Henkel North American Consumer Goods

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Henkel North American Consumer Goods, formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products, and is a subsidiary of the German company Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (Henkel Consumer Goods Inc.).

As Dial, it began as a brand of deodorant soap manufactured by Armour and Company, a Chicago, Illinois, meatpacking firm, and through a series of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, emerged by the 2000s as a stand-alone personal-care and household-cleaning products company. The company's former namesake, Dial soap, remains one of its major brands. In 2004, the company was purchased by Henkel, a German consumer-products firm. The company's president, Stefan Sudhoff, took control in 2010 following the resignation of Brad Casper.

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History

Dial was the first antibacterial soap introduced in the United States. It was developed by chemists from Armour and Company and introduced in the Chicago market in 1948. Armour had been producing soap since 1888, first as "Armour Family Soap"; soap was made from tallow, a by-product of the meat production process. The name Dial was chosen because the soap advertised "'round-the-clock" protection against the odor caused by perspiration. Demand for this new soap exceeded expectations due to its deodorant effectiveness, its non-medicinal clover-like smell and bright golden yellow color. The brand was rolled out nationally in 1949, and in time became the leading deodorant soap brand in the United States.

Because of the popularity and strong sales of Dial soap, fueled by magazine, radio, and television advertising, by the 1960s Armour's consumer products business became known as Armour-Dial. In 1970, Greyhound Corporation purchased Armour & Company for $400 million as part of a diversification strategy and relocated its headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona the following year.

In 1985, Greyhound acquired the household products business of Purex Industries, Inc. in 1985 and was combined with Armour-Dial to form The Dial Corporation.

In 1987, Greyhound sold Greyhound Lines in the wake of bitter labor disputes. In 1989, a 24-story corporate headquarters tower was built just north of downtown Phoenix for $83 million. To reflect the parent company's new focus, Greyhound was renamed Greyhound Dial Corporation in 1990 and as The Dial Corp the following year. For a time, The Dial Corp was a minority investor in Phoenix's NBA basketball team, the Phoenix Suns. John W. Teets, chairman and chief executive officer of parent The Dial Corp since 1982, continued to divest major business segments on an annual basis.

In late 1995, parent company Greyhound (renamed in 1991 as The Dial Corp) announced its intention to split the company and spin off the Dial consumer-products business. After the spin off, Dial's now former parent company was renamed Viad Corp, consisting of the service businesses. The Dial consumer business was reborn as the new Dial Corporation, relocating its corporate offices to Scottsdale, Arizona, adjacent to its long-time research and development facility. Under new CEO, Malcolm Jozoff, a former P&G manager, the new Dial Corporation underwent major layoffs in the fall of 1996 and a series of financially disastrous acquisitions the following four years. In 2000, Jozoff resigned and was replaced by Herbert Baum with a mandate from the board of directors to find a suitable buyer for the company.

In April 2004, Dial was bought by Henkel. On March 1, 2006, Dial completed the sale of its food business for $183 million to Pinnacle Foods. The food business produces shelf-stable canned meat products (such as potted meat and Vienna sausages) and ready meals under the Armour Star brand, had sales of approximately $230 million in fiscal 2005.

In July 2017, Dial relocated its headquarters from Scottsdale, Arizona and closed its Wilton, Connecticut Sun Products headquarters and brought all staff into the new Henkel North America Consumer Goods headquarters at 200 Elm Street in Stamford, Connecticut.