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. 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.,
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. 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. One of the most revolutionary products to come out on the market was the company's disposable
Pampers diaper, first test-marketed in 1961, the same year Procter & Gamble came out with
Head & Shoulders. Prior to this point,
disposable diapers were not popular, although
Johnson & Johnson had developed a product called Chux. Babies always wore cloth diapers, which were leaky and labor-intensive to wash. Pampers provided a convenient alternative, albeit at the environmental cost of more waste requiring
landfilling. Amid the recent concerns parents have voiced on the ingredients in diapers, Pampers launched Pampers Pure collection in 2018, which is a "natural" diaper alternative. 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, forming the largest consumer goods company and placing
Unilever into second place. 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 fellow 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 will 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. == Finances ==