China a very 'important, exciting'market: RB CEO

Updated: 2012-12-03 10:04

(Xinhua)

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LONDON - China means a very important and very exciting market, Rakesh Kapoor, chief executive officer of the world leading household cleaning products maker Reckitt Benckiser told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"For me China is not about words, China is about the actions, to do something for China and learn from China, there are the two important impetus of our strategy to China, do something for China and Chinese people, and get learning from China that we can use for else of the world," he said.

Although BR has made a slow start in China, it still has made successful operation in the market. In 2011, its sales in emerging markets grew 13 percent last year, while revenue in Europe fell by 1 percent.

Kapoor, who took over the CEO post September last year, had disclosed his plan to generate half its sales in countries such as Brazil and China by 2016.

"We should be investing more in these markets as this is where there is the opportunity for growth. We are shaping our business for tomorrow," he said.

Besides the growing sales of RB products in China such as Dettol, Dosia, Durex, Air Wick, and Vanish, the company plans to put the focus on RB's dishwasher detergent Finish.

To promote the sales, it is expected to cooperate with China's leading dishwashing machine maker Haier in east China's city Qingdao.

Kapoor wanted first to be a cultivator of dishwasher market in China as current dishwasher penetration in this large country is very low.

There is a popular story in China's marketing textbook about two salesmen who go to Africa to sell shoes only to find people there do not wear shoes. One leaves the country immediately in disappointment, persisting in that there is no market for shoes, while the other sees the big market opportunities with great excitements.

Confident about its dishwasher product Finish, Kapoor is surely the latter kind of salesman. He said about 20 years ago, people are washing their cloth by hand, but suddenly you have seen the explosion of washing machines.

"If you partner with the right people in China, we can provide the Chinese people with very important product for use to improve hygiene, to conserve energy and conserve water."

RB, headquartered in Slough of Britain, has operations in around 70 countries, and its products, including Dettol, the world's largest-selling antiseptic, and Strepsils, the world's largest-selling sore throat medicine, are sold in over 180 countries.