PZ Cussons offloads brands to focus on core products
Consumer goods giant PZ Cussons will offload two brands as part of a strategic shift to focus on its core product range.
PZ Cussons, the owner of brands such as Carex and Imperial Leather, has sold its Greek olive oil subsidiary Minerva to Mirties Enterprises Company, a firm controlled by Luxembourg investment company Diorama Investments, for £41m.
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The sale is expected to reduce the group’s profit before tax by £1.8m in its full-year results.
Diorama has appointed Deca Investments as its external fund manager.
The company has also offloaded its Polish personal care brand Luksja to Athens-based company Sarantis.
Sarantis will also distribute core brands such as Carex, Original Source and Morning Fresh in central and eastern Europe.
The sales are part of the company’s new “focus, scale and accelerate” strategy to focus investment on its core personal care and beauty brands.
PZ Cussons chief executive Alex Kanellis said: “We are streamlining the group to focus investment on core personal care and beauty brands to deliver higher margin earnings in geographies that can scale, with the aim of returning the group to sustainable, profitable growth.”
He added: “The sale of Minerva provides additional proceeds to continue to drive our strategy forward.
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“Deca is an excellent partner for Minerva’s future growth prospects and I would like to thank the Minerva team for their hard work and dedication during their time with us and wish them every success in the future.
“Luksja is a great fit with Sarantis’s portfolio and I would like to thank the Luksja team for their important contribution to the development of PZ Cussons Poland in recent years.”