Clorox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Clorox Company | |
| Type | Public (NYSE: CLX) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1913 |
| Headquarters | Oakland, California |
| Industry | Food, Chemicals |
| Products | Food, chemicals, cleaning fluids |
| Revenue |  $4.58 billion USD (2006, June) |
| Net income | $457 million USD (2006, June) |
| Website | www.thecloroxcompany.com |
The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) is a manufacturer of various food and chemical products based in Oakland, California, which is best known for its bleach product, Clorox.
[edit] History
The product and the company date to May 3, 1913, when five entrepreneurs, Archibald Taft, a banker; Edward Hughes, a purveyor of wood and coal; Charles Husband, a bookkeeper; Rufus Myers, a lawyer; and William Hussey, a miner, invested $100 apiece to set up the first commercial-scale liquid bleach factory in the United States, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. The firm was first called the Electro-Alkaline Company. In 1917, it developed a less concentrated version for household, rather than industrial, use, and sales took off.
In 1928, the company went public on the San Francisco stock exchange and changed its name to the Clorox Chemical Company. "Butch," an animated Clorox liquid bleach bottle, was used in advertising and became well known, even surviving the 1941 transition from rubber-stoppered bottles to ones with screw-off caps.
During World War II, when chlorine gas shortages forced many bleach manufacturers to reduce the concentration of sodium hypochlorite in their products, Clorox elected to sell fewer units of a full-strength product, establishing a reputation for quality.
In 1957, Clorox was bought by Procter & Gamble, a purchase challenged by the Federal Trade Commission, which feared it would stifle competition in the household products market. The FTC won, and in 1969 Clorox again was made independent.
[edit] Brands
The Clorox Company now owns a number of other well-known household and professional brands across a wide variety of products, among them:
- Brita water filtration systems
- Clorox® Anywhere Hard Surface™ daily sanitizing spray
- Glad storage bags, trash bags, Press'n Seal, and GladWare containers
- Hidden Valley Ranch, Kitchen Bouquet, and KC Masterpiece salad dressings and sauces
- Kingsford charcoal
- Lestoil, Pine-Sol, Tilex, and S.O.S. cleaning products
- Liquid-Plumr clog remover
- Formula 409 hard surface cleaners
- Fresh Step, EverClean and Scoop Away cat litters
- ArmorAll and STP automotive products
- The iRobot Scooba floor-cleaning robot's standard cleaning solution (nicknamed "Scooba juice" by users) is manufactured by Clorox
[edit] External links
- The Clorox Company
- Clorox (consumer products portal)
