Henkel to divest Retailer Brands business in North America

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mrboilwash

mrboilwash

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According to this press release Henkel sells its North American store brand business, so it might be a good time to stock up on your favorite Kirkland, Aldi or whatever else that *could* be Henkel quality in cheap disguise before new owners get a chance to fiddle with formulas.

www.henkel-northamerica.com

Henkel to divest Retailer Brands business in North America

Henkel concludes announced Portfolio Optimization Measures
www.henkel-northamerica.com www.henkel-northamerica.com
 
I couldn`t tell what is actually made by Henkel but the "Kirkland Ultra Clean Free & Clear" liquid`s ingredients share some eye catching similarities with "All Fresh and Clean Oxi Plus Odor Lifter" and to some extent also with Persil.
Of course it doesn`t proof anything but it makes me suspicious.

Press release mentions detergents, fabric finishers (FS?) and dishwashing.

Usually the big Multinationals like Henkel, P&G, Unilever do very well on their own overpriced brands so there`s no need for them to produce white labels or store brands, but in a new market or in a market without a presence of a specific product group things can be entirely different.
For example a supermarket chain in the UK once had Megaperls in their store brand offerings which was crystal clear who made them but the average consumer there wouldn`t even have noticed since Henkel has no presence of detergents in this market.

It might also be worth to mention that retailers like supermarket chains can have dozens of contract manufacturers for their own brands, so if you found out the manufacturer of a detergent it doesn`t necessarily mean their fabric softeners or even their other detergent variants come from the same source.
The formula (or recipe for food) could be property of the contract manufacturer or the retailer pays for the development according to their needs and price and quality standards and is free to change manufacturers.

It is also not so unusual that a Multinational commissions a small contract manufacturer.
For instance I couldn`t imagine a niche product like a Tide Stain Pen making sense for P&G to invest in a production line if there are dozens of pen manufacturers with plenty of know how who are willing to produce a little extra.
 
I recently was in Aldi and noticed that their 3 different house brand laundry detergents were from at least 2 different manufacturers---the Tandil "all singing all dancing Tide analogue" was as I recall from Canada while the Gain-dupe and the All free and clear-dupe were sourced from the US.

 

  It is a little weird as Lavo (one of the only Canadian independent detergent manufacturer) doesn't seem to do much with enzymes (and also seems only to have a single plant in Quebec)

Home - Lavo

LAVO, established in Quebec for nearly a century and proud of it!
www.lavo.ca www.lavo.ca
 
Over years Henkel acquired Dial, Purex, Sun, Sunlight among others. As part of those and other North American acquisitions there may have been plants that also produced private label goods for various retailers.

Of above named brands it is Sun Products that stands out.

Sun Products was formed by a merger between Huish and Unilever. Former was perhaps largest private label laundry product manufacturer in USA. Henkel subsequently acquired Sun Products so there you are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Products

https://moneywise.com/life/lifestyl... popular laundry,Reviewers certainly think so.

Shipping wrappers on Kirkland products as they arrive in stores, MSDS and other documentation often list "Sun Products" as makers of most Kirkland laundry detergents. This is where such designation appears. Many SDS for Costco products (including laundry) merely list distributor (Costco) only, not a whiff about manufacturer.

https://customerservice.costco.com/...oducts---california-cleaning-product-right-to

https://salonvermont.com/wp-content...m-Laundry-Detergent-Pacs-Refreshing-Scent.pdf
 
Furthermore..

With arrival of their top shelf brand in North America (Persil) Henkel obviously means to remain and focus on doing what few others have managed to achieve, taking on or even down P&G's dominance in laundry product sector. Shedding bits it doesn't need and or contribute much to Henkel North America bottom line is in aid of this and other maneuvers of late.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out in future.

Currently many offerings of Kirkland laundry detergent are highly ranked by consumer groups. Beating out Tide and Persil in various categories such as value for money and overall results.

If Henkel also ceases producing laundry detergent for Costco leaving whoever purchased this private label business to find new supplier or make their own, highly doubt things will remain the same.
 
<span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier;">I wonder, though, just how tough it would be to from scratch formulate top-end products for Costco/Aldi/WM/HEB.  Actually I'd bet that the enzyme package is probably the least of their problems (as there are specialty enzyme makers like Novozyme---for some reason a lot of expertise in Denmark for enzymes). </span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier;">Doesn't appear that any of the other big chains are that worried about technology in the laundry aisle (they're happy with pumping out sales on Tide and Persil and "phone-in" a private label offering).</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier;">The bigger problems, I'd guess, would be things like shelf-stability, fragrance, surfactant technology and national distribution (it's expensive to ship water/alcohol/carriers across the country).</span>
 
"I wonder, though, just how tough it would be to from scratch formulate top-end products for Costco/Aldi/WM/HEB."

More goes into producing top shelf laundry detergents than people imagine.

Leaving aside physical production plants the thing has to be formulated and that's where rubber meets road.

P&G, Unilever, Henkel, Ecolab and anyone else with pretentions in that area spend vast sums on R&D. You see this with all and sundry patents held by P&G or others protecting whatever new development they've come upon.

That being said when you get down to it unless one is dealing with grossly fouled laundry with various stains often a simple basic formula detergent will suffice. Proof of this is can be seen in how Kirkland, Arm & Hammer and others sell tons of those huge containers of powder detergent that often are very basic mixtures of washing soda, surfactant(s) and other bits.

Above being said there is a vast range of private label laundry products ranging from great to mediocre.

Aldi's laundry detergents are often very highly rated in Germany and other parts of Europe. When you get down to it Miele's offerings in that area also are private label and equally highly rated in many categories.

Dalli, McBride and some other European concerns offer a range of laundry products for private label of various formulations to suit whatever market a customer wishes to tackle.
 

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