The Top 50

Household & Personal Products Industry, July, 2001 by Tom Branna

Acquisitions Make It a Whole New Ball Game

PROCTER & GAMBLE has been ranked as the No. 1 company in The Top 50 since Happi began publishing the list back in 1978, and this version of our most popular issue is no exception. Despite its recent spate of troubles, including lower sales and earnings and staff cutbacks, P&G is once again ahead by a large margin in our Top 50 rankings with household and personal product sales that topped $23 billion in fiscal 2000. Coming in at No. 2 is Colgate-Palmolive, which reported sales of $8.23 billion for household and personal care products. Rounding out the top 10 are S.C. Johnson, Estee Lauder, Avon, Clorox, Intimate Brands, Ecolab, Alberto-Culver and Sara Lee. All in all, there wasn't much of a change from a year ago. In fact, just two companies dropped out of the top 10. Bristol-Myers Squibb slid from No. 6 to No. 11, and Alticor (which changed its corporate name from Amway) fell to No. 12. The company was ranked No. 8 in last year's Top 50.

But even the most seasoned household and personal products veteran might need a scorecard to keep up with all of the changes that have been taking place in the past few months among the companies that make up The Top 50. P&G made the biggest move when it purchased the Clairol division from Bristol-Myers Squibb in May. Several companies that have been long-time members of The Top 50 have been acquired in the past few months as well. Block Drug (No. 22) was purchased by GlaxoSmithKline. USA Detergents (No. 35) and portions of Carter-Wallace (No. 38) were bought by Church & Dwight (No. 23). WD-40 (No. 44) acquired HDP Holdings, better known as Global Household Brands, which makes such products as X-14, 2000 Flushes and Carpet Fresh.

Even when they're not making acquisitions, Top 50 companies are still making news. Dial, ranked No. 16 on our list, killed its underperforming Nature's Accents personal care line and eliminated 24% of its underperforming SKUs. Now the company is in the process of reviewing all its businesses. Meanwhile, Gillette (No. 21) is hard at work looking for ways to turn its business around after several underperforming quarters, and you can bet that in this difficult economic climate, there are plenty of brand managers at other Top 50 companies scratching their heads and trying to come up with ways to boost sagging sales.

This year's Top 50 no longer contains two well-known companies; Warner-Lambert and Carson Products were acquired by Pfizer and L'Oreal, respectively.

We hope you enjoy this edition of The Top 50. As always, we welcome your comments on our ranking, as well as anything else that appears in Happi. Be sure to read the August issue of Happi, which will include The International Top 30, our annual look at the largest manufacturers of household and personal products with headquarters outside the U.S.

Alphabetical Listing(*)

Alberto-Culver                 9
Alticor                       12
AM Cosmetics                  41
Avon Products                  5
Belae Brands                  49
Block Drug                    22
Blyth                         17
Bonne Bell                    46
Bristol-Myers Squibb          11
Carter-Wallace                38
Chattem                       34
Church & Dwight               23
Colgate-Palmolive              2
Conair                        43
Coty                          13
Clorox                         6
Del Laboratories              36
Dial                          16
Ecolab                         8
Elizabeth Arden               27
Estee Lauder                   4
Gap                           29
Gillette                      21
Herbalife                     37
Inter Parfums                 47
Intimate Brands                7
Jafra                         31
J.B. Williams                 50
John Paul Mitchell Systems    33
Johnson & Johnson             14
Johnson Wax Professional      19
Liz Claiborne                 40
Mary Kay                      17
National Service Industries   25
NCH                           28
New Dana Perfumes             45
Nexxus                        39
Nu Skin                       26
Pfizer                        20
Playtex Products              32
Procter & Gamble               1
Revlon                        15
Sara Lee                      10
Schering-Plough               24
S.C. Johnson                   3
State Industrial              48
Turtle Wax                    42
USA Detergents                35
WD-40                         44
Yankee Candle                 30

(*)--see other important companies at the end of The Top 50.
The Top 50

1. Procter & Gamble               Cincinnati, OH         $23.5 billion
2. Colgate-Palmolive              New York, NY           $8.23 billion
3. S.C. Johnson                   Racine, WI             $4.5 billion
4. Estee Lauder                   New York, NY           $4.36 billion
5. Avon Products                  New York, NY           $3.53 billion
6. Clorox                         Oakland, CA            $2.65 billion
7. Intimate Brands                Columbus, OH           $2.36 billion
8. Ecolab                         St. Paul, MN           $2.26 billion
9. Alberto-Culver                 Melrose Park, IL       $2.2 billion
10. Sara Lee                      Chicago, IL            $2.15 billion

11. Bristol-Myers Squibb          New York, NY           $2.1 billion
12. Alticor                       Ada, MI                $2.04 billion
13. Coty                          New York, NY           $1.8 billion
14. Johnson & Johnson             New Brunswick, NJ      $1.5 billion
15. Revlon                        New York, NY           $1.49 billion
16. Dial                          Scottsdale, AZ         $1.4 billion
17. (tie) Blyth Industries        Greenwich, CT          $1.2 billion
17. Mary Kay                      Addison, TX            $1.2 billion
19. Johnson Wax Professional      Sturtevant, WI         $1.1 billion
20. Pfizer                        New York, NY           $1 billion

21. Gillette                      Boston, MA             $978 million
22. Block Drug                    Jersey City, NJ        $690 million
23. Church & Dwight               Princeton, NJ          $634 million
24. Schering-Plough               Madison, NJ            $547 million
25. National Service Industries   Atlanta, GA            $511 million
26. Nu Skin                       Provo, UT              $449 million
27. Elizabeth Arden               Miami Lakes, FL        $382 million
28. NCH                           Irving, TX             $381 million
29. Gap                           San Francisco, CA      $350 million
30. Yankee Candle                 Whately, MA            $339 million

31. Jafra Cosmetics               Westlake Village, CA   $324 million
32. Playtex Products              Westport, CT           $320 million
33. John Paul Mitchell Systems    Beverly Hills, CA      $300 million
34. Chattem                       Chattanooga, TN        $253 million
35. USA Detergents                North Brunswick, NJ    $249 million
36. Del Laboratories              Uniondale, NY          $229 million
37. Herbalife International       Los Angeles, CA        $201 million
38. Carter-Wallace                New York, NY           $192 million
39. Nexxus Products               Goleta, CA             $180 million
40. Liz Claiborne                 New York, NY           $175 million

41. AM Cosmetics                  North Arlington, NJ    $165 million
42. Turtle Wax                    Chicago, IL            $160 million
43. Conair                        Stamford, CT           $157 million
44. WD-40                         San Diego, CA          $153 million
45. New Dana Perfumes             Boca Raton, FL         $150 million
45. Bonne Bell                    Cleveland, OH          $105 million
47. Inter Parfums                 New York, NY           $101 million
40. State Industrial              Cleveland, OH          $100 million
49. Belae Brands                  Phoenix, AZ            $75 million
50. J.B. Williams                 Glen Rock, NJ          $71 million