Reckitt Benckiser to sell £1.9bn portfolio of homecare brands

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The London-listed firm said it will sell its portfolio of homecare brands that are “no longer core” to the business, and which brought in £1.9 billion in combined revenue last year, by the end of next year. The move comes after an October 2023 update, one of the first moves under chief executive Kris Licht, in which Reckitt said it would “sharpen and improve” its huge suite of products. Mr Licht said: “Today I am pleased to announce a set of actions to significantly sharpen our portfolio and simplify our organisation for accelerated growth and value creation.” It comes as operating profit fell 4.3% year on year to £1.68 billion for the first half of 2024, while revenue fell 3.7% to £7.17 billion. Reckitt said the site is important for the business and contains “a mix of raw materials and finished products”, and that the damage caused it to cut its net revenue growth outlook for the year to 1%-3%, down from 2%-4%.