Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American
multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly
paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark
brand name products include
Kleenex facial tissue,
Kotex
Kotex is an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, which includes the Kotex maxi, thin and ultra thin pads, the Security tampons, and the Lightdays pantiliners. Most recently, the company has added U by Kotex to its line of menstrua ...
feminine hygiene products,
Cottonelle,
Scott
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sask ...
and Andrex
toilet paper
Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet tissue or bathroom tissue) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the anus and surrounding anal region of feces after defecation, and to clean the perineal area and external genitalia of ur ...
, Wypall utility wipes,
KimWipes scientific cleaning wipes and
Huggies
Huggies is an American company that sells disposable diapers and baby wipes that is marketed by Kimberly-Clark. Huggies were first test marketed in 1968, then introduced to the public in 1978 to replace the Kimbies brand.
Products
Huggies ...
disposable diaper
A diaper /ˈdaɪpə(r)/ (American and Canadian English) or a nappy (Australian English, British English, and Hiberno-English) is a type of underwear that allows the wearer to urinate or defecate without using a toilet, by absorbing or cont ...
s and
baby wipes.
Founded in
Neenah, Wisconsin
Neenah () is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, in the north central United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River, approximately forty miles (60 km) southwest of Gree ...
, in 1872 and based in the
Las Colinas
Las Colinas is a mixed-use planned community development in Irving, Texas, part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, governed by The Las Colinas Association, a Texas non-profit corporation. Due to its central location between Dallas and Fort W ...
section of
Irving, Texas since 1985, the company operated its own
paper mills around the world for decades, but closed the last of those in 2012. With recent annual revenues topping $18 billion per year, Kimberly-Clark is regularly listed among the
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
.
As of March 2020, the company had approximately 40,000 employees.
History
Kimberly, Clark and Co. was founded in 1872 by
John A. Kimberly,
Havilah Babcock
Havilah Babcock (September 8, 1837 – April 21, 1905) was an American manufacturing executive and a joint founder of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation.
Early life
Born in Franklin, Vermont, Babcock moved with his family to Waukesha, Wisconsi ...
,
Charles B. Clark and Franklyn C. Shattuck in Neenah, Wisconsin, with $42,000 () of capital. The group's first business was operating
paper mills, which the collective expanded throughout the following decades. In 1888, the fledgling company faced a significant setback when its
groundwood "Atlas" paper mill burned. Through an extensive effort by labor and management, within five months the mill was rebuilt and in production at a greater capacity. In that same year the company began rapid expansion, purchasing land in a town then known as The Cedars for a new groundwood pulp plant designed by prominent paper mill architects
D. H. & A. B. Tower. In 1889, the town was renamed
Kimberly after John A. Kimberly. The company would also contract the firm to expand its vast
sulphite pulp complex in
Appleton, Wisconsin, which allowed it to become the first firm west of Pennsylvania to adopt this improved manufacturing process. The company developed cellu-cotton in 1914, a
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
substitute used by the
U.S. Army as surgical cotton during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. Army nurses used cellu-cotton pads as disposable
sanitary napkins
A menstrual pad, or simply a pad, (also known as a sanitary pad, sanitary towel, sanitary napkin or feminine napkin) is an absorbent item worn by women in their underwear when menstruating, bleeding after giving birth, recovering from gynecol ...
, and six years later the company introduced
Kotex
Kotex is an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, which includes the Kotex maxi, thin and ultra thin pads, the Security tampons, and the Lightdays pantiliners. Most recently, the company has added U by Kotex to its line of menstrua ...
, the first
disposable feminine hygiene product.
Kleenex, a disposable
handkerchief, followed in 1924. Kimberly & Clark joined with
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City.
History
The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...
in 1926 to build a newsprint mill in
Kapuskasing
Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another rail ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. Two years later, the company went public as Kimberly-Clark.
The firm expanded internationally during the 1950s, opening plants in Mexico,
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
and the United Kingdom. It began operations in 17 more foreign locations in the 1960s. The company formed
Midwest Express Airlines from its corporate flight department in 1984. Kimberly-Clark's headquarters moved from
Neenah, Wisconsin
Neenah () is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, in the north central United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River, approximately forty miles (60 km) southwest of Gree ...
to Irving, Texas the following year, although its products are still produced in Neenah. Alongside
Cadbury, Kimberly-Clark withdrew advertising support for ''
The Lou Grant Show'' in 1982, due to pressure from various conservative caucuses campaigning against star
Ed Asner. Under the leadership of
Darwin Smith as CEO from 1971 to 1991, the company was transformed from a business paper company to a consumer paper products company.
