Procter & Gamble will have to review the sale of its
Magistral
detergent and
Ariel
laundry soap brands
after the Argentine Dreamco, with which it had closed the sale last September, reported that the operation fell through.
"The conditions are not met to proceed with the agreement, so we regret to confirm that the acquisition
of the Ariel and Magistral brands and the
Pilar Plant and the Distribution Center
will not proceed
," the company reported
.
Although the firm did not clarify it, the problem would be linked to the transfer of employees.
A group of the 400 workers involved reportedly resisted the change in conditions resulting from the operation.
Created recently, Dreamco has
experience in the industrial sector
: it owns 3 plants located in the Province of Buenos Aires and brands such as Plusbelle, Campos Verdes and Limol in personal care;
Zorro, Limzul and Federal in home care and Okebón, Molino Natural, Girotondo and Panal in food.
Procter & Gamble
is an American consumer giant with sales of US$85 billion, and at the end of the year it reviewed
its businesses in Argentina.
In addition to the assets that it had transferred to Dreamco, the company, which settled in the country in the early 90s, has the Villa Mercedes plant, San Luis, where it produces
diapers (Pampers), feminine wipes (Always). and a portion of Gillette products
.
It also has the Pantene and Head & Shoulders shampoo brands
and Oral-B
in dental care
.
"Argentina right now is
a $400 million business
. But we still
have to decide what exactly the plan is for Argentina
. We have divested on the
Fabric & Home Care
side of the business and "In the rest,
we will still have to see
," said Andre Schulten, the company's global financial director.
In that area
they also still have Downy fabric softener.
Schulten
gave Argentina
as an example of markets in which "it becomes
increasingly difficult to operate
and increasingly difficult to create value in
US
dollars ."
"When you think about places like Nigeria, when you think about places like Argentina, it is very difficult for us, as a company that is managed in US dollars, to create value. It
is also difficult to operate because of the macroeconomic environment,"
he said in the talk he had in that conference organized by Morgan Stanley and which is uploaded to the Internet.
"So," he added, "with that in mind, we are announcing
a very specific restructuring program
, with the intention of adjusting the operating model and adjusting the portfolio in some of the markets. The restructuring program will focus largely on Nigeria and Argentina".
NE