Tests by the Consumers' Association have backed claims that Persil Power damages clothes,
reports Michael Smith
THE latest soap war seems to be over. The Consumers' Association claimed yesterday that "the most extensive tests we have ever undertaken" had produced conclusive evidence that repeated washing with Persil Power damages clothes.
Until now, the main exchanges in the battle had come from the two detergent companies involved. Last April Procter & Gamble, the American giant, launched an unprecedented assault on Persil Power, produced by Unilever, its Anglo-Dutch rival for the £6 billion European washing-powder market.
Unilever appears to have sincerely believed it had found the magic formula. Persil Power's new manganese additive, known as "accelerator", would revolutionise the soap-powder market. The accelerator was effective at removing stains - but that was not all it removed, as Procter & Gamble had discovered when testing it with a view to using it in its leading brand, Ariel.
Days before Persil Power was launched on the British market, senior Procter & Gamble executives went on television in the Netherlands, where the new product had been available for some time, brandishing underwear full of holes - the result, they said, of repeated washing with Persil Power.
Unilever launched a spirited defence. Procter & Gamble's "extraordinary" allegations were sour grapes over the fact that Persil Power out-performed Ariel, washing out the heaviest stains at lowtemperatures, the company said. But it was rattled, beginning and then dropping legal action before launching, within weeks, a new, reformulated Persil Power that contained a reduced level of the accelerator.
A leaflet was attached to all packs of Persil Power, warning that care should be taken with coloured and delicate articles. But it was too late. The damage was done, at least to Persil Power's reputation. By the middle of last month, when Tesco, Sainsbury'sand Waitrose announced they would no longer stock Persil Power, its share of the £1 billion UK market had halved to just 2.3 per cent.
Despite the sustained assault on its product, Unilever has insisted Persil Power is far from dead. Until yesterday, however, the assault had come solely from Procter & Gamble, which could scarcely be expected to be neutral.
The Consumers' Association embarked on five months of extensive tests. More than 100 staff and their families were asked to wear either viscose shirts or cotton pyjama tops which were then washed in the association's laboratories, either in the original Persil Power, the reformulated product or an unnamed powder that did not contain the manganese accelerator. After 34 washes, the shirts and tops were sent to an independent laboratory to test how worn they had become.
The results were dramatic. Some of the shirts washed in the original Persil Power began to fall apart and fade badly after just 20 washes. "We had to stop letting our staff wear them, they were so bad," said Derek Prentice, assistant director of the Consumers' Association. The reformulated Persil Power did better but there was still "a significant deterioration" in the quality and strength of the clothes, and by the 34th wash a number of garments had developed small holes.
The independent laboratory reported that clothes washed in the original Persil Power were only 40 per cent as strong as those washed in the powder with no manganese accelerator. The reformulated Persil Power showed a 30 per cent reduction in strength.
Unilever cried foul. "The essential point is that Persil Power is not sold as an all-purpose powder. Since its reformulation it has been directed for use on whites and only for tough stain removal on coloureds," said Andrew Seth, managing director of Lever Bros, a Unilever subsidiary.
The Consumers' Association dismissed such claims. Nobody bought a soap powder such as Persil Power just for occasional stains, Mr Prentice said. "People don't, in the industry's terms, have a repertoire of products they use to wash their clothes. They use one generic product, and that is what they expect Persil Power to be.
"We purchased, as an ordinary consumer would, a range of clothes and washed them at 40OC, as the packets recommend. We went to great lengths to be absolutely fair. There was a significant deterioration with Persil Power. If it is going to be in the stores, it needs an explicit warning printed across it."
Unilever will soon introduce a new lead product in an effort to wrest the initiative from Procter & Gamble. In public, it remains committed to Persil Power. In private, however, the company admits this battle is over.
