Procter and Gamble

The Procter & Gamble Company, known as P&G, is an American consumer goods company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, that makes household and personal care products such as Tide, Pampers and Gillette. Its annual report describes a business built on a company founded in Cincinnati in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble.

History of Procter and Gamble

The two founders, an English candle maker and an Irish soap maker, set up their partnership in Cincinnati in 1837. According to the company’s annual report, the firm was first established as a New Jersey corporation in 1890 and was incorporated in Ohio in 1905, which remains its state of incorporation.

Early growth came from soap and candles. The company introduced Ivory soap in 1879 and, over the following century, added detergents, toothpaste, diapers and shampoo through both inventions and acquisitions. Tide, an early synthetic laundry detergent, arrived in 1946, and Pampers disposable diapers in the early 1960s.

A major change in scale came in 2005, when P&G agreed to buy the Gillette Company, adding razors, blades and the Oral-B and Braun lines. Today Gillette remains one of the main brands reported in the company’s filings.

For much of the twentieth century P&G’s growth came from combining laboratory research with mass advertising, including sponsorship of radio and television serials aimed at household buyers, which led to the term soap opera. The company also spread internationally after the Second World War, opening plants and marketing offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Products and services

P&G organizes its products into five reportable segments:

• Beauty, which includes hair care brands such as Pantene and Head & Shoulders and skin care brands such as Olay.
• Grooming, which includes Gillette razors and related products.
• Health Care, which includes oral care brands such as Crest and Oral-B.
• Fabric and Home Care, which includes laundry and cleaning products such as Tide and Febreze.
• Baby, Feminine and Family Care, which includes Pampers, Always, Charmin and Bounty.

The company describes its business model as creating, manufacturing, marketing and distributing a diversified portfolio of daily-use products. It sells through retail stores, digital commerce platforms and direct-to-consumer channels. Its filings also say it invests in research and development and in consumer insights to improve existing products and to create new categories.

P&G describes five key vectors on which it tries to win with consumers: product performance, packaging, brand communication, retail execution and value. In practice this means testing products against competitors, designing packaging that works on store shelves and online, and supporting each brand with advertising and promotions. The company also says it invests in research and development and in consumer insights to improve existing products and invent new categories.

Corporate structure and operations

P&G’s principal executive offices are at One Procter & Gamble Plaza in Cincinnati. The company ends its fiscal year on June 30. Its annual report for fiscal 2026, filed in August 2026, says the company had approximately 104,000 employees as of June 30, 2026, a decrease of 4 percent from the prior year because of an ongoing restructuring program. About 49 percent of its employees worked in manufacturing roles.

Net sales, according to P&G’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, were:

• $84.039 billion in fiscal 2024.
• $84.284 billion in fiscal 2025.
• $87.032 billion in fiscal 2026.

These figures cover the fiscal years ending June 30 of each year. Between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 sales grew by about 0.3 percent, and between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 by about 3.3 percent, based on those reported figures.

The employee count in the annual report is an estimate of total company employees. It excludes interns, co-op students, contractors and employees of joint ventures, which explains why it can differ from other published headcounts. P&G’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Impact of Procter and Gamble

P&G is often studied in business schools for its approach to brand equity and for the way it uses market segmentation to offer several brands in the same category, such as different laundry or shampoo products aimed at different consumers. This multi-brand approach is part of the company’s marketing mix, which combines product, price, place and promotion.

Its manufacturing and distribution networks are also an example of large-scale supply chain management, supplying retailers that range from supermarkets to online platforms.

The company’s household products are used in homes in most countries, and its reports note that its work on product performance, packaging, brand communication, retail execution and value is meant to give consumers a reason to choose its brands over lower-priced alternatives.

Daily-use products such as laundry detergent, diapers and razors are bought repeatedly, which gives the company steady demand but also makes it sensitive to price competition. Shoppers who trade down to cheaper store brands during periods of high inflation can reduce sales of premium products.

The company’s brand portfolio is one of its main assets, and it manages the mix over time by buying, keeping or selling brands as consumer habits change. A brand that no longer fits can be sold, and a new category can be built by research or acquisition.

Challenges and restructuring

The company has described a restructuring program that includes reductions in headcount, which its fiscal 2026 report links to the 4 percent decrease in employees. As with many global manufacturers, its results can be affected by commodity prices, currency exchange rates, trade policy and competition from private-label products. These risks are common across the sector.

The information here is a general description of the company and not investment advice.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue