Ungated Post | 03 Aug 2020
The Economic Impact of Reckitt Benckiser in the US

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) may not be a household name in the US, but its products certainly are. As a global health, hygiene and nutrition company, RB manufactures some of the most recognizable brands in the US, including Mucinex, Lysol, Woolite, Finish, Air Wick, and Enfamil. In 2019, American households bought roughly 2 million individual RB products per day, or more than 700 million products a year.
In 2019, we calculate that RB contributed a total of $3.8 billion to the US economy—of which 41% ($1.6 billion) was generated directly by the company’s 21 operational sites across the US.
RB’s operational, procurement, and wage expenditure stimulated economic activity in all 50 states. We find that the biggest GDP impacts occurred in Georgia, Illinois, and New Jersey—between them, these three states accounted for more than 41% of RB’s total economic impact in 2019.
RB also supported more than 25,000 jobs throughout the US economy in 2019—of which 3,933 (16%) were direct employees of the company. RB’s procurement from US suppliers stimulated a further 10,740 jobs, while its payment of wages supported 10,527 jobs in the consumer economy and its supply chains.
Our findings therefore indicate that RB has a “jobs multiplier” of 6.4. This means that for every one person employed by the company, its expenditure supports another 5.4 jobs elsewhere in the US economy.
RB also boosts the long-term productive potential of the US economy by investing in R&D. In 2019, RB invested over $100 million in US-based R&D, and employed 322 R&D staff.
Our economic consulting team are world leaders in quantitative economic analysis, working with clients around the globe and across sectors to build models, forecast markets and evaluate interventions using state-of-the art techniques. Lead consultants on this project were:
Oxford Economics’ team is expert at applying advanced economic tools that provide valuable insights into today’s most pressing business, financial, and policy issues.
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Sam Moore
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