Reckitt Benckiser plant closure prompts Louie the Fly backlash
News of the closure of the manufacturing plant that makes Mortein insect spray in Australia has sparked an angry response on Facebook from the followers of the save-him-or-kill-him Louie the Fly campaign.
Reckitt Benckiser announced today that it would be closing its Sydney plant at a cost of 190 jobs and would now be manufacturing Mortein overseas – in the same week that the popular Louie the Fly campaign entered its final stages.
Reckitt Benckiser’s agencies – which include Edelman, Parker & Partners, The Red Agency and Euro RSCG – were only informed of the closure this morning.
Among the comments on the Louie the Fly Facebook page, which has 213,000 fans, were:
It seems this is one business decision that won’t fly with the consumers…
They’ll need to clean up their act if they want to go blow for blowfly with all the other foreign owned and maid products in the same categories…
RB = BS. it is a BIG cover up.. It is not just MORTEIN that is going overseas. Everything that is being produced from this SYDNEY factory will be sent to overseas for manufacturing, yes more Australian without jobs. That means all the product below: Mortein, Harpic, Lemsip, Veet, Pine O Cleen, Finish, NapiSan, Strepsils, Clearasil, Nurofen and a few more. Read the back label of every product.. If it is Reckitt Benckiser, DON’T BUY IT!!
I’ll agree to stop drinking Harpic but there’s no way I’m giving up the Nurofen.
people can complain all they like, but at the end of the day are the substitutable products made in Australia? Probably not, so either way you are still buying a product not made in Australia
PR Nightmare, like the Qantas one last year. With so much manufacturing going, there will be nothing to collect a carbon tax on, except electricity generation!!
Good luck looking for quality products that can be substituted for RB products, they do not exist. So many errors and omissions in some of the posts, quite typical and expected. Number 1, only very few RB brands are made in Australia – please check your facts before posting fallacies. Australia does not make and cannot make products of RB quality! It’s all about giving the consumer the best quality products at the most affordable prices, and that cannot happen with a product made in Australia.
What dribble coming from Mr Fox. Aussies are capable of making anything. But Multinationals do what they are designed to do…
A bit of history…Napisan was made by Richardson Vicks and line extended when Brand managers worked out that the factory employees were using it to clean their cricket whites. P&G didn’t even know that it was the largest Laundry SKU at the time. They flogged it off to RB because it could not become a Global Brand.
.P&G shut down the Villawood site, the Berkley Vale Site, Clairol site (WR) and the Wella Site at Somersby. Each one a “successful global Acquisition” Over 20 years they have destroyed millions in shareholder value and separated hundreds of employees.
So what’s different with RB? Same crap different multinational, different decade.
Well I am not surprise that they are closing. Why?
They can make product cheaper in oversea. It all about saving cost.
The workers here are getting too good. Pay well and have 2 RDO per month.
Why wouldn’t they want to move to oversea?
Permission to call Senator Xenophon and the ACCC on this one? As for the 190 people who will soon be screwed over, I have a quick bit of advice here: Don’t let Reckitt Benckiser drag you away. Stand your ground and tell them ‘f**k no, we are staying here and we don’t care if the cops take us away!”
Hey Mr Fox – that’s whats so sad about this. Best quality & most affordable cannot be made in Australia. Sad sad sad.
making a ‘toxic’ brew and sticking it in a steel can…….. Happy to see it go offshore, it is a dumb industry with little to no skill at the staff level or innovation at the business level.
Australia currently has a very low unemployment rate and the staff could be ‘redeployed’ to better, higher paying and more intelligent jobs in other industries.
Yes there is pain for the workers at the coal face and I feel sorry for them. However things change and technology changes jobs, industry and life. Workers need to take it on the chin, wake up tomorrow , get a plan and get going.
The days of a job for life are gone, and if people want to shut their eyes and pretend otherwise they will find themselves in an unenviable position.
Take control of life or life with take control of you.
Let’s face it, very few products can be made any place but China. Even the iPhone’s we all use are made there – and it’s not because of just cost. Chinese companies are more responsive, and more innovative with production. And don’t have the labour laws western economies have in place.
Mortein was only a matter of time. As it evidently will be for a whole lot of additional products too.,
Cannot agree with Mr Fox. One RB product line, Steelo, is readily substitutable with locally made Jex steel wool pads. Jex make better products and sell at cheaper prices than Steelo, yet Steelo is fully imported from China. Australians can make everything from the most basic to the most complex. A level playing field would be nice. For too long Aussie manufacturers have had to contend with an undervalued yuan, and now an overvalued A$.
Cannot agree with Mr Fox. One RB product line, Steelo, is readily substitutable with locally made steel wool pads which sell at cheaper prices than Steelo, yet Steelo is fully imported from China. Australians can make everything from the most basic to the most complex. A level playing field would be nice. For too long Aussie manufacturers have had to contend with an undervalued yuan, and now an overvalued A$.
Join the Chorus of support for Aussie jobs and dislike of Reckitt Benckis here…
https://www.facebook.com/DislikeCorporateGreed
All you lot winging here I bet you require me to purchase your products/services to keep you in a job but do you reciprocate and help your MATES by purchasing their products
I BET YOU GO FOR THE PENNIES AND STUFF YOUR MATES
They Could’ve done this after the Mortein campaign finished, disappointing. One more scapegoat will lose their job for that one.
RB make the best household products on our Australian supermarket shelves. I will continue to purchase and use my much loved Pine O Clean and of course take the odd Nurofen when needed. Good luck to all those left without jobs in the factory – I am sorry to see they have lost their jobs but will not stop buying RB products.
Australians all let us rejoice NOT
Gee Mr Fox sounds like e might work for three ars*holes at RB.
I will NEVER EVER buy any RB owned or marketed product ever again not will most intelligent friends and family.
We can make products here far better than the imported shit we get dumped on our shores every day of the week. Someone said its good because all the employees can now get a higher paid job someone else ? That makes no sense at all. Because our piss weak government are too scared to stop our icons being sold off to offshore multinational conglomerates they keep doing it. Soon we will make nothing here and just import. Suddenly those high paying jobs thR everyone is seeking will be null and void.!
Often people say how much cheaper things are in te USA Aand other countries but it’s all relevant, they work for half our hourly rate too. I rather earn a decent dollar and support Aussie products. It keeps our profit here which in turn keeps the country, te economy and your employment strong. RB had a reported 1.5 billion in sales in 2011 yet because they’re owned by the pom’s, we don’t see one ounce of that staying here. All profit goes off shore by close of business that day ! It’s a friggin joke and the sooner we proud Aussies stop thinking and shopping purely with our back pocket in mind, the sooner this country gets back to be the great country our ancestors died fighting for !!!
Come on aussies, give Aussie products a fair chance. Yeah it might add 30 bucks to your weekly groceries but at least your kids will have a job when they’re older
RB – you won’t get another cent off me EVER so go and get stuffed !!!!!!
Grant spoke with passion… but many of u here may have reason for your comment .Whats ur reason for this fuzz? let d world here u…unbiased