Sales of Durex condoms have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Reckitt Benckiser CEO Laxman Narasimhan told CNBC on Thursday.
“The number of intimate occasions has decreased in some countries because, if you think about it, the level of socialization is low, so it has had an impact on Durex,” Narasimhan said in “Squawk on the Street.”
Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Durex and other consumer products like Lysol and Mucinex cold medicines, has seen a general increase in online sales of its products as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
In the first quarter, e-commerce revenue grew more than 50% in its portfolio, Narasimhan said.
“If you think about Durex and how it plays in the e-commerce space, you are absolutely ready for it,” he said. “We have operations in 53 countries. Durex had a great quarter online, and we continue to see great progress in that direction as people seek privacy in this area as well.”
Two of Reckitt Benckiser’s Lysol products were recently approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency as effective in killing coronavirus on surfaces. It was the first time the agency confirmed that a surface disinfectant kills the virus after testing and reviewing data.
Lysol sales have increased since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, growing more than 50% year-over-year in the first quarter, Narasimhan said. Other products, such as those from disinfectant brand Dettol, have also seen an increase in sales, he said.
“There is clearly a great sensitivity to hygiene,” said Narasimhan, who has helped expand the market for Lysol and other products and increase the frequency with which people buy them. “We don’t expect it to stay for a long period of time, but we do expect it to be at higher levels.”
He said Reckitt Benckiser has responded by increasing production capacity, referring to manufacturing changes at a factory outside Wuhan, China. “If you look at the amount of disinfectant we are making, we are producing 20 times the amount of disinfectant in July as we did last year. It just gives you an idea of the demand that exists.”
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