Kimberly-Clark

American personal care corporation. Kimberly-Clark is leading the world in essentials for a better life. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with nearly 58,000 employees worldwide and manufacturing operations in 37 countries, Kimberly-Clark posted sales of $21.1 billion in 2012. Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than175 countries. Every day, almost a quarter of the world's population trust K-C's brand and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex®, Scott®, Viva® Towels, Cottonelle®, Huggies®, Pull-Ups®, Goodnites®, U by Kotex®, Kotex®, Poise®, and Depend®, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or 2 share position in more than 80 countries.

1872: Kimberly-Clark Corporation was established in 1872 in Wisconsin, USA, and is now a leading global marketer of a wide range of Family Care, Baby and Child Care, Adult and Feminine Care, Personal Care, and Professional products for use in the home, business, and industry.

1880: The business was incorporated in 1880 as Kimberly & Clark Company, with John Kimberly as president.

1885: Kimberly, Clark Co. buys Neenah's only other paper mill - known variously as the Smith & Van Ostrand Mill, Red Mill and Neenah Paper Mill. (The mill was torn down and replaced by the new Neenah Mill in 1885.)

1889: In 1889, the town was renamed Kimberly after John A. Kimberly.

1906: In 1906, after the deaths of three of the four founders, the company was reorganized and renamed Kimberly-Clark Company.

1914: The company developed cellu-cotton in 1914, a cotton substitute used by the United States Army as surgical cotton during World War I. Army nurses used cellu-cotton pads as disposable sanitary napkins, and six years later the company introduced Kotex, the first disposable feminine hygiene product.

1920: The company later recognized the commercial potential of this application and, in 1920, introduced its Kotex feminine napkin.

1924: In 1924, the company introduced another disposable tissue product, Kleenex, to replace the face towels then used for removing cold cream.

1925: In 1925, the company formed what would become Canadian Cellucotton Products Limited, for marketing cellucotton products internationally.

1926: Kimberly & Clark joined with The New York Times Company in 1926 to build a newsprint mill in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada.

1928: The company was reorganized and reincorporated in 1928 as Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

1930: Nationwide advertisements promoting Kleenex for its current use began in 1930, and sales doubled within a year.

1941: Through the years advertising included cartoon ads, the first of which appeared in 1941, when a contest called "True Confessions" was introduced.

1948: The company's foray into aviation was initiated by the purchase of a six-seat plane in 1948 to shuttle executives between company headquarters in Wisconsin and Kimberly-Clark factories around the country.

1959: Amway history, profile and corporate video Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos, a pair of direct sales veterans, launched Amway in 1959.

1968: In 1968, the company introduced Kimbies, a disposable diaper with tape closures.

1969: With six planes in 1969, Smith, then an executive vice-president for finance, suggested that company air travel be converted from a "cost center into a profit center" by offering corporate aircraft maintenance services.

1971: Darwin E. Smith, who was elected president of Kimberly-Clark in 1971, took on Procter & Gamble's challenge.

1972: The following year, Smith, the architect of Kimberly-Clark's restructuring and diversification efforts since 1972, retired as chairman and was succeeded by Wayne R. Sanders.

1978: A new premium-priced diaper in an hourglass shape with refastenable tapes was introduced in 1978 under the name Huggies.

1980: The 1980, toxic shock syndrome scare caused a slump in tampon sales. In 1980 Kimberly-Clark launched its Depend line of adult incontinence products through an aggressive television advertising campaign.

1982: Alongside Cadbury, Kimberly-Clark withdrew advertising support for The Lou Grant Show in 1982, due to pressure from various conservative caucuses campaigning against star Ed Asner.

1983: Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1983, s.v. "Kimberly, John Alfred."

1984: Freeman, Laurie, “Kimberly Holds Its Own Against Giants,” Advertising Age, November 19, 1984. The company formed Midwest Express Airlines from its corporate flight department in 1984. By 1984, Huggies had captured 50 percent of the higher quality disposable diaper market. In 1984, it was estimated that the company's Kleenex brand held 50 percent of the tissue market.

1985: The fledgling airline, operated under the name Midwest Express, got off to a rocky start with a 1985 crash in Milwaukee, planes flying 80 percent empty, and large operating losses. In 1985, stating that the state had a bad climate for business, Smith relocated Kimberly-Clark's headquarters from Wisconsin to Texas.

1987: Aimed at health care institutions and at companies as a product to reduce absenteeism, Avert never really got off the ground, and in 1987 Kimberly-Clark decided not to mass market the product. Still, Procter & Gamble beat Kleenex to punch in 1987 with its line extension Puffs Plus with Lotion.

1988: To keep the company growing at a healthy pace, Smith began to increase Kimberly-Clark's presence in Europe in 1988.

