Over the next five years,
Procter & Gamble U.K. will reduce how many formats its laundry detergents come in, narrowing them down to versions that use fewer resources, reported MarketingWeek.
In the coming years, the company will toss out all liquid and tablet formats, first launching gel versions of its Bold, Daz and Fairy products this summer. In October P&G rolled out its
Ariel Excel Gel, which requires 40 percent less water during manufacturing and comes in 14 percent less packaging than compact liquids.
All of the company's detergents will eventually be available only in concentrated and compact versions, and the only single-dose version will be liquitabs.
The U.K. has more laundry formats than any other market. For example, Ariel is available as a powder, liquid, tablet, liquitab and gel. Most other brands are available in at least three versions.
Along with reducing the amount of water needed to be produced, concentrated detergent results in a range of savings: using less packaging, requiring less space in shipments and taking up less space on store shelves or in storage.
The use of concentrated detergent got a boost in the U.S. in late 2007 when Wal-Mart declared it would only sell
concentrated liquid detergent.
