Clorox is cleaning up nicely. The US bleach maker is benefiting from a sustained boom in demand for its products as households wage war on the virus. The longer the pandemic drags on, the more likely these shifts in hygiene habits will become permanent. That is good news for investors who are betting on even more shine from the stock following a 35 per cent rise this year.
There is no reason to expect a reversal in fortune. Sales for the fiscal first quarter that ended in September surged 27 per cent to $1.7bn. The increase far outpaced those at consumer product rivals Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly-Clark and the UK’s Reckitt Benckiser.
Once a drag, Clorox’s outsized focus on cleaning products (a third of revenue) and the US (85 per cent of sales) has become its main advantage over its more diversified peers.