1989: By 1989, however, the operation was in the black, with planes at 66 percent capacity; a $120 million expansion increased the number of destinations to 15 cities and the airline boasted a fleet of 11 DC-9s. Kimberly-Clark enjoyed further successes in its ongoing diaper rivalry with Procter & Gamble later in the decade when it introduced the extremely popular Huggies Pull-Ups disposable training pants in 1989.

1991: In 1991, Kimberly-Clark and The New York Times Company sold their jointly owned paper mill in Kapuskasing, Ontario.

1992: Forest, Stephanie Anderson, and Mark Maremont. "Kimberly-Clark's European Paper Chase." Business Week, March 16, 1992. From that year to 1992, the company invested nearly $1 billion in European plants. The year 1992 also saw the introduction of Huggies Ultra Trim diapers.

1993: Although revenues from its European operations increased steadily, the huge investments (totaling $700 million in 1993 alone) and restructuring charges that went along with them began to affect the company's profits.

1994: Kimberly-Clark entered a joint venture with Buenos Aires-based Descartables Argentinos S.A. to produce personal care products in Argentina in 1994 and also bought the feminine hygiene unit of VP-Schickedanz (Germany) for $123 million and a 90% stake in Handan Comfort and Beauty Group (China).

1996: Realizing that its entry into the “diaper wars” with Proctor & Gamble would require streamlined operations, Kimberly-Clark began to divest itself of its pulp and paper manufacturing business in late 1996. By 1996 it had a nearly 33 percent share of the market, compared to Kleenex's formidable 48 percent.

1997: In 1997, Kimberly-Clark sold its 50% stake in Canada’s Scott Paper to forest products company Kruger Inc. and bought diaper operations in Spain and Portugal and disposable surgical face masks maker Tecnol Medical Products. By the end of 1997, pulp production fell to 30 percent of the company’s worldwide consumption, down from 80 percent at the beginning of that year.

1998: In 1998, the company restructured its tissue business to consolidate manufacturing operations.

1999: In 1999, the company expanded its tissue operations in Europe with its acquisition of the Swiss Company Attisholz. Augmenting its presence in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, in 1999 the company paid $365 million for the tissue business of Swiss-based Attisholz Holding.

2000: In 2000, the company achieved sales of nearly $14 billion. In 2000, the company grew its Asian markets when it acquired the Taiwanese company S-K Corporation and the Taiwan Scott Paper. Cheverton, Richard E., The Maverick Way: Profiting from the Power of the Corporate Misfit, La Palma, CA: Waypoint Books, 2000. The company boasted a stable of brands, which by the year 2000 included national household names such as Scott, Huggies, and Kleenex. Also in 2000, the company bought virtually all of Taiwan's S-K Corporation; the move made Kimberly-Clark one of the largest manufacturers of packaged goods in Taiwan.

2002: In 2002, Kimberly-Clark purchased paper-packaging rival Amcor’s stake in an Australian joint venture.

2003: In 2003, construction started at the Binh Duong Mill at the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) and all manufacturing was quickly consolidated at one location. In 2003, KCV introduced the well-known KOTEX XÌ TIN brand. In 2003, Kimberly-Clark added to its global consumer tissue business by acquiring the Polish tissue maker Klucze.

2004: In August 2004, the company launched its Anti-Viral tissues, the first product of its kind. The article stated that Procter & Gamble had hired a public relations firm to spread the word that Kleenex Anti-Viral would probably not prevent colds and flu. Its parent company, Procter & Gamble, did, however, start what it called an "education campaign," according to an article published in the December 6, 2004, issue of the Toledo Blade. By 2004 it had gone through a reorganization and needed a winning new product.

2005: Television spots did not follow until October 2005, when the next cold and flu season began. As 2005 came to a close, the new product had increased its market share to 5 percent and had posted more than $50 million in sales, not counting those at the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, or other discount outlets. The company reported that its consumer-tissue revenues, which accounted for 36 percent of the company's total revenues, were a healthy $5.8 billion worldwide in 2005.

2006: Bach, Pete. "Tissue, Paper Towel Making a Growing Business in Valley." Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent, February 5, 2006.

2011: In May, 2011, the first Diaper machine was installed at the Binh Duong Mill.

2015: Kimberly-Clark Sub-Saharan Africa’s vision is ambitious – nothing less than turning the $250 million business into a $1 billion business by 2015.

2016: In 2016, KCV celebrates 25 years in Vietnam.

2019: In 2019, CEO Thomas Falk resigned his position but continued on as the company's chairman of the board.

2020: 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.

2022: "Kimberly-Clark Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 21, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/kimberly-clark-corporation-1

According to Kimberly-Clark, the company mission is: “ to inspire each other and helping individuals experience more of what's important to them. It's why the company brings together people who think differently to lead the world in the essentials for a better life".

As stated in company website, Kimberly-Clark vision is: " to lead the World in Essentials for a Better Life".