Maybe....I say maybe...what they write it's not only meant for detergents, the Henkel produce several products for carpentry also, glues etc..... and a wide range of chemicals for every use...
My understanding is that Henkel's european detergents would be anyway sold within the USA and it is from awhile, not strictly privately imported...
the same way are american products sold in Europe, especially american Tide...
In the USA Henkel labelled detergents are not sold in the "regular" market if not ones under the name of their subsidiary company (Dial corporation part of Henkel North America)... you find so detergents of the Dial Company, the american subsidiary of the Henkel, that owns historical brands like fels naphta or 20 Mule Team...
IMO pretty sad that germans bought historical brands like this....but what can you do about it?
Anyway....I'm not pretty surprised that Henkel so the Dial Company didn't see a business in this, I mean, like others could start producing a second brand of Detergent than Purex, so Persil....but maybe it's because as I think they have agreements with Miele to keep giving the illusion of it of something "exclusive" you can't find just everywhere..something so particular and so special.. the same way they claim and advertise their machines...LOL
Then, the people buying Persil are not that much anyway.....and the launch of a new product maybe would not even give that much of market share....so they keep things as they're..
Henkel started now producing Persil in Mexico with a large advertisement, even if there already have several brands that goes pretty well such Viva and 123.......not sure if Mexican persil it's the same stuff of the European/German one...gotta try it..
But like P&G products in europe even of the same brands they change from country to country (example Ariel sold in Croatia or eatsern europe is different than German or Spanish one).... but who knows..it may be just the same european formula..
My thought is that it is not much strange that they wrote that, I mean, if we analyze the situation......
In the USA Persil is now sold in the Miele Dealers and is sold from awhile in shops specialized in importing european foods and products, and the reason of it is pretty simple...I mean, henkel is the largest european detergent maker, and you could find Persil or it's equivalent pretty much in every country of the EC....
Other "famous/common" europewide brands you can find elsewhere are yes found in certain countries only, but in the summary are all made by american companies, so P&G or Unilever etc...
So it is normal that european shops in USA prefer to carry an authentic european detergent from the Henkel (an european german company) rather than a P&G (or any other american) one, even if fully meant and formulated differently for european market, this to keep the idea and meaning of the shop so the european authenticity of the products they sell.... for example you can find it in the many shops such as Zabar's in NYC or others, and the same way all around the USA.
Then as I said, Henkel Persil or it's equivalents are sold pretty much europewide, in the USA having a way larger importation of european ( Henkel) detergents because of many reasons (including the way larger territory and quantity of eruopean stuff shops that sell detergents along the rest of products), than it is in europe for american ones, that's normal they "sniffed-out" and calls themselves out from any activity that involve them and their "european" products sold (even in a very minimal occasional part) in a market they didn't directly want to enter to...
This also may include the use of ingredients now banned in certain US states, such as phosphates, or any safety labelling matter etc....
[this post was last edited: 9/28/2013-19:00]