Reckitt reported like-for-like group revenue growth of 0.6% in the first quarter. For "Core Reckitt", the business management now wants investors to focus on, like-for-like growth was 1.3%. Excluding seasonal over-the-counter remedies, that rose to 3.1%. That last figure helps explain the company's tone: management is arguing that the quarter was distorted by an unusually weak cold-and-flu season rather than by a broad collapse in demand.
The regional split was telling. Emerging markets grew 7.6% on a like-for-like basis, including double-digit growth in both China and India. Europe shrank 4.2%, dragged down by a weak category backdrop and intense promotions, especially in household care. North America slipped 0.9%: here volume was up 1.5%, but seasonal remedies were weak enough to offset better performances elsewhere. By category, Germ Protection was the brightest patch, growing 9.5%, while Household Care fell 7.6%.
That leaves two ways to read the quarter. A sympathetic investor would say Reckitt's core brands remain healthy, with Lysol and Dettol still doing the heavy lifting and non-seasonal demand looking decent. A harsher one would note that the company is still leaning on adjustments, exclusions and hoped-for second-half improvement.
A company still tidying up its past
Reckitt has spent years reshaping itself. The current group was formed by the 1999 merger of Reckitt & Colman and Benckiser. In 2017 it made a large bet on infant nutrition by buying Mead Johnson. More recently it has moved in the opposite direction, selling non-core assets and trying to simplify the business. Reckitt's own 2017 annual report describes Mead Johnson as a major step in building its health business, while the company's latest reporting framework now clearly separates Mead Johnson from the core operation.
This quarter's statutory decline looks worse than the underlying trend. Group IFRS revenue fell 11.8%, but that largely reflects the disposal of Essential Home, which had contributed £482m of revenue in the first quarter of 2025 and was no longer part of the group in the first quarter of 2026. Reckitt is now a smaller company by reported sales, even if the remaining business is growing slightly on a like-for-like basis.
There is also the question of Mead Johnson. The nutrition business, which made up 16% of group first-quarter revenue, saw like-for-like sales fall 2.7%, though management said part of that was due to a tough comparison in North America after inventory rebuilding a year earlier. Reckitt still labels it non-core.
Valuation says defensive
Management kept its full-year guidance unchanged. It still expects Core Reckitt like-for-like revenue growth of 4% to 5% in 2026, helped by a reset in the cold-and-flu season, new products and stronger execution in Europe. That may happen, but the company is clearly asking investors to place a fair amount of trust in the second half.
On market measures, the picture is steadier than the quarter itself. The company boasts an EV/EBITDA multiple around 11x and a P/E of about 15.5. That is not cheap enough to suggest distress, nor rich enough to imply investors expect rapid growth. It looks more like the valuation of a sturdy, cash-generative business with some lingering execution risk.
Investors appear to believe the group still owns desirable brands and can improve, yet they are waiting for harder evidence that growth is becoming broader, cleaner and less dependent on excuses about seasons, sanctions and geography. That feels like the right conclusion from this quarter.
