Ecolab, Inc., headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, is an American global
provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services to the food,
energy, healthcare, industrial and hospitality markets. It was originally
founded as Economics Laboratory in 1923 by Merritt J. Osborn, and renamed to
Ecolab in 1986. History
= Early years : 1923 - 1950s = Merritt J. "M.J." Osborn was a traveling
salesman early in his career. While staying at hotels, he saw that guest
room carpets were sent out for cleaning. Cleaning could take a week or more –
and, while the carpet was away, the hotel closed the room, foregoing
revenues. Years later, at age 44 and with two sons
about ready for college, M.J. was in desperate need of a new business idea.
He set about developing a product to clean guest carpets in the rooms. By
cleaning the carpet in place in the morning, the room would be ready for
guests that evening. M.J. called his product Absorbit and, in 1923, he formed
a company and called it Economics Laboratory. Its tagline: “Saving time,
lightening labor and reducing costs to those we serve.”
Absorbit did not turn into the money-maker M.J. had hoped. But that
didn’t stop him. He looked from the hotel room to the hotel kitchen, where
electric dish machines were beginning to appear. M.J. foresaw human dishwashers
being displaced by the machines. But at the time, there was a problem: The
machines did a poor job of washing dishes, in large part because there were
no effective dish machine soaps. M.J. saw the opportunity – and he worked to
develop a better soap. The result was SOILAX. The earliest formulation of
SOILAX may not have delivered perfect results. But it was the best option on
the market. It was well received – and it provided the young company with more
stable financial footing. During the 1930s, it expanded throughout
the United States; and the sales reached US$5.4 million by the end of 1940s. It
acquired the Magnus Company in the early 1950s, which gave the company access to
Magnus's industrial specialty businesses - including pulp and paper,
metalworking, transportation, and petrochemical processing.
= Transition to a public corp. and expansion : 1950s - 1986 =
In the 1950s, international expansion of Economics Laboratory started, with the
establishment of its first overseas subsidiary in Sweden in 1956. It became
a publicly traded corporation in 1957, and continued to expand during the 1960s
and 1970s. In 1979, it acquired Apollo Technologies; but in 1983, the acquired
Apollo subsidiary was shut down. = Ecolab Inc. : 1986 - present =
In 1986 the company changed its name from Economics Laboratory to Ecolab Inc.
In 1987 Ecolab purchased the lawncare servicer provider ChemLawn for US$376
million. It sold the acquisition in 1992 to ServiceMaster for US$103 million as
it couldn't turn ChemLawn into a profitable business. Ecolab and the
German fast-moving consumer goods firm Henkel KGaA formed a 50:50 European
joint venture called 'Henkel-Ecolab' in mid-1991 to expand into European/Russian
markets. Ecolab would continue to acquire
companies in the 1990s, namely Kay Chemical, Australia-based Gibson
Chemical Industries Ltd, and GCS Service Inc. In 2001 it bought out its partner
Henkel's 50% stake in the European JV, Henkel-Ecolab. Subsequently Ecolab
integrated the former Henkel-Ecolab into its existing global operations. As a
legacy of the Henkel-Ecolab cooperation from 1991–2001, Henkel would continue to
hold a 29.5% stake in Ecolab Inc. after the sale of the joint venture.
In the mid-2000s strategic acquisitions continued, and Ecolab diversified its
portfolio of customer offerings by venturing into the food safety
management business as well as a healthcare business unit. In 2005 it
opened a new global research, development, and engineering center in
Eagan, Minnesota. In 2008 Henkel sold all of the 73
million shares, i.e. nearly a 29.5% stake it held in Ecolab, ending the
two-decade-long partnership. The same year, Ecolab established Zurich as its
EMEA headquarters. In 2010 Ecolab was ranked #365 in
Fortune 500 magazine, and in 2011 Ecolab was named one of the "World's Most
Ethical Companies" by the Ethisphere Institute.
In July 2011 Ecolab announced a merger with Nalco Holding Company, Inc., and in
December 2011 Nalco became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecolab Inc. after it
completed its US$5.4 billion acquisition.
In May 2012 Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, through his investment
vehicles—Cascade Investment and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—increased his
stake of 10.8% in Ecolab to 25%. In October 2012 Ecolab entered an
agreement to acquire Champion Technologies. That purchase closed in
April 2013. Operations
Ecolab employs approximately 47,000 people, and operates in more than 170
countries. It is organized in the following geographical divisions:
Europe Middle East, and Africa
Asia Pacific Americas
Products and services Ecolab provides water, hygiene and
energy technologies and services to the food, energy, healthcare, industrial and
hospitality markets. Ecolab's food safety services, provide
consulting to restaurants, hospitals, food retailers and food & beverage
manufacturing facilities. It is also a supplier of chemical products used by
beef and poultry processors - to reduce pathogens, such as E. coli and
salmonella - in uncooked beef and poultry.
See also Diversey, Inc.
Nalco Holding Company References
External links Archival records of Ecolab at the
Minnesota Historical Society