 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| ISIN | US4943681035 |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 1872; 153 years ago (1872), inNeenah, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Irving, Texas, U.S. (since 1985) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
| Products |
|
| Revenue |  US$20.1 billion (2024) |
 US$3.21 billion (2024) | |
| US$2.55 billion (2024) | |
| Total assets | US$16.5 billion (2024) |
| Total equity | US$840 million (2024) |
Number of employees | 38,000 (2024) |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an Americanmultinational consumer goods andpersonal care corporation that produces mostlypaper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clarkbrand name products includeKleenex facial tissue,Kotex feminine hygiene products,Cottonelle,Scott and Andrextoilet paper, Wypall utility wipes,KimWipes scientific cleaning wipes andHuggiesdisposablediapers andbaby wipes.
Founded inNeenah, Wisconsin, in 1872 and based in theLas Colinas section ofIrving, Texas, since 1985, the company operated its ownpaper mills around the world for decades, but closed the last of those in 2012.[2][3] With recent annual revenues topping $18 billion per year, Kimberly-Clark is regularly listed among theFortune 500. As of March 2020, the company had approximately 40,000 employees.[4]
Kimberly, Clark and Co. was founded in 1872 byJohn A. Kimberly,Havilah Babcock,Charles B. Clark and Franklyn C. Shattuck in Neenah, Wisconsin, with $42,000 (equivalent to US$1,102,383 in 2024) of capital.[5] The group's first business was operatingpaper mills, which the collective expanded throughout the following decades. In 1888, the fledgling company faced a significant setback when itsgroundwood "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 architectsD. H. & A. B. Tower.[6] In 1889, the town was renamedKimberly after John A. Kimberly. The company would also contract the firm to expand its vastsulphite pulp complex inAppleton, Wisconsin, which allowed it to become the first firm west of Pennsylvania to adopt this improved manufacturing process.[7][8] The company developed cellu-cotton in 1914, acotton substitute used by theU.S. Army as surgical cotton duringWorld War I. Army nurses used cellu-cotton pads as disposablesanitary napkins,[9] and six years later the company introducedKotex, the firstdisposable feminine hygiene product.[10]Kleenex, a disposablehandkerchief, followed in 1924. Kimberly & Clark joined withThe New York Times Company in 1926 to build a newsprint mill inKapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. Two years later, the company went public as Kimberly-Clark.[11]
The firm expanded internationally during the 1950s, opening plants in Mexico,West Germany and the United Kingdom. It began operations in 17 more foreign locations in the 1960s.[citation needed] The company formedMidwest Express Airlines from its corporate flight department in 1984. Kimberly-Clark's headquarters moved fromNeenah, Wisconsin to Irving, Texas the following year,[12] although its products are still produced in Neenah. AlongsideCadbury, Kimberly-Clark withdrew advertising support forLou Grant in 1982, due to pressure from various conservative caucuses campaigning against starEd Asner.[13] Under the leadership ofDarwin 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 andThe New York Times Company sold their jointly owned paper mill inKapuskasing,Ontario. Kimberly-Clark entered a joint venture withBuenos Aires-based Descartables Argentinos S.A. to producepersonal care products in Argentina in 1994[14] and also bought the feminine hygiene unit of VP-Schickedanz (Germany) for $123 million[15] and a 90% stake in Handan Comfort and Beauty Group (China).[16]
Kimberly-Clark merged withScott Paper in 1995 for $9.4 billion.[17] In 1997, Kimberly-Clark sold its 50% stake in Canada's Scott Paper to forest products companyKruger Inc.[18] and bought diaper operations in Spain and Portugal[19] and disposablesurgical masks maker Tecnol Medical Products.[20] Augmenting its presence in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, in 1999 the company paid $365 million for the tissue business of Swiss-based Attisholz Holding.[21] Expanding its offerings of medical products, the company bought Ballard Medical Products in 1999 for $774 million[22] and examination-glove maker Safeskin in 2000 for about $800 million.[23]
Also in 2000, the company bought virtually all ofTaiwan's S-K Corporation; the move made Kimberly-Clark one of the largest manufacturers of packaged goods in Taiwan.[24] The company later purchased Taiwan Scott Paper Corporation for about $40 million and merged the two companies, forming Kimberly-Clark Taiwan.[25] In 2001, Kimberly-Clark bought Italian diaper maker Linostar and announced it was closing four Latin American manufacturing plants.[26]
In 2002, Kimberly-Clark purchased paper-packaging rivalAmcor's stake in an Australian joint venture.[27] In 2003, Kimberly-Clark added to its global consumer tissue business by acquiring thePolish tissue maker Klucze.[28]
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'schairman of the board. COO Michael D. Hsu became CEO following Falk's retirement.
As of March 2020, the company had approximately 40,000 employees.[4] In April 2020, theFinancial Times reported that panic-buying during theCOVID-19 pandemic 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.[29] 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.[30]
In 2022, Kimberly Clark acquired majority stake inThinx, a period underwear brand.[31]
Kimberly-Clark shares are mainly held by institutional investors (The Vanguard Group,BlackRock,State Street Corporation, and others).[32] Its subsidiaries include Kimberly-Clark Professional.[33]
The origin ofMidwest Airlines 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 theAirline 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.[34] 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, andWestfield, Massachusetts.[35]
Kimberly-Clark produces mostlypaper-based consumer products. The company manufacturessanitary paper products andsurgical &medical instruments. Kimberly-Clarkbrand name products includeKleenex facial tissue,Kotex feminine hygiene products,Cottonelle,Scott and Andrextoilet paper, Wypall utilitywipes,KimWipes scientific cleaning wipes andHuggiesdisposablediapers andbaby wipes.
Kotex is afeminine hygiene product line that includespantiliners,pads andtampons.
Cottonelle is a brand name for bath products. Product forms include premiumbath tissue and flushable moist wipe products. In June 2019, theAustralian Federal Court found in favour of Kimberly-Clark Australia inAustralian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) case against them for the claim that Kleenex Cottonelle Flushable Cleansing Cloths were advertised as "flushable" in Australia's sewerage system, in contrast to other similar products which warned consumers against flushing them.The court said that although they contributed to household sewerage system blockages in an unknown number of instances, even faecal matter and toilet paper contributed to those problems. ACCC argued unsuccessfully that Kimberly-Clark shouldn't be able to take advantage of the difficulty to isolate individual causes in individual cases, and that it was a significant cause of systematic issues.[36]On October 13, 2020, the Cottonelle brand flushable wipes issued a recall because the products manufactured between February through September may containPluralibacter gergovaie.[37]
Kleenex is abrand name offacial 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.[citation needed]
Scott is a brand name ofpaper napkins,paper towels and bath tissue/wipes.
Viva is a brand name of heavy-duty paper towels.[38][39]
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The Mexican market has most of the American products, as well as these products:
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KimWipes are a type of cleaning tissue commonly used inlaboratories. They are intended for applications in which leavinglint or fibers on a surface would be undesirable, such as onslides andpipettes. They are sometimes used to cleanlenses, 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.
WypAll is a brand name for cleaning towels, wipes, and cloths. They are used in industrial settings and laboratories.
DryNites are a version of GoodNites sold in Europe and Australasia.
Six Hennessey Boilers, made by the B. F. Hawkins Iron Works, of Springfield, Mass., are showing remarkable results at the Kimberly & Clark paper mills, Appleton, Wis...The entire plant was designed by D. H. & A. B. Tower, of Holyoke, Mass.
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