the 1986 established ecolab inc. ; including its foundation in 1923 as economics laboratory and the acquisition of nalco in 2011 . for the history of acquired businesses of nalco see nalco holding company . ecolab inc. formerly called economics laboratory type public s & p 500 component traded as nyse ecl industry conglomerate founded 1923 1923 founder merritt j. osborn headquarters st. paul minnesota united states key people douglas m. baker jr chairman and ceo revenue us 14.2 billion 2014 us 13.3 billion 2013 operating income us 2.0 billion 2014 us 1.6 billion 2013 net income us 1.2 billion 2013 us 968 million 2013 number of employees 47 000 2014 website ecolab.com footnotes references 1 ecolab inc. headquartered in st. paul minnesota is an american global provider of water hygiene and energy technologies and services to the food energy healthcare industrial and hospitality markets . it was originally founded as economics laboratory in 1923 by merritt j. osborn and renamed to ecolab in 1986 . 2 3 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1923 1950s 1.2 transition to a public corp. and expansion 1950s 1986 1.3 ecolab inc. 1986 present 2 operations 3 products and services 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit this article reads more like a story than an encyclopedia entry . to meet wikipedia s quality standards and conform to the neutral point of view policy please help to introduce a more formal style and remove any personally invested tone . december 2014 early years 1923 1950s edit merritt j. m.j. osborn was a traveling salesman early in his career . while staying at hotels he saw that guest room carpets were sent out for cleaning . cleaning could take a week or more and while the carpet was away the hotel closed the room forgoing revenues . years later at age 44 and with two sons about ready for college osborn was in desperate need of a new business idea . he set about developing a product to clean guest carpets in the rooms . by cleaning the carpet in place in the morning the room would be ready for guests that evening . m.j. called his product absorbit and in 1923 he formed a company and called it economics laboratory . its tagline saving time lightening labor and reducing costs to those we serve . absorbit did not turn into the money maker osborn had hoped . but that didn t stop him . he looked from the hotel room to the hotel kitchen where electric dish machines were beginning to appear . osborn foresaw human dishwashers being displaced by the machines . but at the time there was a problem the machines did a poor job of washing dishes in large part because there were no effective dish machine soaps . osborn saw the opportunity and he worked to develop a better soap . the result was soilax . the earliest formulation of soilax may not have delivered perfect results but it was the best option on the market . it was well received and it provided the young company with more stable financial footing . during the 1930s it clarification needed expanded throughout the united states and sales reached us 5.4 million by the end of 1940s . it acquired the magnus company in the early 1950s which gave the company access to magnus s industrial specialty businesses including pulp and paper metalworking transportation and petrochemical processing . 2 transition to a public corp. and expansion 1950s 1986 edit in the 1950s international expansion of economics laboratory started with the establishment of its first overseas subsidiary in sweden in 1956 . it became a publicly traded corporation in 1957 2 and continued to expand during the 1960s and 1970s . in 1979 it acquired apollo technologies but in 1983 the acquired apollo subsidiary was shut down . ecolab inc. 1986 present edit ecolab s headquarters in saint paul minnesota in 1986 the company changed its name from economics laboratory to ecolab inc. in 1987 ecolab purchased the lawncare servicer provider chemlawn for us 376 million . it sold the acquisition in 1992 to servicemaster for us 103 million as it couldn t turn chemlawn into a profitable business . 2 ecolab and the german fast moving consumer goods firm henkel kgaa formed a 50 50 european joint venture called henkel ecolab in mid 1991 to expand into european russian markets . 4 ecolab would continue to acquire companies in the 1990s namely kay chemical 1993 australia based gibson chemical industries ltd 1997 and gcs service inc 1998 . in 2001 it bought out its partner henkel s 50 % stake in the european jv henkel ecolab . subsequently ecolab integrated the former henkel ecolab into its existing global operations . as a legacy of the henkel ecolab cooperation from 1991 2001 henkel would continue to hold a 29.5 % stake in ecolab inc. after the sale of the joint venture . 4 in the mid 2000s strategic acquisitions continued and ecolab diversified its portfolio of customer offerings by venturing into the food safety management business as well as a healthcare business unit . in 2005 it opened a new global research development and engineering center in eagan minnesota . 5 in 2008 henkel sold all of the 73 million shares i.e. nearly a 29.5 % stake it held in ecolab ending the two decade long partnership . 6 7 8 the same year ecolab established zurich as its emea headquarters . 