![\"Reckitt](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/596abb5057bd574c3ccd3290ab29eb5a.jpeg\")
Reckitt Benckiser tumbles and drags Haleon after weak start to year Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n Reckitt Benckiser tumbles and drags Haleon after weak start to year Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n
Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LSE:RKT)<\/a>\u00a0shares fell 6.6% on Wednesday, leading the declines on the FTSE 100, with investor read-across dragging sector peer\u00a0Haleon PLC (LSE:HLN, NYSE:HLN)<\/a>\u00a0lower too.<\/p>\n Reckitt\u00a0reported a slow start to 2026, with core revenue\u00a0growing 1.3% on a like-for-like basis in\u00a0the first quarter as a weak cold and flu season hit sales of products like Mucinex, Strepsils and Nurofen.<\/p>\n If excluding seasonal over-the-counter products, core LFL growth was 3.1%.<\/p>\n The worst sales were seen in\u00a0Europe, where LFLs were down 4.2%, with volumes dropping but price\/mix\u00a0slightly higher.\u00a0In North America, sales slipped 0.9%, with volumes up\u00a01.5% but price\/mix down\u00a02.4%.<\/p>\n Sales of seasonal over-the-counter medicines declined by double digits due to a weak cold and flu season, as retailers reduced inventory levels.<\/p>\n Chief executive Kris Licht said LFL net revenue guidance of 4-5% growth for 2026 was unchanged, with the recovery expected to be driven by sequential growth from other ‘Powerbrands’, as the season resets and new product launches arrive.<\/p>\n Shares in rival Haleon, which has a portfolio that includes cold and flu products under\u00a0the Panadol and Theraflu brands, were down 1.9% to 345p.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reckitt Benckiser tumbles and drags Haleon after weak start to year Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock Reckitt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21355],"tags":[21641,21640,21376],"class_list":["post-42690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reckitt-benckiser","tag-haleon","tag-haleon-plc","tag-reckitt-benckiser"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116609239300661136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}