3rd February 2005

Gillette’s Ethical Rating Falls on P&G Merger

The merger between Gillette and Procter and Gamble might make sense financially, the new group will have a lower ethical rating according to Ethical Consumer. Both companies have been the target of campaign-group actions in the past, particularly regarding the use of animal testing in the development of new personal-care products.

Whereas Gillette has gone some way to accommodating the demands of campaigners, P & G has remained relatively intransigent and is now the target of three boycott campaigns in the UK and US.

Prior to the merger Gillette was given an ethical score of 7.5 out of 15 and Proctor and Gamble a score of 1.5 out of 15 in the Ethical Consumer’s Corporate Critic ethical rating database. The new group will have a combined rating of 1, one of the lowest scores across all market sectors.

According to Rob Harrison at Ethical Consumer, “investors should just pause for thought before rejoicing at the money to be made from this merger. The combined sales of the new group might fall as boycotts take hold across the whole product range. The group’s strong consumer brand focus may also make it vulnerable to negative consumer campaigns in the future.”

Corporate Critic is an online database developed by Ethical Consumer Information Systems Limited (ECIS). It indexes and rates the ethical or Corporate Social Responsibility records of over 15,000 global companies – ideal for individual and institutional ethical investors to monitor the true Corporate Social Responsibility records of corporations.

For further information regarding the Corporate Critic database and the work of Ethical Consumer, please contact:

Helen Middleton or Rob Harrison
Ethical Consumer Information Systems Limited
Tel: 0161 227 9099
Email: helen@ethicalconsumer.org or rob@ethicalconsumer.org

January 2005