In 2009, the UK manufacturer, PZ Cussons, began looking for a partner in the Czech Republic to launch CAREX, its highly successful range of Anti-Bacterial soaps and hand gels. Cussons was a challenger brand, and a late entrant. The dominate player at that time was PROTEX by Colgate Palmolive. Reckitt Benckiser had recently entered the market with their Dettol range. So the question was, "Can a third player enter the Market and hope for any type of success?"
Cussons approached Ravena in mid-2009 and after several rounds of discussions, chose Ravena to be their partner in the Czech Republic to launch Carex. What came next was a series of meetings between Ravena and the Cussons Area Manager discussing all aspects of the Market, Competitors, and Business Targets. The culmination was a clear understanding on both sides of the market, competition, reasonable targets and ultimately the measures of success.
Ravena launched the brand during the first quarter of 2010. Within six months we had achieved our distribution goal of listing the brand in 4 major international chains, thereby securing viability of the brand. Carex continues to have very healthy sales until this day. Its success in the Market has given Cussons a solid base in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to build on and to roll out additional brands that have international potential.