Business Strategy and Outlook
| Seth Goldstein, CFA |As the global leader in the cleaning and sanitation industry, Ecolab provides products that help its hospitality, food-service, and healthcare customers do laundry, wash dishes, and maintain regulatory compliance. With unmatched scale and a solid razor-and-blade business model, Ecolab's competitive advantages are firmly in place. The company's cleaning and sanitation scale dwarfs the competition. Ecolab generates over 3 times the revenue of its largest rival. Its industries are fragmented, with many markets made up of regional and local competitors. Ecolab controls roughly 8% of the $152 billion global market. With its unrivaled scale and breadth of product offerings, the company is an attractive partner to global hospitality, food-service, and manufacturing firms. We think it will continue to grow from market share gains and expanding into new markets.