The story
Founded by James Gamble and William Procter on Oct 31, 1837.1
History
Origins
Candlemaker William Procter, born in England, and soap maker James Gamble, born in Ireland, both emigrated to the US from the United Kingdom. They initially settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and met when they married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, persuaded them to become business partners, and in 1837, Procter & Gamble was created.
From 1858 to 1859, sales reached $1 million. By that point, about 80 employees worked for Procter & Gamble. During the American Civil War, the company won contracts to supply the Union Army with soap and candles. In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products.
In the 1880s, Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floated in water. The company called the soap Ivory. William Arnett Procter, William Procter's grandson, began a profit-sharing program for the company's workforce in 1887. By giving the workers a stake in the company, he correctly assumed that they would be less likely to go on strike.
The company began to build factories in other locations in the United States because the demand for products had outgrown the capacity of the Cincinnati facilities. The company's leaders began to diversify its products as well, and in 1911 the company began producing Crisco, a shortening made of vegetable oils rather than animal fats.
Beginning in the 1880s, P&G advertised its wares in full-page advertisements in many general-interest magazines. By 1921, it had become a major international corporation with a diversified line of soaps, toiletries, and food products; in that year, its annual advertising budget reached $1 million. In the 1920s, P&G advertised its products on the new medium of radio and, from 1932 forward, was one of the biggest sponsors of daytime serials, which soon became known as soap operas. In the television era, P&G sponsored and produced some twenty soap operas across six decades; the division went on a hiatus after the end of As the World Turns in 2010 before The Gates launched on CBS in 2025 as a co-production with P&G.
International expansion
The company moved into other countries, both in terms of manufacturing and product sales, becoming an international corporation with its 1930 acquisition of the Thomas Hedley Co., based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Thomas Hedley was a company local to Newcastle upon Tyne, and was the start of P&G's expansion from its American operations. After this acquisition, P&G moved into Hedley's Newcastle City Road site and established its UK Headquarters at Hedley House in Newcastle upon Tyne. The company later relocated to The Heights, Brooklands. It continued its UK operations by opening up a Manchester factory in 1933 (which expanded rapidly; 100% expansion by 1936), and constructing a London plant in 1937, however, it was Tyneside where P&G was solidly based. By 1948 these offices were proving inadequate for an expanding post-war business, and in 1953 P&G moved its UK administrative centre to purpose-built offices in Gosforth, Newcastle. The building was named Hedley House, in remembrance of the roots of P&G in Tyneside. Numerous new products and brand names were introduced over time, and Procter & Gamble began branching out into new areas. The company introduced Tide laundry detergent in 1946, Prell shampoo in 1947 and Joy, the first liquid synthetic detergent in 1949.
In 1955, Procter & Gamble began selling the first toothpaste to contain fluoride, known as Crest. Branching out once again in 1957, the company purchased paper mills from Charmin and began manufacturing toilet paper and other tissue paper products. The Hedley Research Laboratories on Whitley Road, Longbenton were officially opened on June 11 by Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland. This site became known as Newcastle Innovation Centre (NIC) and as of 2013 was led by Charles Bragg. It cost £500,000 to build and equip. The site has been upgraded many times in the 50 years since its opening and currently focuses on the development of laundry detergents and machine dishwashing products for all parts of the world. Once again focusing on laundry, Procter & Gamble began making Downy-branded fabric softener in 1960 and Bounce fabric softener sheets in 1972. From 1957 to 1968, Procter & Gamble owned Clorox, the leading American manufacturer of liquid bleach; however, the Federal Trade Commission challenged the acquisition, and the U.S. Supreme Court decided against P&G in April 1967.
Procter & Gamble launched Head & Shoulders in 1961, the same year it began test-marketing Pampers disposable diapers. Prior to this point, disposable diapers, like Johnson & Johnson's Chux were not widely adopted, and cloth diapers remained the standard. Pampers provided a convenient alternative to cloth, though they increased landfill waste. In response to consumer interest in diaper ingredients, Pampers introduced the Pampers Pure collection in 2018, marketed as a natural alternative.
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In 1962 Shultons established an Old Spice plant at the Northumberland town of Seaton Delaval. When Shultons was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1990, it became another part of P&G's presence on Tyneside. The plant now manufactures many fragrances that P&G produce, both under its own brands and under licence. It is also the site for the 'company shop', where P&G staff and retirees can purchase P&G goods for a reduced price.
In 2000, the Gosforth offices were closed 43 years after their opening. This was done as part of a big corporate restructuring within P&G globally, and the UK's administrative centre became the Brooklands complex in Weybridge, Surrey. However, one of three global business service centres was established at Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside. P&G has one building on the park, offering financial services to P&G companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As has been the tradition, one pays homage to Thomas Hedley Co. and is called New Hedley House.
Further developments
Procter & Gamble acquired a number of other companies that diversified its product line and significantly increased profits. These acquisitions included Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals (the makers of Pepto-Bismol), Richardson-Vicks, Noxell (Noxzema), Shulton's Old Spice, Max Factor, the Iams Company, and Pantene, among others. In 1994, the company made headlines for big losses resulting from leveraged positions in interest rate derivatives, and subsequently sued Bankers Trust for fraud; this placed its management in the unusual position of testifying in court that they had entered into transactions that they were not capable of understanding. In 1996, P&G again made headlines when the Food and Drug Administration approved a new product developed by the company, Olestra. Also known by its brand name "Olean", Olestra is a lower-calorie substitute for fat in cooking potato chips and other snacks.
