Procter & Gamble: Global Giant in Household, Personal Products

The Procter & Gamble Company, or P&G (PG), is the largest household and personal products company in the world. The company was established in 1837 by founders William Procter and James Gamble. P&G, along with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells consumer packaged goods. The company is geographically diversified and sells its products in more than 180 countries and territories.

P&G operates through five segments:

1. Fabric Care and Home Care – includes brands such as Ariel, Tide, and Downy
2. Baby, Feminine and Family Care – includes brands such as Pampers and Always
3. Beauty – includes brands such as Olay, Pantene, and Head & Shoulders
4. Grooming – includes brands such as Gillette
5. Health Care – includes brands such as Oral-B

The above chart shows that most of P&G’s revenue is consistently generated within North America.

CEEMEA in the above chart stands for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Procter & Gamble figures first among the 39 holdings of the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) with ~12.3%[1. All figures like the ETF portfolio weights and the market caps are as of June 27, 2015] of the portfolio weight. ETFs including the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) provide exposure to P&G. IVV and DIA invest ~1.2% and ~2.9% of their respective portfolios in P&G.

The consumer staples sector is highly competitive. P&G competes against a wide range of global and local companies. Yet P&G’s market cap is $215.2 billion, the largest in the consumer staples sector.

Here are some of the domestic and international players operating in the same lines of business as P&G, and their market caps:

• Unilever (ADR) (UL) – $126.2 billion
• Colgate-Palmolive (CL) – $60.2 billion
• Estee Lauder (EL) – $33.4 billion