A Proud Past. Committed to the Future.

• Five investors, some salt ponds, and a very bright idea.

  On May 3, 1913, five California entrepreneurs invested $100 apiece to do something that had never been done before: convert the brine available in the nearby salt ponds of San Francisco Bay into bleach using a sophisticated process of electrolysis. They located their offices in Oakland, California — where their headquarters remain today. In 1914, they named their brand Clorox.

• An unlikely group of scientists

  The investors were not a likely bunch to embark on such an enterprise: only one had any practical knowledge of chemistry. They were educated, though, in their guess that bleach would be a product soon in demand. By the end of the 19th century, after Louis Pasteur had discovered sodium hypochlorite’s potent effectiveness against disease-causing bacteria, bleach became a widely used disinfectant. Still, it wasn’t until Clorox introduced innovative technology that could produce both commercial-grade and household bleach products that bleach would became a proven and popular product.

• A worthy experiment

  Surviving the early years was a struggle. Directors repeatedly extended personal loans to pay mounting corporate debts. In 1916, an early investor in the business, William C.R. Murray, was named general manager. Mr. Murray’s wife, Annie, took on the responsibility of running their Oakland grocery store. Mr. Murray ordered plant chemists to develop a less concentrated “household” version of the industrial strength Clorox bleach formula, and Mrs. Murray decided to give free samples to her customers. Her idea would prove to be a key to the company’s survival.

• A household essential

  Mrs. Murray’s 5.25-percent sodium hypochlorite household bleach solution, bottled in 15-ounce amber glass “pints,” soon gained huge popularity. Households everywhere quickly recognized the formula as an effective and reliable domestic laundry aid, stain remover, deodorizer, and disinfectant. Today, an estimated eight out of ten American households use Clorox® brand bleach, and Clorox® brand laundry and home cleaning products are sold in more than 100 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. This cleaning agent, derived almost one hundred years ago from a salt pond, is now a cleaning essential used in homes throughout the world.