Summary
Paul Polman, recently took over the helm at sleeping giant Unilever, and his dynamic, turn-on-a-dime, entrepreneurial spirit has already engaged Unilever's EU staff in getting busy.
Polman, a Nestle and P&G alumn, has focussed his sights firmly, on getting ahead of P&G, especially in its own home territory - Europe.
"Unilever may pass Nestle for the first time since 2001, and may sell more items annually than P&G, for the first time in at least five years"..tells the whole story.
Analysis
The deep global economic recession, has spurred the growth of value brands all over the world and especially in Europe. Consumers have flocked and thronged to cheaper and in many cases Private-label and Own-label brands.
Unilever, in its own EU backyard, has now thrown down the gauntlet to P&G, which is also suffering from the same phenomenon resulting in weak sales growth. P&G for the first time in years, has even launched cheaper versions of its iconic premium brand TIDE as TIDE Basic, to counter low-priced and PL/OL detergents.
P&G is another sleeping giant that been in a deep, deep, slumber in many of its categories all over the world. P&G has been distracted, with the recent acquistions of mainly smaller, male-oriented lines, like Nioxin, Art of Shaving, Zirh and haircolor salon guru Fekkai. P&G have seriously failed in their efforts to assimilate the Wella, Clairol, Sebastian and Graham-Webb salon businesses, where sales continue to falter, with constantly changing distribution realignments, due to a failure to understand the blood and guts of the salon industry.
Polman's ex-colleagues at Reckitt-Benckiser, have also shown the "can-do" attitude that now invades Unilever and have constantly pulled growth, from a slow marketplace with their global brands like Lysol, French's, Woolite, Electrasol and Harpic.
Look for these 3 giants of the Personal Care and Household Products categories to
get into pitched battles on value brands, pricing, promotions and coupons as the global markets come back.
Colgate-Palmolive the other major global player in this field, concentrates on the Oral Care category and is whacking P&G worldwide with it's own dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit.
P&G with it's new leadership, staid ivy-league executives and slow to react bureaucracy, is now lethargic and has the most to fear, from both Unilever and
Reckitt-Benckiser in all the categories they compete in.
Reckitt-Benckiser in all the categories they compete in.
Polman has issued the first Shake-Up, Wake-Up call...Now lets see who can and will respond!
Cyrus Bulsara
GLG Leader - Consumer Goods
Cyrus Bulsara consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