In January 2005, P&G announced the acquisition of Gillette, causing P&G to overtake Unilever as the largest consumer goods company. This added brands such as Gillette razors, Duracell, Braun, and Oral-B to its stable. The acquisition was approved by the European Union and the Federal Trade Commission, with conditions to a spinoff of certain overlapping brands. P&G agreed to sell its SpinBrush battery-operated electric toothbrush business to Church & Dwight, and Gillette's Rembrandt toothpaste line to Johnson & Johnson. The deodorant brands Right Guard, Soft and Dri, and Dry Idea were sold to Dial Corporation. In 2001, Liquid Paper and Gillette's stationery division, Paper Mate, were sold to Newell Rubbermaid. The companies officially merged on October 1, 2005. In 2008, P&G branched into the record business with its sponsorship of Tag Records, as an endorsement for TAG Body Spray.
P&G's dominance in many categories of consumer products necessitates its corporate strategists to account for the likelihood of one of its products cannibalizing the sales of another through brand management.
In August 2009, Warner Chilcott acquired P&G's prescription-drug business for $3.1 billion.
P&G exited the food business in 2012 when it sold its Pringles snack food business to Kellogg's for $2.75 billion after the $2.35 billion deal with former suitor Diamond Foods fell short. The company had previously sold Jif peanut butter, Crisco shortening and oils, and Folgers coffee in separate transactions to the Ohio-based company Smucker's.
In April 2014, the company sold its Iams pet food business in all markets excluding Europe to Mars, Inc. for $2.9 billion. It sold the European Iams business to Spectrum Brands in December 2014.
Restructuring
On August 1, 2014, P&G announced it was streamlining the company, dropping and selling off around 100 brands from its product portfolio in order to focus on the remaining 65 brands, which produced 95% of the company's profits. A.G. Lafley, the company's chairman and CEO until October 2015, said the future P&G would be "a much simpler, much less complex company of leading brands that's easier to manage and operate".
In March 2015, the company divested its Vicks VapoSteam U.S. liquid inhalant business to Helen of Troy, part of a brand-restructuring operation. This deal was the first health-related divestiture under the brand-restructuring operation. The deal included a fully paid-up license to the Vicks VapoSteam trademarks and the U.S. license of P&G's Vicks VapoPad trademarks for scent pads. Most Vicks VapoSteam and VapoPads are used in Vicks humidifiers, vaporizers and other health care devices already marketed by Helen of Troy.
Later that same year in July, the company announced the sale of 43 of its beauty brands to Coty, a beauty-product manufacturer, in a US$13 billion deal. It cited sluggish growth of its beauty division as the reason for the divestiture. The sale was completed on October 3, 2016.
In February 2016, P&G completed the transfer of Duracell to Berkshire Hathaway through an exchange of shares.
In December 2018, Procter & Gamble completed the acquisition of the consumer health division of Merck Group (known as EMD Serono in North America) for €3.4 billion ($4.2 billion) and renamed it as Procter & Gamble Health Limited in May 2019.
In November 2018, P&G unveiled a simpler corporate structure with six business units that would be effective from July 2019.
In 2023, the company began optimizing its product offering. As part of this strategy, it plans to eliminate the bottom 25% of SKUs, which contribute very little to absolute retail sales. According to other comparable companies, a similar share of SKUs represents between 2% and 2.5% of its turnover at a global level.
In June 2025, the company announced 7,000 layoffs over the following 2 years due to uncertainty regarding Tariffs in the second Trump administration.
In January 2026, the company started leaning into luxury by launching diapers made with silk fibres under its brand Pampers, in a bid to boost the sales of its baby-care division. Sales have been declining due to low birth rates, even in China, the company's second largest market.
Misinformation and conspiracy theories
Logo myth and Satanism accusations
P&G's former logo originated in 1851 as a crude cross that barge workers on the Ohio River painted on cases of P&G star candles to identify them. P&G later changed this symbol into a trademark that showed a man in the moon overlooking 13 stars, said to commemorate the original Thirteen Colonies.
The company received unwanted media publicity in the 1980s due to rumors, spread largely by Amway distributors, that the moon-and-stars logo was a satanic symbol. The accusation was based on a passage in the Bible, Revelation 12:1, which states: "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars." Some claimed that the logo was a mockery of the heavenly symbol alluded to in the aforementioned verse, thus construing the logo to be satanic. Where the flowing beard meets the surrounding circle, three abstracted curls were said to be a mirror image of the number 666, or the number of the beast. At the top and bottom, the hair curls in on itself and was said to be the horns like those of a ram.
These interpretations have been denied by company officials, and no evidence linking the company to the Church of Satan or any occult organization has ever been presented. The company unsuccessfully sued Amway from 1995 to 2003 over rumors forwarded through a company voicemail system in 1995. In 2007, the company successfully sued individual Amway distributors for reviving and propagating the false rumors. The Church of Satan denies being supported by Procter & Gamble.
P&G simplified details of the logo in 1991. The moon-and-stars logo was completely replaced by a text-only logo in 1995 in a failed attempt to quash the conspiracy theory. In 2013, it unveiled a new logo with a hint of a crescent moon behind the text.
From Wikipedia’s article on Procter & Gamble, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.9