Who Makes Clorox Bleach And Wipes?
Clorox bleach and wipes are made by The Clorox Company of Oakland, California, an independent US public company traded on the NYSE as CLX.
Quick Answer
Clorox bleach and Clorox disinfecting wipes are made by The Clorox Company, an independent, publicly traded consumer products company headquartered in Oakland, California. Clorox trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CLX and has been continuously operating since 1913.
Sodium hypochlorite (the active ingredient in Clorox bleach) is produced at Clorox owned plants in Fairfield, California; Aberdeen, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Forest Park, Georgia, among others. Disinfecting wipes are converted at a network of specialized plants including Belle, Missouri and Willowbrook, Illinois.
The Parent Company
The Clorox Company is a Fortune 500 consumer goods company with about 7 billion dollars in annual revenue. Its brand portfolio also includes Pine-Sol, Formula 409, Tilex, Liquid-Plumr, Glad trash bags (in the US), Kingsford charcoal, Hidden Valley Ranch, Brita water filters, Burt's Bees, Fresh Step cat litter and Renew Life supplements.
Clorox is not owned by Procter & Gamble or any other larger conglomerate. It is an independent, standalone public company. This makes it one of the few remaining mid cap independent consumer goods companies in the United States.
How Clorox Started
The Electro-Alkaline Company was founded in Oakland, California in 1913 by five entrepreneurs (William Hussey, Charles Husband, Rufus Myers, Edward Hughes and Abel Hamblet) who saw commercial potential in the electrolytic production of sodium hypochlorite from brine.
They started selling industrial strength bleach to laundries, breweries and municipal water suppliers. The company was renamed the Clorox Chemical Company in 1922 and shifted to a diluted household bleach formulation for consumer use.
Procter & Gamble briefly owned Clorox from 1957 to 1969, but was forced to divest by a US Federal Trade Commission antitrust ruling. Clorox has been fully independent ever since.
Where Clorox Is Made
Clorox operates about a dozen manufacturing sites across the United States. Bleach is produced regionally to minimize transport of the corrosive liquid, at plants in Fairfield, California; Aberdeen, Maryland; Forest Park, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; Alsip, Illinois; and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Clorox disinfecting wipes are made at high volume converting facilities in Willowbrook, Illinois and Belle, Missouri, with substrate supplied by external nonwoven fabric partners.
Pine-Sol, Formula 409, Tilex and Liquid-Plumr are typically produced at the same regional plants that make Clorox liquid bleach. Kingsford charcoal is made at dedicated wood processing plants in Beryl, West Virginia; Belle, Missouri; and Springfield, Oregon.
How Clorox Compares To Rivals
Clorox's direct rivals in bleach are the private label bleach products sold under retailer names (Great Value, Kirkland, Up & Up), most of which are also manufactured under contract by regional bleach producers. Any 6 percent sodium hypochlorite bleach is chemically interchangeable, but Clorox invests heavily in stabilizers that extend shelf life at retail.
In disinfecting wipes, Clorox competes with Lysol (Reckitt) and store brand wipes. Clorox and Lysol wipes both hit US Environmental Protection Agency List N kill claims for common pathogens; independent testing shows they are functionally similar, and choice usually comes down to fragrance and price.
How To Trace Any Product Back To Its Manufacturer
- Read the fine print on the label. US and EU packaging law requires either the manufacturer name or a "distributed by" address. That is your starting point.
- Search the company's SEC filings. Public parent companies list subsidiaries and manufacturing sites in their 10-K annual reports.
- Check the regulator establishment number. For food, drugs, cosmetics, cars and appliances, the plant of origin can often be looked up in public regulatory databases.
- Follow the money. Press releases about acquisitions and joint ventures are the fastest way to spot who really controls a brand today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Clorox owned by P&G? No. Procter & Gamble briefly owned Clorox from 1957 to 1969 but was forced to divest by antitrust regulators. Clorox has been fully independent since.
Where is Clorox bleach made? At about a dozen regional Clorox plants in the US, including Fairfield California, Aberdeen Maryland, Atlanta Georgia and Alsip Illinois.
Does Clorox make Glad? Clorox owns the Glad brand in the US and Canada. Elsewhere Glad is licensed to other companies (for example, Clorox has an ongoing joint venture with P&G on Glad).
Is Clorox an American company? Yes. It has been headquartered in Oakland, California since it was founded in 1913.
What This Means For The Shopper
Understanding who makes Clorox today matters for a few practical reasons. First, corporate ownership tells you who is legally responsible for the product, who handles a warranty claim, and where a safety recall would come from. Second, ownership determines the supply chain: brands owned by the same parent often share components, factories, technology and even entire platforms, which is why you sometimes see nearly identical products under different labels at very different prices.
Third, ownership tells you which alternatives are functionally the same product. Whether it is a paper mill, a contract apparel factory or an auto assembly line, the same site frequently produces for several brands at once under different specifications. That is why store brand and lower priced siblings can be a smart substitute for the marquee Clorox product when you do not need the marketing.
What To Watch Going Forward
Consumer brand ownership keeps consolidating. In the past five years alone, several major consumer brands (including some that makes Clorox) have moved between parent companies through spin offs, sales and joint ventures. Expect more of the same over the next five years as conglomerates rationalize portfolios and as private equity continues to reshape mid cap consumer brands.
If you buy from Clorox regularly and care about who profits from your purchase, it is worth checking the label, sticker or badge every year or two. Ownership changes are usually announced in trade press but rarely make consumer headlines, so most shoppers miss them until the packaging or branding gets a subtle redesign to reflect the new parent company.
Bottom Line
Clorox is one of the few remaining independent American consumer goods companies. Bleach, wipes, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr and Kingsford charcoal all trace back to the same Oakland based parent that has been running since 1913.