1946 akron ohio founder jerry and goldie lippman headquarters akron ohio united states area served worldwide key people joseph kanfer ceo marcella kanfer rolnick vice chair mark lerner president and coo products cleaning agents hand sanitizers foam soap dispensers revenue us 83 million number of employees 2 000 website http www.gojo.com footnotes references 1 gojo industries inc. is a privately held manufacturer of hand hygiene and skin care products . its best known product is purell instant hand sanitizer . the company was founded in 1946 in akron ohio where it is again headquartered after a period in cuyahoga falls . gojo introduced purell instant hand sanitizer in 1988 and its provon brand name in 1989 . 2 contents 1 history 2 operations 2.1 ownership 2.2 products 2.3 headquarters 3 references 4 external links history edit gojo was founded in 1946 in akron ohio by goldie and jerry lippman . goldie worked at the miller tire co. rubber factory during world war ii where graphite tar and carbon often got on her hands as well as the hands of other employees and was difficult to remove . jerry worked at the goodyear aircraft plant . both came home covered in sticky black carbon . they disliked what the cleaners used to clean their clothes so they set out to find an effective cleaning product that could be used without water . goldie and jerry worked together with professor clarence cook from kent state university s chemistry department to formulate a heavy duty hand cleaner . they called it gojo hand cleaner and sold it to rubber workers . prior to their product chemicals such as benzene were used to remove soils but these irritated the skin . after the war they began marketing to automotive service facilities . they quit their factory jobs and started gojo . 3 the company s first name and product was gogo goldie s nickname but another company had already used the name so the founders came up with gojo with the g standing for goldie and the j standing jerry . 4 gojo invented a liquid soap dispenser in 1950 to dispense their product in limited quantities after realizing that users were using much more than was needed to clean their hands hence causing buyers to think the product was too expensive . jerry lipmann filed a patent for this portion limiting dispenser in 1952 . in 2004 pfizer acquired from gojo the exclusive rights to distribute purell in the consumer market while gojo industries retained the rights to existing industrial markets . 5 the pfizer consumer healthcare division soon thereafter was acquired by johnson & johnson on june 26 2006 moving the consumer market distribution rights of purell into their portfolio and thereby creating an agreement between the two independent companies . 6 in 2010 gojo bought the brand back from johnson & johnson . 7 in february 2014 gojo industries acquired privately held laboratoires prodene klint of croissy beaubourg france . the acquisition allows both companies greater geographic footpring and increased manufacturing operations . prodene klint manufactures professional hygiene cosmetics and disinfectant products . 8 on 6 june 2015 gojo launched its gojo smartlink observation system a mobile application that connects to gojo smartlink web based software and allows for the electronic collection and collation of hand hygiene and personal protective equipment ppe compliance metrics . 9 operations edit gojo headquarters gojo headquartered in akron ohio operates worldwide with offices in the united kingdom france australia japan and brazil . it operates a number of manufacturing facilities in ohio and across north america as well as in latin america south america europe and asia . gojo s main manufacturing and distribution facilities are based at its lippman campus in cuyahoga falls ohio . ownership edit gojo is a private family owned company . in 1946 gojo was founded by jerome jerry lippman and goldie lippman . today joseph kanfer runs his uncle jerry and aunt goldie s company along with other family members . kanfer s eldest daughter marcella kanfer rolnick is vice chairwoman of gojo s board . 10 marcella kanfer rolnick also runs the lippman kanfer family foundation focused on jewish philanthropy and its sister organization lippman kanfer foundation for living torah along with other family members . 11 products edit gojo manufactures and markets skin health and hygiene solutions for away from home settings . its products include hand soaps and sanitizers moisturizers shower washes shampoos foam hand washes surgical scrubs perineal care products skin conditioners chemical removing hand cleaners hand protection products and dispensers . 1 gojo s products are usually found in public facilities . for many of these facilities such as manufacturing and hospitals gojo makes placement guides helping consumers place various gojo product brands in strategic locations . 12 gojo s most popular products are its industrial hand soaps and sanitizers as well as its provon and purell brands . headquarters edit gojo is headquartered in a 213 000 sq ft 19 788 m2 building at one gojo plaza on south main street in akron ohio . gojo bought the property from the city of akron for 1 in 2000 as part of a deal to bring the headquarters to the downtown akron area from cuyahoga falls . the building was originally the headquarters of goodrich corporation and then michelin americas small tires . gojo employs approximately 600 people at its headquarters . 13 references edit a b company overview of gojo industries inc. . bloomberg business . retrieved 21 january 2016 . gojo information . gojo industries inc. retrieved 28 february 2009 . walker jade 21 march 2005 . jerry lippman . the blog of death . retrieved 21 january 2016 . gojo company history . gojo industries . pfizer to acquire purell r from gojo ; alliance with gojo and qualpak will drive expansion of brand . pr newswire . 5 october 2004 . saul stephanie 27 june 2006 . johnson & johnson buys pfizer unit for 16.6 billion . the new york times . byard katie 30 october 2010 . purell brand handed back to akron s gojo . akron beacon journal . retrieved 30 october 2010 . gojo the akron soap maker purchased the purell hand sanitizer brand from johnson & johnson consumer cos. inc. financial terms were not disclosed . keren phil 9 february 2014 . gojo acquires french company . cuyahoga falls news press . retrieved 21 january 2016 . gojo launches the gojo smartlink observation system . gojo usa newsroom . 16 june 2015 . retrieved 21 january 2016 . lin fisher betty 5 december 2011 . gojo ceo kanfer takes life lessons from mentor uncle . akron beacon journal . retrieved 21 january 2016 . lippman kanfer family philanthropies . lippman kanfer family philanthropies . retrieved 21 january 2016 . gojo skin care placement guide pdf . gojo industries skin care . retrieved 21 january 2016 . lin fisher betty 1 november 2015 . gojo wants to sell its downtown akron headquarters and lease it back . akron beacon journal . retrieved 21 january 2016 . external links edit gojo industries website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gojo industries & oldid 743972642 categories companies based in akron ohiocompanies based in ohioprivately held companies based in ohiomanufacturing companies based in ohiocompanies established in 1946antiseptics1946 establishments in ohio navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 12 october 2016 at 09 37 . text is available under the 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