20/05/2026
Alistair Osborne of The Times and The Sunday Times: ““Purpose” statements can say a lot about a company. Take this highfalutin one from Reckitt Benckiser, the Dettol-to-Durex outfit: “We exist to protect, heal and nurture in the pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world.”
And how, you ask, does it demonstrate that? By helping fund Putin’s killing machine, with a nice flow of tax revenues from Reckitt’s Russia operations. Talk about essential stuff. Can’t have the Kremlin running out of condoms, Nurofen or Strepsils. Or Reckitt’s handy range of cleaning products: Lysol, say, or Vanish, the so-called “experts in stain removal”...
In February 2022, it said a “process” was under way “aimed at transferring ownership of our Russian business”... Four years on, Reckitt is still there…
Reckitt’s now moaning that “changes to EU sanctions” on Russia last year “have resulted in restrictions on the supply of products and brand use in the market”.
Its Russia team is now “in the process of developing products and registering new IP [intellectual property] to replace the majority of the hygiene portfolio”. The reason? So the business can get round the sanctions and keep selling… Does this sound like a company desperate to exit Russia?
Three chief executives have been dealing with the “process to transfer ownership” — Laxman Narasimhan, Nicandro Durante, and Kris Licht, who has been in charge since October 2023. Hasn’t he had long enough to get out if he wanted to? It took the former Unilever chief Hein Schumacher 15 months.
Maybe Licht is just waiting for the war to end… Neither has the chairman since May 2024 — the ex-Sky boss, Sir Jeremy Darroch — sped up any departure...”
👏 Many thanks to Mr. Osborne for calling a spade a spade.
Read the full piece at the link below ⤵️
