Headquarters: Mayodan, NC
Established: 1976
Hero Products: Natural Powder Laundry Detergent

In a bustling North Carolina factory circa 1976, Charlie Sutherland and his son, Charlie  Jr., were hard at work making lubricants for the textile industry. The oils did their job; the problem was, they wouldn’t come off the yarn.

“Nothing on the planet would remove this oil from the yarn—nothing,” Taylor Sutherland, president of Charlie’s Soap, told Happi.

The Sutherland men reverse-engineered the oil and built a solution that dissolved the oil from the yarn without damage.  

Soon, “people were going home cleaner than they were starting off work,” Sutherland said about the workers in the textile mill.

The workers called the miracle cleaner “Charlie’s Soap.”

With factory employees demanding the soap, the Sutherlands had another eureka moment—to start their own business. Though the soap was designed to work in an industrial setting, it found footing as a household staple.

In fact, it soon became a top-selling, scent-free laundry powder.

“I believe Charlie’s Soap single-handedly revived the laundry powder market,” said Taylor, who is Charlie Jr.’s son.

Charlie’s Soap’s laundry powder is designed with a washing soda base and surfactant package entailing what Taylor calls a “liquid goop” that acts like a skeleton key. It worms its way around a range of stain types to grip dirt and rinse away stains.

The brand’s scent-free formulas are made without “offensive” fragrance chemicals that serve no other purpose other than sticking to clothing, per Sutherland.

“We don’t just mask odors,” Taylor explained. “We remove everything that is odor-causing [without leaving behind] chemicals.” The result is pristine, like-new garments, he insisted.

In addition to the powder, Charlie’s Soap makes laundry detergent in packet and liquid forms. The North Carolina-based company expanded its product line to include all-purpose cleaner, stain solutions and kitchen and bath cleaner, among other products. Charlie’s Soap can be found in major retailers across the US including Whole Foods, Walmart and Kroger, and online at charliessoap.com and Amazon.

Taylor says Charlie’s Soap is as efficacious as it is cost effective.

A single Charlie’s Soap packet, an ounce of liquid or two teaspoons of powder yields one load of laundry, and 2.64 pounds of Charlie’s Soap laundry powder is equivalent to 100 loads. Priced at $20 a bag, that’s 20 cents per load, Sutherland said.

“A little goes a long, long way and on top of that, you don’t have to buy fabric softener,” he said. “That’s why our tagline is ‘Clean for life.’ We want you to get it clean, so you can go back to life and not have to worry about laundry.”