Lever Brothers has pipped arch rival Procter & Gamble to the post yet again by being first to bring a new home dry cleaning product to the UK market. Persil is extending its brand beyond the washing machine with Persil Revive ­ which is a way of cleaning "dry clean only" clothes at home in the tumble dryer. P&G launched a dry cleaning kit called Dryel a year ago but it is still only on test market in Ireland. The idea behind Persil Revive, said senior Persil brand manager Alison Culpin, was not to replace dry cleaning but to refresh and spot clean clothes in between visits to the dry cleaners. One sheet of Persil Revive ­ on shelves at the end of August ­ dry cleans four items in 30 minutes. Lever is putting £6.5m behind the launch in a marketing campaign kicking off in September on TV, radio, posters, print, direct mail and on the internet. Much of the campaign message will be about how to use the product ­ and will be in line with the new animated and humorous tone of Persil's advertising. To encourage trial, Persil Revive will be available in single sachets (rsp £1.19) as well as the normal five pack (rsp £4.99). Colpin estimates a million households will try the product this year and the category will be worth £30m in incremental sales to retailers. Responding to Lever's new launch, a P&G spokeswoman said: "We are continuing with Dryel in Ireland but we can't give any information about our future marketing plans for the UK. However Dryel is available over the net." P&G was also beaten by its rival when Lever was the first to introduce detergent tablets to the UK. {{NEWS }}

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