Blendax GmbH, founded in 1932 in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

, was a German manufacturer of personal hygiene products and

toothpaste Toothpaste is a paste or gel dentifrice used with a toothbrush to clean and maintain the aesthetics and health of teeth. Toothpaste is used to promote oral hygiene: it is an abrasive that aids in removing dental plaque and food from the teeth, a ...

between 1936 and 2002. With an annual production of 43 million tubes of toothpaste, it was at one time Europe's largest toothpaste producer. The company's best known brand, introduced in 1951, was called ''blend-a-med.'' Since 1987, the company has belonged to

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

Founding

The

wordmark __notoc__ A wordmark, word mark, or logotype, is usually a distinct text-only typographic treatment of the name of a company, institution, or product name used for purposes of identification and branding. Examples can be found in the graphic iden ...

"Blendax" for toothpaste was registered in Germany on 4 January 1910, and the Blendax factory was founded in 1932 by the brothers Rudolf und Hermann Schneider in Mainz; production started in 1936. The goal was to produce a brand of toothpaste that would be affordable by everyone. By the end of the 1930s, Blendax had become Europe's largest producer of toothpaste with 43 million tubes per year. The product portfolio was expanded to include other personal hygiene products like

shampoo Shampoo () is a hair care product, typically in the form of a viscous liquid, that is used for cleaning hair. Less commonly, shampoo is available in solid bar format. Shampoo is used by applying it to wet hair, massaging the product into the ...

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

, skin cream and

Mouthwash Mouthwash, mouth rinse, oral rinse, or mouth bath is a liquid which is held in the mouth passively or swilled around the mouth by contraction of the perioral muscles and/or movement of the head, and may be gargling, gargled, where the head is ti ...

Destruction and rebuilding

The main and original factory in Mainz on the Ingelheimer Aue (an island in the

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) was almost completely destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The undamaged branch in

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

was appropriated after the war. At first it was known as VEB Blendax, later as VEB Gerana and after German reunification, as Gerana Cosmetic GmbH, before finally being closed in 2007 as a result of bankruptcy. The original buildings in Gera by the city moat are still extant. The Mainz work was rebuilt in 1946, with toothpaste production resuming in 1949. In 1956 the production was expanded to include shampoo and bath foam. A special toothpaste for

milk teeth Deciduous teeth or primary teeth, also informally known as baby teeth, milk teeth, or temporary teeth,Illustrated Dental Embryology, Histology, and Anatomy, Bath-Balogh and Fehrenbach, Elsevier, 2011, page 255 are the first set of teeth in the ...

was introduced in 1956 under the name ''Blendi'', and in 1957 the production of

toothbrush A toothbrush is an oral hygiene tool used to clean the teeth, gums, and tongue. It consists of a head of tightly clustered bristles, atop of which toothpaste can be applied, mounted on a handle which facilitates the cleaning of hard-to-reach are ...

es was started. In the 1970s, the toothpaste Strahler 70 was introduced.

Blend-a-med

In 1949 the Mainz

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

Hertha Hafer offered Blendax her original toothpaste recipe, and In 1951 they started production of ''blend-a-med'', Germany's first medicated toothpaste, at first only available from pharmacies and dentists. As a result of this new product, a research and development division was founded in the same year under the name ''blend-a-med Forschung'', with the goal to develop products for the prevention of dental and oral diseases.

Well-known products

Dental care * blend-a-med * blend-a-med Formel Z * Blendax Antibelag * Blendi * Formel M * Strahler 70, Strahler 75 and Strahler 80 * Blendax Fluor Super Haircare * Shamtu * Tosan Skincare * KamillMarkenregister
/ref> * Credo * Cliff * Do7

Takeover

In 1987 the family business was taken over by the American company

. At first the takeover led to a strengthening of the site, as P&G moved their British toothpaste production to Mainz in 1989, making the site their main European dental hygiene centre. In 1993, however, the production of skincare products in Mainz was stopped. The production of toothpaste and toothbrushes was continued until 2002, when it was moved to the previous Richardson Wicks site in nearby

Groß-Gerau Groß-Gerau () is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse, Germany, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area. In 1994, the town hosted the 34th Hessentag state festival. Geogra ...

External links

* * {{citation, editor-surname1=Rudolph Augstein, periodical=Der Spiegel, title=Hoch gepokert. Der Konsumgüter-Multi Procter & Gamble hat es geschafft: Blendax wird amerikanisch., issue=33, publisher=Spiegel-Verlag, publication-place=Hamburg, date= 1987, language=German, url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13524208.html

References

Companies based in Mainz Procter & Gamble Dental companies Companies of Germany