- Clorox
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Clorox Company 
Type Public (NYSE: CLX) Industry Food, Chemicals Founded 1913 Headquarters Oakland, California, U.S. Products Food, cleaners Revenue 
US$5.45 Billion (FY 2009)[1]Operating income US$998 Million (FY 2009)[1]Net income US$537 Million (FY 2009)[1]Total assets 
US$4.58 Billion (FY 2009)[2]Total equity US$-175 Million (FY 2009)[2]Employees 7,600 [3] Website www.thecloroxcompany.com 
Clorox's diamond-shaped headquarters in Oakland
The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) is a US-based manufacturer of various food and chemical products based in Oakland, California, which is best known for its bleach product, Clorox.
Contents
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.[4] The firm was first called the Electro-Alkaline Company.[4] The name of its original bleach product, Clorox, was coined as a portmanteau of chlorine and sodium hydroxide, the two main ingredients. The original Clorox packaging featured a diamond-shaped logo, and the diamond shape has persisted in one form or another in Clorox branding to the present. In 1917, the company 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.[5]
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.[5]
In 1957, Clorox was bought by Procter & Gamble, a purchase that was 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.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Clorox pursued an aggressive expansion program in which it attempted to establish itself as a major diversified consumer products conglomerate, like P&G. During that period, Clorox experimented with many different types of products, including detergent (Clorox Super Detergent), bottled water (Deer Park), paint (Lucite), wood stains (Olympia), cereal (Cream of Rice), canned mushrooms (Country Kitchen Foods), frozen food (Moore's and Domani's), bar soap (Satine), and restaurant equipment (Prince Castle). For a while it even owned a small restaurant chain (Emil Villa's). However, all these enterprises did not pan out and were eventually sold or spun off. The brands which did prove profitable and were retained in Clorox's portfolio are listed below.
In 1991, Clorox hired Ketchum Public Relations in order to put in place a public relations crisis management plan.[6]
In 1998, Clorox acquired First Brands, the former consumer products division of Union Carbide. Acquired brands included Glad and STP.
In September 2010, Clorox announced that it was selling the ArmorAll and STP brands to Avista Capital Partners.
Brands
The stylized Clorox logo used on Clorox bleach and other Clorox consumer products.The Clorox Company currently owns a number of other well-known household and professional brands across a wide variety of products, among them:
- Brita water filtration systems (only North and South America)
- Burt's Bees natural cosmetics and Personal Care products
- Fresh Step, Scoop Away and Ever Clean cat litters
- Formula 409 hard surface cleaners
- Glad storage bags, trash bags, Press'n Seal, and GladWare containers (joint venture with P&G as 20% minority shareholder)
- Green Works natural cleaners
- Hidden Valley Ranch, Kitchen Bouquet, and KC Masterpiece salad dressings and sauces
- Kingsford charcoal
- Liquid-Plumr drain cleaner
- Pine-Sol, Tilex, and S.O.S cleaning products
- The iRobot Scooba floor-cleaning robot's standard cleaning solution is manufactured by Clorox
For historical reasons, in some markets the company's namesake bleach products are currently sold under regional brands. Clorox acquired the Javex line of bleach products sold in Canada, and similar product lines in parts of Latin and South America, from Colgate-Palmolive in late 2006.[7] In Canada, where Clorox-branded products were not previously available, the acquired products have since been known as "Javex by Clorox".
Clorox's Net Sales by Geographic Regions from 2005 to 2007[8]
Geographic Region (in millions) 2007 2006 2005 Foreign 870 766 696 United States 3,977 3,878 3,692 The Clorox brand started on May 3, 1913, when five entrepreneurs, Archibald Taft, Edward Hughes, Charles Husband, Rufus Myers, and William Hussey each invested $100 a piece to set up the first commercial scale liquid bleach factory in the United States, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Bleach is a chemically combined substance that is used to remove or lighten color usually by oxidation. Many ingredients make up Clorox bleach but the main ingredients are water, sodium hypochlorite (used to whiten and kill bacteria), sodium chloride(also known as salt), Sodium carbonate (removes alcohol and grease stains), sodium hydroxide (removes soils that are fatty, oily, or acidic), and sodium polyacrylate.