5 in 2010 ecolab was ranked 365 in fortune 500 magazine and in 2011 ecolab was named one of the world s most ethical companies by the ethisphere institute . 9 in july 2011 ecolab announced a merger with nalco holding company inc. and in december 2011 nalco became a wholly owned subsidiary of ecolab inc. after it completed its us 5.4 billion acquisition . 10 11 12 13 in may 2012 microsoft co founder bill gates through his investment vehicles cascade investment and the bill & melinda gates foundation increased his stake of 10.8 % in ecolab to 25 % . 14 15 16 in october 2012 ecolab entered an agreement to acquire champion technologies . 17 that purchase closed in april 2013 . 18 in november 2015 for 40.5 million ecolab acquired the u.s. operations of charlotte n.c. based swisher hygiene which provides hygiene and sanitizing solutions for the foodservice hospitality retail and healthcare markets . 19 20 in july 2016 ecolab made a minority equity investment in aquatech international llc of an undisclosed amount . 21 22 operations edit ecolab employs approximately 47 000 people and operates in more than 170 countries . it is organized in the following geographical divisions north america based in st. paul minnesota europe based in zurich switzerland middle east and africa asia pacific greater china latin america south africa products and services edit ecolab provides water hygiene and energy technologies and services to the food energy healthcare industrial and hospitality markets . 23 24 the company s food safety services provide consulting to restaurants hospitals food retailers and food & beverage manufacturing facilities . it is also a supplier of chemicals used by beef and poultry processors to reduce pathogens such as e. coli and salmonella in uncooked beef and poultry . see also edit diversey inc. nalco holding company references edit 2014 annual report 10 k . ecolab . 28 february 2014 . retrieved 30 november 2014 . a b c d fundinguniverse.com ecolab . retrieved 25 july 2012 . stake in ecolab could get bigger . reuters . 7 may 2012 . retrieved 25 july 2012 . a b ecolab closes on european acquisition . 30 november 2001 . retrieved 25 july 2012 . a b ecolab timeline pdf . retrieved 25 july 2012 . henkel directors to resign from ecolab board . reuters . july 2008 . retrieved 25 july 2012 . henkel completes ecolab divestment . retrieved 25 july 2012 . henkel announces successful public offering of its shares in ecolab . november 2008 . retrieved 25 july 2012 . ethisphere magazine ecolab agrees to buy nalco for 5.4 billion to add water treatment service . bloomberg.com . july 2011 . retrieved 21 july 2012 . ecolab closes on merger with nalco . mobotecusa.com . 9 december 2003 . retrieved december 2011 . check date values in access date help ecolab merger to build on nalco s legacy . mobotecusa.com . december 2011 . retrieved 21 july 2012 . sec filing nalco holding company . mobotecusa.com . december 2011 . retrieved 21 july 2012 . bill gates gets ok to up stake in ecolab to 25 % . 8 may 2012 . retrieved 25 july 2012 . bill gates stake in ecolab could get bigger . 7 may 2012 . retrieved 25 july 2012 . reuters company profile ecolab . retrieved 25 july 2012 . http www.ecolab.com media center news releases news release id 824b66b88b214d8fadec437ebaf71c41 http finance.yahoo.com news ecolab closes purchase champion 205400401.html http www.ecolab.com news ecolab closes on acquisition of swisher hygiene 20151103 https www.sec.gov archives edgar data 1504747 000135448815004895 swsh 10q.htm ecolab makes equity investment in aquatech international . retrieved 2016 07 27 . ecolab makes equity investment in aquatech international . ecolab . retrieved 2016 07 27 . www.cafc.uscourts.gov opinions 08 1228.pdf ecolab company profile external links edit archival records of ecolab at the minnesota historical society v t e minnesota based corporations fortune 500 corporations by size unitedhealth group target best buy supervalu chs 3m u.s. bancorp medtronic general mills xcel energy ameriprise financial c. h. robinson worldwide mosaic hormel thrivent financial for lutherans ecolab st. jude medical nash finch other public companies pentair valspar patterson companies securian financial group regis polaris industries toro deluxe donaldson fastenal federated mutual insurance company mts systems corporation major non public corporations alphabetically andersen cargill carlson holiday stationstores land o lakes schwan food company securian financial group related topics list of companies based in minneapolis saint paul retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ecolab & oldid 731812883 categories chemical companies of the united statescompanies based in saint paul minnesotacompanies established in 1923companies listed on the new york stock exchangehidden categories cs1 errors datespages using infobox company with unsupported parameterswikipedia articles needing style editing from december 2014all articles needing style editingwikipedia articles needing clarification from january 2016 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 deutschfran ais edit links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 17 48 . text is available under the 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