In keeping with our strategy to sharpen our focus on the laundry and home care brand products business, we disposed of a number of marginal activities in the year under review. These included our European private label operation and our oils and fats business in Turkey. Aside from our core markets for detergents and cleaning products, we are also active in a number of selected regions in the air freshener and insecticide segments.

In the year under review, we were able to further increase our market share in our categories, with EBIT growing faster than sales. Our objective is to continue along the road of profitable growth. Therefore, our focus is on expanding our market positions in our most important markets of Western Europe and North America, and on further improving profitability in our growth regions. In the established markets, our innovation capability is of major importance, while in our growth regions, our primary aims are to drive economies of scale and to increase the penetration of our international brands.