Our story begins in Akron, Ohio, during World War II. Goldie Lippman worked to manufacture tires and rubber products in one of Akron’s many rubber factories, where she discovered how difficult it was to clean her hands after a day’s work. There were chemical cleaners available, but the graphite, carbon and tar required the use of harsh agents like benzene in order to be effective.

This took a toll on workers’ hands, and Goldie’s husband Jerry set out to find a better solution. Thus, our spirit of innovation was born. After finding a better product on the market, he still wasn’t completely satisfied that he had found the best option, and sought the advice of Professor Clarence Cook at Kent State University.

Together, they invented a hand cleaner that removed difficult soils and rinsed off cleanly, and GOJO® Hand Cleaner was born. Gone were the days of harsh chemicals and workers having to wash multiple times to clean their hands.

Soon, Goldie and Jerry had a growing company, and while Goldie managed the books, Jerry sold product from the back of his car. Through his conversations with customers, he realized that workers were using too much of the product, making it too expensive for some business owners to buy.

Always the innovator, Jerry developed the first-ever portion control hand cleaner dispenser, for which he was granted a patent in 1952. By listening to customers and creating solutions that worked for workers and distributors, GOJO soon dominated the heavy-duty hand cleaner market.

Over the next several years, we continued to expand into new locations and markets, creating solutions for foodservice establishments and healthcare facilities. We addressed the need for a regimen that allowed employees to wash and sanitize hands, and in 1988, we invented PURELL® Instant Hand Sanitizer.

The development of PURELL Instant Hand Sanitizer was a turning point for our company, and in 1997, we launched it as a consumer product, allowing people everywhere to have convenient access to hand hygiene. Today, PURELL Hand Instant Sanitizer is America’s #1 Hand Sanitizer1.

Keeping with the spirit of innovation, in the years after PURELL® products were developed, we’ve continued to push for better solutions in hand hygiene. In 2006, we introduced a revolutionary line of touch-free wall and counter-mount dispensing systems that made hand hygiene more convenient than ever.

Our commitment to Sustainable Value has been a major influence in everything we do. In 2010, we released PURELL Green Certified Hand Sanitizer, the world’s first EcoLogo certified hand sanitizer. But it’s not just about green products. We constantly evaluate our manufacturing processes, business partnerships and community relations to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make the world a better place. 

When we developed PURELL® Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer in 2011, we were able to create our most efficacious formulation, and reinforced our position as the most trusted and used brand in hospitals. This new formula kills more than 99.99% of most common germs that cause illness, and allows us to continue to push the hand hygiene envelope.

But our story doesn’t end there. We believe everyone should lead a healthy, happy life, and every year brings us closer to that goal – from revolutionary new CXT™, LTX™ and ADX™ dispensing systems to electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring systems, to expanding the PURELL® brand in order to broaden our ability to advance people’s health and well-being.

The PURELL brand has become very meaningful to people over the past 30 years and stands for safe, effective and good for you and the environment. Because of this, we worked for years in our labs in order to formulate, engineer and design new solutions that would live up to the high expectations of the PURELL brand. The launch of PURELL® Surface Spray in 2016 and the launch of the PURELL SOLUTION™ in 2017, with breakthrough soap formulations, like PURELL® brand HEALTHY SOAP® products with CLEAN RELEASE™ Technology and the game changing PURELL® ES8 Dispensing System with energy-on-the-refill, is a culmination of our years of passionate commitment, hard work and inventiveness towards our effort to bring well-being to one billion people every day.