In 1991, Kimberly-Clark and
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City.
History
The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...
sold their jointly owned paper mill in
Kapuskasing
Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another rail ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. Kimberly-Clark entered a joint venture with
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
-based Descartables Argentinos S.A. to produce
personal care products in Argentina in 1994 and also bought the feminine hygiene unit of VP-Schickedanz (Germany) for $123 million and a 90% stake in Handan Comfort and Beauty Group (China).
Kimberly-Clark bought
Scott Paper
The Scott Paper Company was the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of sanitary tissue products with operations in 22 countries. Its products were sold under a variety of well-known brand names, including ''Scott Tissue'', ''Cottonelle'', ...
in 1995 for $9.4 billion. In 1997, Kimberly-Clark sold its 50% stake in Canada's Scott Paper to forest products company
Kruger Inc.
Kruger Inc. is a Canadian corporation which manufactures publication papers, tissue, lumber and other wood products, corrugated cartons from recycled fibres, green and renewable energy, and wines and spirits. Kruger Inc. operates facilities in Qu ...
and bought diaper operations in Spain and Portugal and disposable
surgical masks maker Tecnol Medical Products. Augmenting its presence in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, in 1999 the company paid $365 million for the tissue business of Swiss-based Attisholz Holding. Expanding its offerings of medical products, the company bought Ballard Medical Products in 1999 for $774 million and examination-glove maker Safeskin in 2000 for about $800 million.
Also in 2000, the company bought virtually all of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
's S-K Corporation; the move made Kimberly-Clark one of the largest manufacturers of packaged goods in Taiwan. The company later purchased Taiwan Scott Paper Corporation for about $40 million and merged the two companies, forming Kimberly-Clark Taiwan. In 2001, Kimberly-Clark bought Italian diaper maker Linostar and announced it was closing four Latin American manufacturing plants.
In 2002, Kimberly-Clark purchased paper-packaging rival
Amcor's stake in an Australian joint venture. In 2003, Kimberly-Clark added to its global consumer tissue business by acquiring the
Polish tissue maker Klucze.
In early 2004, chairman and chief executive officer Thomas Falk began implementation of a global business plan that the company has detailed in July 2003. The firm combined its North American and European groups for personal care and consumer tissue under North Atlantic groups. In 2019, CEO Thomas Falk resigned his position but continued on as the company's
chairman of the board
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...
. COO Michael D. Hsu became CEO following Falk's retirement.
In April 2020,
The Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
reported that panic-buying during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
led to a 13 percent increase in sales of Kimberley-Clark's consumer tissues in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the previous year. In April 2020, Kimberly Clark reported an eight percent decline in organic sales, its worst sales performance in at least a decade, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In 2022, Kimberly Clark acquired majority stake in Thinx, a period underwear brand.
Ownership
Kimberly-Clark shares are mainly held by institutional investors (
Vanguard group
The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with about $7 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 13, 2021. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-l ...
,
BlackRock,
State Street Corporation and others).
Its subsidiaries include Kimberly-Clark Professional.
Relationship with Midwest Airlines
The origin of
Midwest Airlines
Midwest Airlines (formerly Midwest Express) was a U.S.-based airline headquartered in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, that operated from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport between 1984 and 2010. For a short time, it also operated as a brand of ...
can be traced back to 1948, when Kimberly-Clark opened its corporate flight department and began providing air transportation for company executives and engineers between the company's headquarters in Neenah and its paper mills.
In 1969, K-C Aviation was born from the company's air operations, and was dedicated to the maintenance of corporate aircraft. In 1982, K-C Aviation initiated shuttle flights for Kimberly-Clark employees between Appleton, Memphis, and Atlanta. With this experience, and considering the
Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Kimberly-Clark and K-C Aviation formed a regularly scheduled passenger airline,
Midwest Express Airlines, which was started on June 11, 1984. The name of the airline was shortened to Midwest Airlines in 2003.
K-C Aviation divested itself from the airline in 1996. Two years later,
Gulfstream Aerospace purchased K-C Aviation from Kimberly-Clark for $250 million, which included its operations at airports in Dallas, Appleton, and
Westfield, Massachusetts.
