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In 1921,
the first cargo of Clorox bleach destined for Eastern store
shelves was loaded aboard ship at the Port
of Oakland. By 1928, thanks to extensive national advertising
and sales promotion campaigns stressing its purity, versatility
and dependability, the rubber-stoppered glass "pint"
of Clorox bleach had become a commonplace sight in American
laundry rooms, kitchens and bathrooms.
That year, the company
went public for the first time. Registered as the Clorox Chemical
Company in the state of Delaware, its stock began trading on the
San Francisco Exchange.
On the eve of World War II, Mr. Murray - who had served as company
president since 1929 - died suddenly. His successor, William J.
Roth, had originally been hired as a youthful "jack-of-all-trades"
on the recommendation of Mrs. Murray, whose favor he had won by
delivering newspapers to her store promptly each day. Once again,
her instinct would prove fateful to the company's future.
Extraordinary difficulties loomed for Clorox when Mr. Roth took over. Yet upon
his retirement in 1957, annual sales had multiplied more than
tenfold, to over $40 million. A major factor was the customer
and supplier loyalty nurtured by Mr. Roth's wartime business practices.
Although chlorine was in short supply, Clorox, unlike many competitors,
curtailed production rather than dilute its product.
Mr. Roth, meanwhile, had also torn up pre-war contracts that would
have enabled Clorox to purchase scarce chlorine at prices unfair
to suppliers. The consequent cuts in production to maintain the
bleach at full strength and the expenses of paying suppliers the
going rate proved costly in the short run.
But Clorox emerged from the war with a reservoir
of good will and high public regard for the consistent quality
of its bleach.
Through effective advertising (the first television commercials
aired in 1953) and the construction of a dozen new plants between
1938 and 1956, the Clorox Chemical Company had garnered the largest
share of the U.S. household bleach market by the mid-1950s. In
1957, that attracted a buyer - the huge Procter
& Gamble Company, whose panoply of laundry products found
in Clorox bleach a natural complement.
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For many years "Butch," the
animated Clorox liquid bleach
bottle, was one of the nation's most familiar advertising creations.
He survived the 1940 transition from the
rubber stopper to the screw-on cap, shown here.
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