Two billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. P&G people work to make sure those brands live upto their promise to make everyday life just a little bit better!-PG site
Well who doesn't know this leading FMCG(Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company. It is one of the global FMCG giant. So much about consumer goods on this site. I thought why not write about a leading company that manufactures this goods.
A brief History:
The company is famous for its Health care & Fabric care range of products. The Ivory soap is one of the main brands of this company. The invention of this soap has a very interesting story behind it. I have written that story at the end. The Procter & Gamble Company began in 1837 as a small, family operated candle manufacturing company in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The company was started by two friends William Procter and James Gamble.
On April 12, 1837, William Procter and James Gamble started making and selling their candles. The formal partnership agreement was signed on October 31, 1837.Once a staple of the Company's product line, candles declined in popularity with the invention of the electric light bulb. The Company discontinued candle manufacturing in the 1920s.Twenty-two years after the partnership was formed, P&G sales reached $1 million.
During the Civil War, Procter & Gamble was awarded several contracts to supply soap and candles to the Union armies.In the 1970s, P&G was one of the first companies to put its safety testing data in a computer database, helping to avoid duplicative testing.Today, P&G markets almost 300 products to more than 5 billion consumers in 140 countries. More than 98,000 P&G people work everyday to provide products of superior quality and value to a world of consumers.
In India the company made its presence in 1985 by acquiring RHL(Richardson Hindustan Limited) a public company that used to manufacture Vicks range of products such as Vicks Vaporub, Vicks Inhaler etc.It is known as Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Healthcare Ltd.
Consumer Products:
P&G has 12 billion dollar brands in its portfolio. These brands represent more than half of the Company's sales and earnings and include Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Pantene, Charmin, Bounty, Iams, Crest, Folgers, Pringles, Downy and Vicks.
Tide is the largest selling detergent in world.Manufacture of Tide involves 3 countries with surfactants developed in Japan, fragrance in Europe, and packaging from the United States.
Last year Vicks was voted India's number one brand by a research survey conducted by ORG-MARG. Till today most middle class families use Vicks as an aid against cough & cold. Vicks is one of the brands that is 100 years old.
Also Pantene-PROV is the fastest growing shampoo in the world.
Other famous products of this company are Old Spice, Whisper pads, Ariel detergent and Head & Shoulders shampoo.
Last year P&G had achieved a total sales of 438.2 crores in India itself!
This figure itself speaks for the growing popularity of the products manufactured by this company. It is one of the best in FMCG sector next to HLL(Hindustan Lever Limited).
The Unknown Saga:
Very few people know about this fortunate event that took place more than a 100 years ago & changed the future of P&G.
In 1879, P&G sold candles but the company was in trouble.Thomas Edison's invention, the light bulb threatened to make candles obsolete. The market for candles plummeted. P&G's future looked bleak.
One day, a forgetful employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch.
The result? A frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away but instead decided to make soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born and subsequently became the mainstay of P&G company & changed the future of P&G forever. This article had appeared in Success magazine. There were many more fascinating articles on various other corporations that quite shocked me!
That was my review on a FMCG company. Your comments are Welcome.
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