Major U.S. consumer product lines
Diapers and incontinence products
*
Huggies
Huggies is an American company that sells disposable diapers and baby wipes that is marketed by Kimberly-Clark. Huggies were first test marketed in 1968, then introduced to the public in 1978 to replace the Kimbies brand.
Products
Huggies ...
:
diaper
A diaper /ˈdaɪpə(r)/ (American and Canadian English) or a nappy (Australian English, British English, and Hiberno-English) is a type of underwear that allows the wearer to urinate or defecate without using a toilet, by absorbing or cont ...
s for infants and toddlers
*Little Swimmers:
swim diaper
A swim diaper or swim nappy is a diaper that is made for those who have fecal incontinence (usually babies or toddlers), which is worn underneath a bathing suit, or as a bathing suit. Swim diapers can be reusable and disposable. They are not inte ...
s, marketed under the Huggies brand
*
Pull-Ups:
training pants for toddlers undergoing
toilet training, marketed under the Huggies brand
*
GoodNites (DryNites outside North America): pull-on diapers for children, teens and young adults who experience
nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting), spun off from the Pull-Ups brand
*Poise: Pads and liners for light to moderate
urinary incontinence in adult women
*
Depend: diapers and briefs for adults
Feminine hygiene
Kotex
Kotex
Kotex is an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, which includes the Kotex maxi, thin and ultra thin pads, the Security tampons, and the Lightdays pantiliners. Most recently, the company has added U by Kotex to its line of menstrua ...
is a
feminine hygiene product line that includes
pantiliners,
pads
Pads (also called leg guards) are a type of protective equipment used in a number of sports and serve to protect the legs from the impact of a hard ball, puck, or other object of play travelling at high speed which could otherwise cause injuries t ...
and
tampons.
Tissues and wipes
Cottonelle
Cottonelle is a brand name for bath products. Product forms include premium
bath tissue and flushable moist wipe products. On October 13, 2020, the Cottonelle brand flushable wipes issued a recall because the products manufactured between February through September may contain Pluralibacter gergovaie.
Kleenex
Kleenex is a
brand name of
facial tissue paper. Many versions have been made, including "with lotion, our softest ever!" and "regular". In the 1970s, color psychologist Dr. Cody Sweet represented newly styled Kleenex boxes as a national media spokesperson.
Scott
Scott is a brand name of paper napkins,
paper towel
A paper towel is an absorbent, disposable towel made from paper. In Britain, paper towels for kitchen use are also known as kitchen rolls, kitchen paper, or kitchen towels. For home use, paper towels are usually sold in a roll of Perforation, pe ...
s and bath tissue/wipes.
Viva
Viva is a brand name of heavy-duty paper towels.
Mexican consumer product lines
The Mexican market has most of the American products as well as these products:
* Napkins: Kleenex, Petalo, Suavel, Delsey, Lys.
* Toilet paper: Kleenex, Petalo, Suavel, Delsey, Vogue, Lys.
* Diapers: KleenBebe, a brand similar to Huggies. The name is a combination of "kleen" (Kleenex) and "bebe" (Spanish for "baby").
* Professional and medical markets.
Major professional and global products
KimWipes
KimWipes are a type of cleaning tissue commonly used in
laboratories
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physi ...
. They are intended for applications in which leaving
lint or fibers on a surface would be undesirable, such as on
slides and
pipettes. They are sometimes used to clean
lenses, but use on optical lenses with special water- and solvent-based coatings may cause light blemishes, and the manufacturer recommends using a wipe specifically designed for use with coated lenses. KimWipes are composed of virgin wood pulp from certified forests, with few chemical additives, with utility beyond paper towels.
WypAll
WypAll is a brand name for cleaning towels, wipes, and cloths. They are used in industrial settings and laboratories.
DryNites
DryNites are a version of GoodNites sold in Europe and Australasia.
See also
*
Kimberly Crest
*
Toilet paper in the United States
Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet tissue or bathroom tissue) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the anus and surrounding anal region of feces after defecation, and to clean the perineal area and external genitalia of ur ...
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Manufacturing companies established in 1872
American companies established in 1872
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Pulp and paper companies of the United States
Winnebago County, Wisconsin
1872 establishments in Wisconsin
1920s initial public offerings
Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
Personal care companies