Shares in Anglo-Dutch consumer products company Reckitt Benckiser put on a shine on Wednesday as it reported a polished 38 percent jump in annual net income beating its own sales and income growth targets, according to Reuters. Reckitt, the world’s largest household cleaning products group with Mr Sheen polish, Finish dishwasher products and Lysol disinfectants, reported 2000 net income of 275 million pounds ($396.8 million) on sales up seven percent at 3.16 billion.

The company, formed by Britain’s Reckitt & Colman takeover of Dutch Benckiser in December 1999, showed profits ahead of expectations as merger benefits ran ahead of schedule pushing its shares into being the FTSE 100’s top gainer.

“The year 2000 was very successful, but this was only the start of building the business to move forward,” said Chief Executive Bart Becht in a news conference, as he set new ambitious sales and income targets for 2001. The group comfortably beat its own 2000 internal targets of six percent revenue growth and 30 percent net income growth, and set fresh targets for 2001 to grow underlying sales by four percent and net income by 18 percent.

Mr. Becht aimed to hit these targets by growing sales, increasing margins and improving cash flows. He planned to drive revenues by a focus on its leading categories such as automatic dishwashing, innovations such as Calgonit and Finish 3-in-1 dishwasher tablets, rolling out brands globally and in-fill acquisitions in South America and Southeast Asia.

But he highlighted the gap in operating margins between Reckitt’s 14.1 percent and an average of nearly 18 percent from three of its U.S. peer group of Procter & Gamble, Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive. He planned to fill that gap by higher margin products, further merger cost savings and gaining 50 million pounds of savings over three years from its supply chain with its Squeeze 2-50 programme, which started in mid-2000.

“We are looking at a new growth strategy to acheive sales growth above the industry average, which has been around three percent over the last two years,” Mr. Becht said.

The group, which brought together Reckitt brands Lysol and Dettol, Harpic lavatory cleaner, Lemsip and Disprin ‘flu treatments with Benckiser’s Calgonit and Finish dishwashing products, said the merger had produced cost savings and the reduction of working capital both well ahead of schedule.