Consumer Products

The company traps waste gas and uses bacteria to turn it into sustainable chemicals and products for customers including Unilever and Coty.

Trian Partners has taken a stake in the maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The British company may prove a tougher nut to crack than Procter & Gamble.

Its quarterly sales rose 6%, led by health and cleaning products, with price increases accounting for half of the jump.

Unilever said it approached GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer about a potential acquisition of their consumer-healthcare joint venture, a deal that would reshape the company’s portfolio as it is under pressure to accelerate growth.

From wine to sneakers, more consumer products are sporting labels touting their carbon-neutral credentials. How the labels will pay off with consumers remains to be seen.

A blank-check company backed by British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is merging with natural-consumer-products seller Grove Collaborative to take it public in a deal the companies value at $1.5 billion.

The maker of Nescafé coffee and Purina petfood said it would sell 22.26 million L’Oréal shares back to the French company, allowing the world’s biggest packaged-food maker to capitalize on a rally in the beauty giant’s share price.

Companies’ cash hoards stir hopes for greater spending on business growth and returning money to shareholders.

He will be succeeded on Nov. 1 by his top deputy, Jon Moeller, who has been P&G’s finance chief and was promoted to chief operating officer.

Huggies maker Kimberly-Clark plans to raise prices, joining General Mills, Hormel Foods and other consumer-goods companies in passing along added costs.

Gojo Industries, the family-owned maker of Purell hand sanitizer, has added a factory and warehouse and restructured its supply chain, expecting consumers’ new hygiene habits are here to stay.

U.S. labor and trade figures point to uneven recovery from the pandemic, as unemployment claims remained elevated while consumer demand for imported goods rose to a record.

What’s News: Business & Finance

Redemptions of digital coupons in the U.S. have surpassed redemptions of paper coupons for the first time as more people shop online.

General Electric is getting out of the business of making lightbulbs, selling a unit that defined the company for nearly a century and was its last direct link to consumers.

Tupperware Brands is looking to ease its debt burden, entering a new phase in its effort to turn around a business struggling with coronavirus lockdowns and shifts in shopping habits.

Trucking companies that deliver goods to manufacturers are cutting pay, reducing hours for workers and pulling back spending as an initial bump in demand for consumer products gives way to a deepening economic downturn.

The physicist Freeman Dyson, who died in late February, believed that scientific ingenuity would find a way to save the planet.

The consumer-products seller is seeking more time to file its annual report after it disclosed an internal accounting investigation and warned of pressures on its sales and profit.

The fastest way for consumer-product manufacturers to improve sales growth—their No. 1 priority—is to unload unfashionable brands that are dragging down their performance. So it is a puzzle why they are selling so little.