Controversy
Clorox has received criticism for several of its advertisements.
Allegations of sexism
One commercial which showed several generations of women doing laundry, included the words "Your mother, your grandmother, her mother, they all did the laundry, maybe even a man or two". The commercial received criticism from feminists on the grounds it insinuates laundry is a women's job only.[9][10]
Clorox have also received criticism for their slogan, "Mama's got the magic of Clorox", on similar grounds.[11]
Clorox also received complaints of sexism for an advertisement that featured a man's white, lipstick-stained dress shirt with the caption, "Clorox. Getting ad guys out of hot water for generations."[12]
Dubious product claims
The National Advertising Division told Clorox to either discontinue or modify their advertisements for Clorox Green Works, on the grounds the cleaners actually do not work as well as traditional cleaners, as Clorox had claimed.[13]
Clorox received further criticism for their Clorox Green Works line, in regards to their claims the products are environmentally friendly.[14] Several Clorox Green Works products contain ethanol, which environmental groups state is neither cost-effective nor eco-friendly.[14] Many products contain sodium lauryl sulfate, a known skin irritant.[14] Environmentalists have also questioned whether or not the Clorox Green Works line is greenwashing, as Clorox's 'Green' products are far outnumbered by their traditional products.[15] Environmentalists have asked "Why sell one set of products that have hazardous ingredients and others that don't?"[15]
References
- ^ a b c Clorox Company (CLX) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest
- ^ a b Clorox Company (CLX) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest
- ^ Standard and Poor's 500 Guide. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. 2007. ISBN 0-07-147906-6.
- ^ a b Clorox company history, page 1
- ^ a b Clorox company history, page 3
- ^ Stauber, John and Rampton, Sheldon (1995). "Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry". Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press.
- ^ Clorox press release, December 20, 2006
- ^ Breakdown of net sales by geographical markets from company 8Ks
- ^ Wallace, Kelsey (August 31, 2009). "Mad Men's Portrayal of Sexism Seeps Unironically into its Commercial Breaks". Bitch magazine. http://bitchmagazine.org/post/mad-mens-portrayal-of-sexism-seeps-unironically-into-its-commercial-breaks. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
- ^ "Clorox's history of women's unwaged labor". Feministing. http://feministing.com/2007/08/27/cloroxs_history_of_womens_unwa/. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
- ^ If Women Ruled the World: How to Create the World We Want to Live In. New World Library. p. 65. ISBN 978-1930722361. http://books.google.com/books?id=kAg2oPU4SjUC&pg=PA65&dq=mama%27s+got+the+majic+of+clorox&cd=7#v=onepage&q=mama%27s%20got%20the%20magic&f=false. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ Wright, Jennifer (September 28, 2009). "Clorox "Mad Men" Ads Miss The Target". Brandchannel.com. http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2009/09/28/Clorox-Mad-Men-Ads-Miss-The-Target.aspx. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
- ^ "NAD Tells Clorox to Clean Up Ads". Environmentalleader.com. August 17, 2008. http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/08/17/nad-tells-clorox-to-clean-up-ads/. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
- ^ a b c Tennery, Amy (April 22, 2009). "4 'green' claims to be wary of". MSN. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/4-green-claims-to-be-wary-of.aspx. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
- ^ a b DeBare, Ilana (January 14, 2008). "Clorox introduces green line of cleaning products". SFGate.com. http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-14/news/17149716_1_natural-cleaning-cleaning-products-green-works/3. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
External links
- The Clorox Company
- Clorox (consumer products portal)
Categories:- Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
- Chemical companies of the United States
- Clorox brands
- Companies based in Oakland, California
- Companies established in 1913
- Multinational companies
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