Procter & Gamble Company
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The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), based in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. Initially, the firm manufactured the country's first mass market soap, Ivory, as well as candles (Deal, 1982). As kerosene lamps gained popularity, however, soap eclipsed candles as the firm's main product and remained so through the first half of the twentieth century. However, Crisco shortening, first manufactured in the 1870s, also developed into a leading product for the company, replacing lard in the process. After that came Camay soap, in 1923; Tide, Cheer, and Joy detergents showed up in the 1940s and 1950s; Crest toothpaste was introduced in 1956; and Pampers diapers appeared in 1961. With the 1980s, the firm became a leviathan conglomerate in the consumer products field through acquisitions and mergers. Specifically, it entered businesses such as soda pop (Crush), juice (Citris Hill), over the counter pharmaceuticals (Pepto-Bismol, Metamucil, and Dramamine), fruit drinks (Hawaiian Punch and Sunny Delight), nuts (Fisher) and men's toiletries (Shulton). Overseas, the pattern has been the same, and indeed non-US sales presently account for 40 percent of the corporate total. From the start, P&G has always functioned in a relatively competitive environment. Unlike firms involved in technology and heavy manufacturing -- such as US Steel and General Electric, where patents and product differentiation created oligopolistic indust
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everaged buyouts, mergers, and acquisitions, frequently financed by junk bonds. Indeed, Procter & Gamble was a prime example of such corporate consolidations.
Unlike the oligopolies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- when firms tended to be integrated vertically (like US Steel) or horizontally (like the railroads) -- Procter & Gamble's industry is consumer products, with each one comprising an oligopoly in itself (Schiller, 1994). This is largely a result of antitrust legislation, which frowns upon the old type of corporate expansion but permits unrelated corporate acquisitions and mergers. Thus, rather than have one firm controlling 50 percent of a given market, today's conglomerates generally have several divisions, each of which accounts for 10 to 10 to 20 percent of their discrete product markets. Indeed, Procter & Gamble epitomizes this type of industrial structure.
Corporate Objectives
Among Procter and Gamble's main objectives is to expand both in terms of products and geographically (overseas) (Schiller, 1994). The conglomerate continues to obtain new products through acquisition and merger rather than through internal expansion or product development. Though the prices for such purchases are h
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Procter Gamble's, Procter Gamble, , P&G Trips, Gamble Initially, , Equity ROE, Cheer Joy, Shulton Overseas, Assets ROA, Profit Margin, Steel Electric, = , procter gamble, total, return, return, liabilities , = ni/equity, poor, poor , ni/equity =, ni/equity =, ni/equity, poor ,
Approximate Word count = 1324
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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