1999 To Present
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."
In October 2005, Reckitt Benckiser agreed to purchase the over-the-counter drugs manufacturing business of Boots Group, Boots Healthcare International, for £1.9 billion. The three main brands acquired were Nurofen's analgesics, Strepsils sore throat lozenges, and Clearasil anti-acne treatments. In January 2008, Reckitt Benckiser acquired Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, for $2.3 billion; one of the major brands acquired was Mucinex. In July 2010, Reckitt Benckiser agreed to buy SSL International, the makers of Durex condoms and Scholl's footcare products, in a £2.5 billion deal.
On 27 August 2011, Reckitt Benckiser recalled all remaining stock of its major analgesic product, Nurofen Plus, after packs were found to contain an antipsychotic drug. It turned out that this was the work of a codeine addict who had been stealing the pills and replacing them with his anti psychotic medication.
In April 2011, Bart Becht announced he was to retire as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser and would be replaced from September 2011 by executive vice president of Category Development, Rakesh Kapoor, who had played a key role in recent acquisitions.
In November 2012, Reckitt Benckiser agreed to acquire Schiff Nutrition, a United States-based manufacturer of vitamins and nutritional supplements, for US$1.4 billion (£877 million).
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“We do not rest satisfied with the present.... So imprudent we are that we wander in the times which are not ours and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)