The Top 50

Pandemics, supply chain issues, rising interest rates and soaring raw material costs. Those are just some, but not all, of the issues that business faced during the past few years.

Despite the panoply of problems, the household and personal products industry has proved very resilient. A roundup of their activities during the past year can be found on the following pages in The Top 50, our annual look at the biggest US makers of household and personal care products.

But even as prices ease, recession concerns grow.

With US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell determined to tame inflation to 2%, down from current 5% levels, observers said recession is imminent. Last month, a Deutsche Bank analyst warned, with “100% certainty,” that the US will enter a recession this year.

“The U.S. is heading for its first genuine policy-led boom-bust cycle in at least four decades,” said David Folkerts-Landau, chief economist at DB. “The inflation we see was induced largely by expansive fiscal and monetary policy, and the aggressive rate hikes needed to tame that have now materialized. Avoiding a hard landing would be historically unprecedented.” 

The US consumer, the backbone of the economy, is wary as well. More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents expect a recession within the next six months and nearly 80% of those who do, expect it to be severe, according to a Nationwide survey. In contrast, the Federal Reserve expects the US economy to grow .5% this year. Anemic? Yes, but not a recession. Still, that’s not necessarily a good thing. After all, who trusts government these days?

Who can you trust? The Top 50.

The companies on our list supply the vast majority of recession-resistant products to the US and the world. After all, people wash their clothes and their faces no matter what’s going on with the economy.

Procter & Gamble has held the top spot in The Top 50 for 45 years. And, as it has for the past several years, The Estée Lauder Companies is No. 2 on our list. In fact, the only newcomer among the top 10 isn’t really a newcomer at all. Kenvue is the name of Johnson & Johnson’s consumer products business. J&J spun-off its multibillion-dollar collection of personal care and OTC brands in order to focus on pharma. As a result, Kenvue clocks in at No. 6—and tied with Ecolab.

There are a couple of newcomers to The Top 50. Waldencast, the company behind Obagi and Milk Makeup, comes in at No. 47 and Crown Labs is 42.

We hope you enjoy this edition of The Top 50. If you think your company belongs here, reach out. And, of course, be sure to read the August issue of Happi, which includes the International Top 30—our list of the biggest players in the global household and personal products industry with headquarters outside the US.