Kimberly-Clark history

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

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.)

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

The 1980 toxic shock syndrome scare caused a slump in tampon sales.

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.

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

Freeman, Laurie, “Kimberly Holds Its Own Against Giants,” Advertising Age, November 19, 1984.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Forest, Stephanie Anderson, and Mark Maremont. "Kimberly-Clark's European Paper Chase." Business Week, March 16, 1992.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

In 1999, the company expanded its tissue operations in Europe with its acquisition of the Swiss Company Attisholz.

In 2000, the company achieved sales of nearly $14 billion.

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

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 August 2004 the company launched its Anti-Viral tissues, the first product of its kind.

Television spots did not follow until October 2005, when the next cold and flu season began.

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

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

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

In 2016, KCV celebrates 25 years in Vietnam.

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

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.