3. S.C. Johnson

Racine, WI
262.260.2000
www.scjohnson.com
Sales: $8 billion

Sales: $8 billion (estimated) for the year ended June 30, 2008, but that total includes sales of food management products.

Key Personnel: H. Fisk Johnson, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer; Lee McCollum, chief financial officer; Drew Franklin, president and general manager, S.C. Johnson & Son Ltd.; Brian Tuffin, president and general manager, S.C. Johnson Canada; Luca Mignini, senior vice president, Europe.

Major Products: Household cleaners—Drano, Fantastik, Glade, Grab-it, Mr. Muscle, Oust, Scrubbing Bubbles, Shout, Toilet Duck, Vanish, Windex, Bayfresh, Caldrea, Mrs. Meyer’s. Pest Control—Off!, Raid, Baygon. Floor care—Armstrong, Brite, Future, S.C. Johnson Floor Wax.

New Products: The Fragrance Collection by Glade Reed Diffuser, Glade Sense & Spray automatic spray, Nature’s Source natural cleaners, Off! Clip-On mosquito repellent, Pledge multi-surface cleaner, Windex Outdoor All-in-One.

Comments: Corporate sales rose more than 6% last year at privately-held S.C. Johnson. Throughout the company’s history it has been committed to preserving the environment, but no commitment was as big as the one announced in April. It will voluntarily provide ingredient information for its home cleaning and air care products such as Windex, Shout and Glade.

Glade Sense & Spray uses a motion sensor to dispense fragrance.

“As a family company, listening and responding to consumers is S.C. Johnson’s top priority,” said H. Fisk Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer. “Today’s families want to know what’s in the household cleaning and air freshening products they use in their homes. Making information about the ingredients in our products readily accessible and easy to understand helps our consumers know they can continue to trust our products.”

A year ago, S.C. Johnson began working with its suppliers to phase out phthalates from the fragrances they supply for S.C. Johnson products. Working with its partners in the supply chain, the company developed a plan to eliminate the use of any phthalates in the fragrances supplied to S.C. Johnson—and the plan is now well underway, with new and reformulated products being produced without phthalates. The company expects to be out of phthalates completely within the timeframe of this plan.

S.C. Johnson’s ingredient transparency builds on an industry right-to-know initiative announced in late 2008. In that voluntary effort, companies would list ingredients—excluding dyes, fragrances and preservatives—online, on product labels, via toll-free number or using some other non-electronic means.

S.C. Johnson will make its ingredient information available through three avenues, including a website, (www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com); the company’s toll-free number, (800-558-5252) and on product labels that will be phased in for all air care and home cleaning products.

Moreover, S.C. Johnson is going the extra mile and will list all of its ingredients, including dyes, preservatives and fragrance ingredients. Fragrances will be shared by listing all ingredients that could potentially be included in the fragrance. This approach helps protect the proprietary details of the specific formulation of individual fragrances, which are a trade secret and a competitive advantage for S.C. Johnson and its supply chain.

Finally, the company’s ingredient website will be available in both English and Spanish, with the Spanish-language information being added in the second half of 2009.

In other news, S.C. Johnson sold the Edge shave cream franchise in May to Energizer for $275 million.