Regulatory News Service

Reckitt & Colman plc has announced an agreement to acquire four US household brands - Spray 'n Wash, Glass Plus, Vivid and Yes - from S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Subject to US government approval, the deal is expected to be completed in late January. S.C. Johnson & Son is in the process of acquiring these brands as part of its purchase of Dow Chemical Company's consumer products business. The agreed price is US$160m (#96m), which will be paid in cash, and includes net assets of US$7m (#4m). Estimated sales of these brands in 1997 are US$131m (#78m), which are expected to produce a profit of US$16.2m (#10m). The acquisition involves brands only; manufacture will be transferred in due course to Reckitt & Colman's existing production facilities, more fully utilising capacity.

These additions to Reckitt & Colman's range of leading household brands are in line with the Company's stated strategy to use acquisitions to fill in gaps in core categories or geographic areas, and to focus on number one and number two household brands. Spray 'n Wash and Glass Plus are number two brands in the US in their respective categories.

Reckitt & Colman has strong positions worldwide in both fabric care — it owns Woolite Fine Fabric Wash and Resolve Carpet Cleaners — and glass and surface cleaners. Spray 'n Wash, along with the other brands acquired — Vivid, a colour-safe bleach which holds the number three market position, and Yes laundry detergent — will give Reckitt & Colman a strong position in the North American fabric care market.

Glass Plus fills the Company's need for a leading glass cleaner in North America. It falls within Reckitt & Colman's largest global category, surface care, which is led by the Lysol range of disinfecting cleaners in North America, and reinforced by a wide range of leading brands of surface and glass cleaners, including Dettox and Windolene in the UK, in virtually every region around the world.

The Company's position in the North American household products market is strengthened by this acquisition; 75% of Reckitt & Colman's brands in the US now hold leading number one or two market positions. Following this latest acquisition, North America will represent 36% of Reckitt & Colman's sales worldwide, with 31% in Europe, and the remaining 33% in the rest of the world.

Reckitt & Colman is a global consumer products company with sales of household and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products in more than 120 countries worldwide.

© 1997