Oakland, CA
www.clorox.com

Sales: $2.6 billion for household and institutional cleaners and personal care products.

Corporate sales: $5.8 billion.

Key Personnel: Benno Dorer, chairman and chief executive officer; James Foster, executive vice president, product supply, enterprise performance and IT; Stephen M. Robb, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Laura Stein executive vice president and general counsel; Dawn Willoughby, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Bill Bailey, senior vice president, corporate business development; Jon Balousek, senior vice president and general manager, specialty division; Michael Costello, senior vice president, international division; Denise A. Garner, senior vice president and chief innovation officer; Matt Laszlo, senior vice president and chief customer officer; Kirsten Marriner, senior vice president and chief people officer; Linda Rendle, senior vice president and general manager, cleaning division; Eric Reynolds, senior vice president and chief marketing officer; Manjit Singh, senior vice president and chief information officer.

Major Products: Household—Clorox, Formula 409, Liquid-Plumr, Pine Sol and Green Works cleaning products; Personal care—Burt’s Bees, Renew Life digestive health.

New Products: Clorox Professional—Clorox Total 360 System, Clorox Odor Defense Spray, Clorox Healthcare Fuzion Cleaner Disinfectant; Burt’s Bees BB Cream and All-Natural lipsticks.

Comments: Corporate sales rose 2% last year, expanded gross margin to 150 basis points to 45.1% and boosted productivity via $109 million in cost savings. How did Clorox do it? The company credits its 2020 Strategy, which has four points:

• Engage our people as business owners;
• Increase brand investment behind superior value and more 3D innovation; i.e., at the moments of consumer choice—desire, decide and delight.
• Grow into profitable new categories and channels; and
• Fuel growth by reducing waste in our work, products and supply chain.

It’s all part of the company’s long-term aspirations to grow customer sales 3-5% a year, expand EBIT margin 25-50 basis points a year, and deliver free cash flow as a percentage of sales 10-12% a year.

Clorox executives say their portfolio is evolving toward health and wellness, via healthy food and water products, efficacious skin care and digestive aids, and of course, cleaning and disinfecting products.

In fiscal 2016, cleaning sales rose 5% to more than $1.9 billion, while the household and lifestyle segments posted 4% gains each. Only the international business reported a decline, which sales falling 8% to $997 million. Overall, the company posted a 4% gain in volume growth and 2% increase in sales growth.

For the nine months, ended March 31, corporate sales rose 4% to more than $4.3 billion. Cleaning division sales rose 6%.

In May, EPA named Clorox a Safer Choice Partner of the Year for promotion of safer chemistry and products.