Church & Dwight buys a Procter & Gamble asset
With Procter & Gamble buying Gillette, the company has been forced to make a small sacrifice to placate the European antitrust gods. As a condition of letting the deal go through, P & G must sell off its SpinBrush electric toothbrush line, since that's a direct (though small) rival of Gillette's more popular Oral-B brand. The company must also sell off Gillette's Rembrandt tooth whitening toothpaste, again a minor product.
The buyer for the SpinBrush is Church & Dwight, an American company that is one of the few minor competitors to P & G (Crest) and Colgate-Palmolive in the toothpaste field. The company's success is grounded in its Arm & Hammer baking soda brand and a whole variety of personal and household care products it has acquired over the years.
It has found a small niche in the oral care market, selling its Arm & Hammer brand toothpaste, which contains baking soda. It also has acquired a number of other oral care brands: Aim, Pepsodent, Pearl Drops, Close-Up, and Mentaden, along with Rigident powder for false teeth. IN this way, the electric toothbrush will fit in with Church & Dwights' other offerings in the oral care section of pharmacies and supermarkets.
The company also sells deodorants under the Arm & Hammer, Arrid, and Ladies' Choice brands. It sells Trojans condoms, Ilair depilatories, and First Response and Answer home pregnancy tests.
The Arm & Hammer brand is used for a number of household cleaners. The company also has such brands as Brillo steel wool pads, Scrub Free mildew remover, Cameo cleansers, Parsons ammonia, and Snobol toilet bowl cleaner. It sells Lambert Kay pet products. The company also makes specialty chemicals for industrial and agricultural use.
Church & Dwight is tiny by comparison with the titans it competes with: Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Colgate-Palmolive. In many product areas, it sells the #3 or #4 brand. Still, as #3 it manages to get some shelf space for its products. The company has done an excellent job in extending brands and keeping other, minor brands alive in a tough market. But, as the SpinBrush purchase shows, it lives off the leavings of far more powerful rivals.
9:55:19 PM 
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