SC Johnson history

National advertising of this product begin in 1888 with an ad in the Saturday Evening Post.

Samuel's son, Herbert F. Johnson, Sr., joined the firm in 1892, beginning a more than century-long tradition of family involvement in the business.

But even more important, by 1898, he had developed a line of floor care products that generated more sales than the entire original flooring business.

During this time, the company's innovations as an employer were also notable: it was one of the first United States companies to give paid vacations, a policy begun in 1900.

The company changed its formal name to S.C. Johnson & Son in 1906, when Herbert F. Johnson, Sr., became a partner.

Under Herbert Fisk Johnson Sr., the company expanded worldwide, establishing its first subsidiary in the United Kingdom in 1914.

The company opened in Australia in 1917.

In 1920 the Canadian Johnson company was formed.

Herbert F. Johnson, Jr., became president after his father’s death in 1928, at which time sales had reached $5 million and the company had 500 employees.

The French Johnson company opened in 1931, the same year in which sales began of one of Johnson Wax’s longest-selling products, Glo-Coat Floor Finish.

In 1932 S.C. Johnson & Son was incorporated.

An accomplishment in any era, it was particularly stirring at the close of the Great Depression, which Johnson weathered without laying off any employees even though sales had fallen 40 percent by 1933, to less than $3 million.

In April of 1939, the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed SC Johnson Administration Building opened.

By 1942 the company was concentrating its output on products for the war effort, while many employees were called upon to serve.

The SC Johnson Headquarters was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Its addition, the Research Tower, opened in 1950.

The West German Johnson company was established in 1953.

Samuel C. Johnson, great-grandson of the founder, joined the company in 1954.

The launch of Raid House & Garden Bug Killer in 1955 marked the company's first major departure away from wax-based products.

In 1956 Johnson came forward with Raid House & Garden Bug Killer; water-based, it was the first product that could be used on plants and in the home without killing the plants.

Insecticide products continued with Off!, an insect repellent first sold in 1957.

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

By 1960 these four products accounted for 35 percent of S.C. Johnson’s United States sales.

During that time, sales increased (to $1 billion by 1978) while profits declined.

The company entered Egypt, Taiwan, and the Dominican Republic in 1979, but the decade was closing with lost momentum.

Raymond F. Farley became president in 1980, the same year Sam Johnson resumed the CEO seat and began instituting needed reforms.

All four of his children were then involved with the company, with his eldest son, S. Curtis Johnson III, heading a venture-capital unit he induced his father to bankroll in 1983.

Johnson Wax Magazine, December 1986.

Then, one week before the October 1987 stock market plunge, JWA was taken public.

In late 1988, Farley became the second nonfamily member in Johnson’s history to become chief executive.

In 1989 the company was still giving 5% of its pretax profits to charity, a tradition begun with the founder, who gave 10% of his annual income to civic improvements.

In January 1990 Farley retired and was succeeded by Richard M. Carpenter as president and CEO. The 1990s were marked by a number of acquisitions and divestments, along with continued new product introductions and overseas expansion.

A further divestment came in 1993 after the company decided to sell the bulk of its shampoo and lotion lines.

Johnson Wax subsequently beefed up its global advertising budget, which by 1994 stood at about $500 million, or 14 percent of the company’s $3.6 billion in revenues.

Although it got off to a rocky start, this venture reached profitability in 1995—after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of Ukraine as a sovereign nation.

Johnson Wax was the object of another lawsuit filed in 1997 that claimed that the company discriminated against blacks in its hiring and promotion policies.

Meantime, in February 1999, S.C. Johnson made a further withdrawal from the personal care sector through the sale of its dermatological skin-care business, which was primarily made up of the Aveeno brand, to Johnson & Johnson for an undisclosed amount.

Another misfire was Ziploc TableTops, a line of “semipermanent” plastic dishware that debuted in the spring of 2002 but was pulled off the market the following year despite a $65 million ad campaign that ranked as one of the largest in company history.

Some of the difficulties during this period could be traced to a slowness in getting products to market. For example, the company in 2004 had to pull the plug on its Pledge Grab-It Go-Mop, the failure of which stemmed from its being the third entry in the burgeoning category of bucketless wet mops.

The company launched a website listing ingredients for their products sold in North America in 2009.

The company added the ingredients of its European products to the list in May 2016.