SPOTLIGHT
With a back-to-the-office movement in some shape or form inevitable in 2022, it’s vital that workplaces are clean and hygienic. Enter Lysol and Dettol Pro Solutions
Reckitt:
GOING PRO I
MS: Let me start by saying that our purpose as a company has remained the same and that is to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world. We believe hygiene is the foundation of good health. As such, our products and programmes are designed to protect our customers – whoever they are – from illness-causing germs. The new brand is predominantly a visual representation of how our purpose has evolved – we’re really moving towards being an organisation that puts doing the right thing at the heart of everything we do. Renaming the company to Reckitt wasn’t actually a massive change – particularly in Europe, many people already referred to us as this. It’s just a fresher, more dynamic way of positioning our brand. In terms of our professional division and the launch of Lysol Pro Solutions and Dettol Pro Solutions, we’ve used the rebrand to put the spotlight on some of our ranges in a very focused B2B context in a way we haven’t done before.
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t was a big year for global consumer giant Reckitt in 2021. Aside from an overall name rebrand, it also put a stake in the ground with the launch of its Pro Solutions business, aimed squarely at the B2B space. OPI spoke to two long-serving Reckitt executives – Max Shearwood, Global Business Solutions Commercial Director for the Americas, and Jonathan Weiss, Global Business Solutions Commercial Director for Europe, Australia & New Zealand – about this development and the opportunities it could bring to the business products industry.
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OPI: We’ve recently heard the Reckitt name mentioned as the hygiene provider at the November COP26 conference. For those readers perhaps more familiar with your brands – I just say Dettol, Lysol, Harpic and Air Wick here – rather than the company itself, could you give a very brief overview of the business? Max Shearwood: Sure. Reckitt is a £14 billion ($19 billion) company with a presence in nearly 200 countries. We’re over 200 years old now and our origins lie in the UK. In 1999, what was then Reckitt-Colman merged with Germany’s Benckiser to become Reckitt Benckiser. We went by that name for some time, then it was RB for a while and last year we rebranded to just Reckitt. We own a very strong portfolio of brands across our various geographies and our three business units of hygiene, health and nutrition. As you’ve referred to, Lysol and Dettol are probably among the best known ones. OPI: What was the rationale behind the rebranding to Reckitt and how did that impact you in the professional space?
OPI: Is this new focus a result of COVID-19? Jonathan Weiss: We’ve had the professional business for some time, so I’d say it’s been the catalyst that lifted the security blanket on germ concern and brought it to the masses. And this obviously very much includes businesses.
Max Shearwood
OPI: As you say, COVID has raised awareness for the hygiene category more than anything else ever has in the past. But will it carry across into the workplace of the future? MS: I think there’s real recognition that cleaning and disinfection have always been important, and it’s going to continue to be vital. However, it will be more about efficient and correct cleaning
