Early history Glad Wrap was invented in Australia by Union Carbide's research chemist, Douglas Lyons Ford, in the early 1960s, working in Union Carbide Australia's Rhodes plant in Sydney. The film was made from polyethylene with a stickifier added, produced as a continuous tube by the blown-film method, the tube then slit to make flat material that was put on rolls, and recently released in a newly designed "Easy Cut Dispenser". It was first introduced to the American market in 1963 in competition with
Saran Wrap. The Glad brand debuted in the United States in 1963 when
Union Carbide launched Glad Wrap, a polyethylene film used as a food wrap. David Darroch was the Founder/CEO at Glad Products Company. Douglas G. Taylor was transferred that same year from the Union Carbide facility in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to spearhead the Glad Wrap project. Glad Wrap and Glad Bags were introduced in Australia in 1966; Glad was the first to introduce cling-type wrap to the Australian market. In Australia, in order to promote the product, a competition was run in ''
The Australian Women's Weekly'' asking readers to write in with suggested uses for the product. The winner of the competition was Lady Gwynnedd Casey, the wife of
Lord Casey, the then
governor-general of Australia, who suggested it could be used to cover the hors d'oeuvres before guests arrived at her garden party. Second prize went to a woman from western Sydney, who suggested it could be used to wrap up different kinds of buttons in her sewing kit to keep them separate from one another. Union Carbide purchased the Brisbane company OSO, and in 1968 launched the OSO brand in competition with its own Glad brand. The OSO brand was made to be cheaper than, and inferior to, the Glad brand. Taylor headed sales and marketing for Glad products until he retired from Union Carbide in 1985, as Senior Vice President of the Home and Automotive Products division as well as the head of
STP Brands. His contributions to Union Carbide and his pivotal role in the sale of the Home and Automotive Products division demonstrate his significance within the company's history. He died in Hilton Head, South Carolina on August 13, 1996.
Later history In the United States, the brand was divested in 1985 to First Brands Corporation, which also owned Eveready and Energizer batteries, Simoniz, and Prestone. In 1998, First Brands Corporation was acquired by
Clorox. In Australia, the Glad brand was acquired by
Industrial Equity Limited in 1988, and then was floated as part of
National Foods in 1991. In 1997, First Brands acquired the Glad brand from National Foods, thus consolidating worldwide ownership of the brand. Clorox took over ownership of Glad in Australia in 1998 as part of its acquisition of First Brands. ==Marketing==