Private company
Larkin Company
Logo: Larkin Soap Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3
American soap company (1875–1942)
The Larkin Company, also known as the Larkin Soap Company, was a company founded in 1875 in Buffalo, New York as a small soap factory. It grew tremendously throughout the late 1800s and into the first quarter of the 1900s with an approach called "The Larkin Idea" that transformed the company into a mail-order conglomerate that employed 2,000 people and had annual sales of $28.6 million (equivalent to $459,643,000 in 2025) in 1920.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
Overview
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The Larkin Company, also known as the Larkin Soap Company, was a company founded in 1875 in Buffalo, New York as a small soap factory. It grew tremendously throughout the late 1800s and into the first quarter of the 1900s with an approach called "The Larkin Idea" that transformed the company into a mail-order conglomerate that employed 2,000 people and had annual sales of $28.6 million (equivalent to $459,643,000 in 2025) in 1920.2
Subsidiaries and ownership
Owners
- John D. Larkin
From Wikidata.1
Timeline
- 1875Founded Founded1
Links
- WikipediaLarkin Company
- More imagesWikimedia Commons
- WikidataQ23091855
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataLarkin Company on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaLarkin Company on Wikipedia
- 3Wikimedia CommonsLarkin Company logo by Larkin Soap Company, Public domain