Colgate-Palmolive Company

Colgate-Palmolive Company, American diversified company that manufactures and distributes household and commercial cleaning products, dental and other personal-care products, and pet foods in the United States and in more than 200 other countries and territories worldwide. Headquarters are in New York City.

Colgate-Palmolive’s history traces back to the early 19th century when William Colgate, a soap and candle maker, began selling his wares in New York City under the name William Colgate & Company. After his death in 1857, the company was run by his son, Samuel Colgate, under the new name Colgate & Company. In 1890 Madison University in Hamilton, N.Y., was renamed Colgate University in recognition of the Colgate family’s longtime financial support. The current corporate name was adopted in 1953.

Colgate & Company sold the first toothpaste in a tube, Colgate’s Ribbon Dental Cream, in 1896. In 1928 the firm was bought by Palmolive-Peet Company, whose founder, B.J. Johnson, had developed the formula for Palmolive soap in 1898. At the turn of the 20th century, Palmolive—which contained both palm and olive oils—was the world’s best-selling soap.

In 1955 Colgate-Palmolive lost its number-one ranking in the toothpaste market when the rival consumer-goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble Co. began selling Crest, the first toothpaste with fluoride. Colgate-Palmolive added MFP fluoride (sodium monofluorophosphate), an enamel strengthener and cavity reducer, to its toothpaste in 1968. Colgate Total, a line of toothpaste designed to protect against a number of conditions including gingivitis, was introduced in Europe in 1992 and in the United States in 1997.

In addition to toothpaste, Colgate-Palmolive manufactured a number of successful personal-care and household products in the United States and other countries, including Palmolive dishwashing liquid and Irish Spring bar soap. The firm’s acquisition of a variety of companies from the 1960s onward enabled it to expand both its market share and its product lines in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and East Asia. In 1976 Colgate-Palmolive acquired Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a worldwide leader in veterinary and pet-nutrition products, and in 1987 it purchased Softsoap liquid soap. From the 1990s Colgate-Palmolive was a major producer of all-purpose cleaners, wipes, and sprays.

After years of criticism and boycotts by animal-rights groups, Colgate-Palmolive established a moratorium on animal testing for its adult personal-care products in 1999. Major product categories remain toothpastes and mouthwashes, toothbrushes, deodorants, bar soaps and liquid soaps, dish soaps and dishwasher detergents, floor- and surface-cleaning products, and pet food.