Company Name: Colgate-Palmolive

Founder: William Colgate

Industry: Household, Health Care and Oral Hygiene Products

The Colgate-Palmolive Company actually started as a soap and candlelight maker. The pioneering factory opened on Dutch Street in New York City and went by the name William Colgate & Company. William Colgate died in 1857, and under the management of his son Samuel, the company changed its name to Colgate & Company. It was not until 1873 that the company introduced its first toothpaste. It marketed the first toothpaste in a tube container that initiating the mass selling of the product in 1908.

In the meantime, the B.J. Johnson Company came out with a soap that was totally manufactured from palm and olive oil, and sold its first products sometime in 1898. Due to the soap’s popularity, the title B.J. Johnson Company was dropped and the name Palmolive became the product’s banner. The two companies eventually merged and created the Colgate-Palmolive Company in 1953.

Today, the Colgate-Palmolive Company is an international corporation centered on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products from soaps to oral hygiene products. Colgate covers an abundance of subsidiary organizations all over the globe, extending up to 200 countries.

Leadership:

Ian M. Cook – President and Chief Executive Officer.