Ewing, NJ
www.churchdwight.com
Sales: $2.9 billion

Sales: $2.9 billion for household and personal care products. Corporate sales: $4.1 billion.

Key Personnel: Mathew T. Farrell, chairman, president and chief executive officer; Britta Bomhard, executive vice president and chief marketing officer; Steven P. Cugine, executive vice president and international and GNPI; Patrick de Maynadier, executive vice president and general counsel and secretary; Rick Dierker, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Carlos Linares, executive vice president and global R&D; Rick Span, executive vice president, global operations; Paul Wood, executive vice president, US sales; Judy Zagorski, executive vice president, global human resources.

Major Products: Arm & Hammer and Xtra laundry detergent; OxiClean, Scrub Free, Kaboom and Orange Glo household cleaners; Waterpik oral care; Nair depilatories; Oragel oral analgesics; Closeup and Aim toothpaste; Batiste dry shampoo.

New Products: Arm & Hammer Plus Oxiclean Fade Defense laundry detergent, Waterpik Sonic-Fusion flossing toothbrush, Vitafusion and L’il Critters organic gummy vitamins, Batiste Hair Benefits dry shampoos, Nair Leg Masks hair removal, Orajel toothache strips.

Comments: Church & Dwight knows the value of bolt-on businesses. While baking soda remains at the core of C&D’s efforts, the company has done an excellent job of identifying profitable niches and exploiting them with timely acquisitions. On May 1, the company closed its acquisition of the Flawless and Finishing Touch hair removal business from Ideavillage Products Corporation. Flawless is the market leader in women’s electric hair removal products and will become Church & Dwight’s 12th power brand, along with brands such as Oxiclean, First Response, Trojan and Waterpik. Aside from the A&H brand, all of these power brands have been added since 2001.

Also in May, the company announced that Mathew T. Farrell, who was already the CEO and president, had been appointed chairman of the board.

Last year, corporate sales rose 9.8%, assisted by organic sales gains of 4.3% in consumer domestic and a 7.8% gain in consumer international. Company executives explain that their long-term mission is to maintain their track record of delivering outstanding total shareholder return, based on their “evergreen business model;” i.e., 3% annual organic revenue growth and 8% annual earnings per share growth.

Last year, organic international sales jumped 7.8%—well ahead of C&D’s evergreen model, which calls for a 6% gain in revenue a year. It was the fourth consecutive year that international sales exceeded their target. Church & Dwight distributes products in nearly 140 countries and has fully operational subsidiaries in seven of them—UK, France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Brazil. Now attention has turned to Asia where last year, Church & Dwight trained approximately 200 representatives of DKSH, its primary distributor in southeast Asia. Moreoever, nearly a year ago, it began a long-term partnership with Shanghai Jahwa, a billion-dollar FMCG company in China. Under terms of the deal, Shanghai Jahwa will distribute select Church & Dwight products throughout China.

The company is making gains online, too. In 2018, about 7% of global sales were online, up from just 1% in 2015. That increase puts Church & Dwight among the online leaders in its peer group.

Church & Dwight attributed the increase in sales last year to higher sales of A&H liquid and unit dose detergents, Batiste dry shampoo and OxiClean stain fighters, partially offset by lower sales of Kaboom cleaning products. Among notable launches within the personal care portfolio was Waterpik Sonic-Fusion, billed as world’s first flossing toothbrush combining the convenience of a sonic toothbrush with a water flosser in a single device. During development, Sonic Fusion’s codename was M.O.A.T.—for mother of all toothbrushes. This launch did have some hiccups; initially rolled out in 2018, there was a recall ofthe device after it was discovered some units posed a fire hazard.

Church & Dwight was ranked in the 2018 Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies and on EPA’s Green Power Partnership Top 100 List of Green Power Users.

For the first quarter of 2019, Church & Dwight announced sales were $1.04 billion compared to $1.00 billion a year ago. This is an increase of 3.8%. Net income was $175.7 million compared to $157.8 million a year ago.

CEO Mathew Farrell announced, “We now expect full year 2019 reported sales growth of approximately 5-6% due to the Flawless acquisition and continue to expect organic sales growth to be approximately 3.5% reflecting growth with exciting new product introductions in our most important categories.”