Shanghai: Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, which imports more than two-fifths of the products it sells in the United States, is aiming to boost production in America amid the threat of tariffs under incoming President Donald Trump.
The company’s share of imports could fall to 25% when an over-the-counter factory in North Carolina begins making Mucinex tablets and liquids in 2027, the consumer-product maker said in a statement.
Reckitt announced the purchase of the site in December alongside a £155mil or about US$200mil investment, expecting to create nearly 300 jobs.
“We’ve been discussing for a while the opportunity to continue to increase the percentage of local manufacturing within the United States,” Shannon Eisenhardt, chief financial officer of Reckitt, said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Taicang, near Shanghai on Tuesday.
She was visiting China for the inauguration of a research and development facility.
Trump floated minimum tariffs of 10% to 20% on all imported goods during his 2024 presidential campaign, and 60% or higher on shipments from China.
Reckitt’s remaining imports will include products like condoms from Thailand and Mucinex from Mexico.
Tariffs could put the company at a disadvantage compared with domestic producers such as Church and Dwight Co Inc, which makes Trojan condoms, and Kenvue Inc, which produces medications like painkillers.
Reckitt’s exposure will still be higher than some other consumer multinationals.
For example, Nestle SA produced 95% of its US sales in the country, its chief executive Laurent Freixe told reporters in November.
North America represents less than a third of Reckitt’s revenue and has suffered falling sales, driven by declines in its infant formula unit.
Its shares have slumped on concerns over lawsuits connecting its milk-based formulas to necrotising enterocolitis, a bowel disease, in pre-term babies.
Reckitt and Abbott Laboratories, which is also defending such lawsuits, dispute the alleged link between the products and the life-threatening bowel illness.
With problems in the United States, Reckitt is framing developing markets, including China, as a bright spot.
Sales there rose almost 4% on a comparable basis in the first three quarters of last year.
Meanwhile, Reckitt’s China sales are continuing to see double-digit percentage growth despite an economic slowdown.
The Taicang facility, currently producing Dettol products, is expected to also make Durex condoms in early 2026.
The company is investing 300 million yuan or about US$40.9mil to build the R&D centre in Shanghai and will continue to invest in facilities, people and marketing. — Bloomberg
