What is most noticeable about Reckitt Benckiser’s performance over the past year or so is its consistency. Most global consumer groups have stumbled in one market or another, but RB, as it prefers to be called, has moved revenues ahead in all three of its core divisions.
The company decided a few years ago to focus on healthcare and hygiene. These are must-have products: even in difficult emerging markets, people do not stint on flu remedies or disinfectants — note the strong performance in hygiene of its pest control products in Brazil, despite the battering that country’s economy has taken.
The process of spinning off its Indivior specialist pharmaceuticals business took place at the end of last year and investors will have little to