Most people come into contact with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) through its health and beauty brands. But the multinational has a far larger pharmaceutical and medical devices business, which was recently showcased by the company’s development of a one-shot Covid-19 vaccine.
J&J’s consumer health and beauty division posted revenues of US$15 billion last year. It’s four-billion dollar mega-brands such as Neutrogena and Aveeno alone raked in US$4.45 billion in 2020, making J&J the 10th largest beauty company in the world.
The personal care giant has decided to spin off its consumer health and beauty business as a standalone entity. Following legal and corporate requirements, the separation is expected to be finalised by the end of 2022.
The division has been recovering strongly from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic with sales up 13.3 per cent in Q2 and 5.3 per cent in Q3 by contrast to the same periods the previous fiscal year.
J&J has an unrivalled track record in skin health, self care and baby care and the move follows in the footsteps of Unilever, who split out a new standalone beauty company, Elida Beauty, in April centred on the Caress, Tigi, Timotei and MonSavon brands.
We believe the new consumer health company will be a global leader across attractive and growing consumer health categories, and a streamlined and targeted corporate structure would provide it with the agility and flexibility to grow its iconic portfolio of brands and innovate new products, noted Alex Gorsky, CEO of J&J, who also takes on the role of executive chairman in January.