Persil, long a British favourite, marches into the US as Walmart promotes the brand
Persil, long one of the UK's best-known detergents, is marching into the US thanks to the world’s largest retailer.
Persil: Heading for the US
Walmart has struck a deal to be the exclusive carrier of the brand in the US, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Persil will appear on store shelves right next to the reigning champion of high-end laundry detergent Tide. The brand will be marketed in the US by the Henkel Corporation.
It will be challenging P&G brand Tide, which accounts for 60 per cent of all sales in the US laundry-detergent market and 85 per cent of the profits.
Its dominant position has helped insulate P&G from pressure to cut prices or take other steps that might give WalMart a bigger edge over rivals when it comes to laundry essentials.
Last year, P&G was able to effectively raise prices on some Tide varieties by reducing the amount of detergent and number of loads per container.
“Wal-Mart never wants to have a weak balance of power against a supplier,” said Susan Lee, a former P&G employee who is now a partner at consulting firm Simon-Kucher & Partners, where she works with consumer-products makers and retailers.
“If Persil sales do well, Wal-Mart can shift the balance of power,” she told the Journal.