Reckitt Benckiser sales growth accelerates as Emerging Markets star

Reckitt Benckiser PLC on Wednesday announced a new share buyback as it reported like-for-like sales growth picked up in the second quarter driven by Emerging Markets.

In response, shares in the Slough, England-based consumer goods firm jumped 5.8% to 5,422.00

pence each in London on Wednesday morning. The wider FTSE 100 was up 0.3%.

Reckitt, which owns brands such as disinfectant Dettol and throat lozenges Strepsils, said pretax profit fell by a quarter to £981 million in the first half of 2026 from £1.31 billion the year prior, with net revenue declining 8.2% to £6.41 billion from £6.98 billion.

Looking at just its "core" offering plus Mead Johnson, net revenue rose 1.7% to £6.18 billion from £6.07 billion. The prior year's total net revenue figure includes £911 million from the Essential Home offering, sold at the end of 2025. Half-year like-for-like group net revenue improved 2.6%.

For the second quarter, LFL sales growth was 4.7%, beating 3.6% Visible Alpha consensus cited by RBC Capital Markets. Consensus had drifted lower heading into the numbers. Price/mix grew by 3.2% and volumes by 1.5% - both ahead of forecast. Core Reckitt LFL sales grew 4.2% in the quarter beating 3.6% consensus.

This was an acceleration from the first quarter when group LFL sales rose 0.6% and 'core Reckitt' sales grew 1.3%.

Reckitt said all areas delivered stronger LFL net revenue performance in the quarter.

Emerging Markets LFL sales rose 9.4%, beating 7.8% consensus cited by Citigroup. Europe sales were 1.5% lower in the quarter, but improved from a 4.2% decline in the first three months of 2026, while North America returned to growth with a 2.8% increase after a 0.9% decline in the prior quarter.

Mead Johnson Nutrition first half LFL net revenue growth of 2.0%, included a 7.2% rise in the second quarter, as "trading dynamics continued to stabilise and benefiting from a soft prior-year comparative period."

"We accelerated like-for-like net revenue growth in the second quarter to drive a good first half performance," said Chief Executive Officer Kris Licht said.

There had been some fears among investors that Reckitt would downgrade full-year guidance but the FTSE 100 listing left its outlook for 2026 unchanged.

Reckitt still expects core like-for-like net revenue growth between 4% and 5% for the whole of 2026.

The firm continues to expect core Reckitt plus Mead Johnson adjusted operating profit margin for 2026 to be in the range of 24.9% to 25.6%, which RBC said was below company compiled consensus of 26.1%.

Reckitt upped its interim dividend by 5.0% to 88.6 pence per share from 84.4p and said a new share buyback programme is to "commence imminently", with up to £500 million of shares to be repurchased over the next twelve months.

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