US corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G) is among the oldest, biggest and most popular companies in the world and is on place 2 of our hit list this week.
The "leadership brands" of P&G from the sectors household (Fairy, Ariel, Mr. Clean), body care (Wella, Gillette, Oral-B, Braun), women (Always, Tampax, Olay, Covergirl) and baby (Pampers) are some of the most popular brands of our time.
On their homepage, P&G is listing 23 brands with annual revenues of 1 billion dollars or more each. The total revenue of the company is 83 billion dollars in 180 countries, meaning they are basically everywhere.
The company made the headlines last year when star investor Warren Buffett announced his departure as a major shareholder. Instead, Buffet will take over the famous battery producers Duracell, paying 1.7 billion dollars in cash besides.
Some of the remaining shareholders of P&G are financial companies like Vanguard (5,4%), SSgA Funds (4,6%), Blackrock (3,9%) and Fidelity (2,1%). They like the historic returns of P&G. Over the last 58 years, the company has been increasing the distribution of dividends consistently.
The company is almost 200 years old (founded in 1837 in Cincinnati, Ohio). Without constantly reinventing themselves, they wouldn’t have been able to survive – especially not at the top of the most successful companies in the world.