

“Growth has been broad-based geographically. In particular, strong double-digits in the US and India, as well as high single-digits in China. These three businesses make up almost half our revenues. Our top 10 markets have delivered an average of 15% growth," Laxman Narasimhan, CEO, RB, said in a post-earnings call.

On a full-year basis the company’s like-for-like net revenue was up by 11.8% as demand for health and hygiene brands surged. This, the company said, was driven by very strong, volume-led growth in a covid environment, with consumers seeking trusted, heritage brands, reinforced by stronger purpose-led brand equity and strengthened execution.

In its half-yearly earnings announced last year, Reckitt Benckiser said the Dettol soap bar was the country’s number one selling soap brand by value share.