Kimberly-Clark Profile
Kimberly-Clark Corporation principally engages in manufacturing and marketing a wide range of products made from natural or synthetic fibers and materials using advanced technologies in fibers, nonwovens and absorbency.
The company is a global company focused on delivering products and solutions that provide better care for a better world through product innovation and building the company’s personal care, consumer tissue and K-C Professional brands.
The company operates and markets its products globally, and the company’s business strategy includes targeted growth in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Segments
The company operates through three reportable global business segments: Personal Care, Consumer Tissue, and K-C Professional.
Personal Care brands offer the company’s consumers a trusted partner in caring for themselves and their families by delivering confidence, protection and discretion through a wide variety of innovative solutions and products, such as disposable diapers, training and youth pants, swimpants, baby wipes, feminine and incontinence care products, reusable underwear and other related products. Products in this segment are sold under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Sweety, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Thinx, Poise, Depend, Plenitud, Softex and other brand names.
Consumer Tissue offers a wide variety of solutions and trusted brands that responsibly improve everyday living for families around the world. Products in this segment include facial and bathroom tissue, paper towels, napkins and related products, and are sold under the Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Andrex, Viva, Scottex and other brand names.
K-C Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces, helping to make them healthier, safer and more productive through a range of solutions and supporting products, such as wipers, tissue, towels, personal protective equipment, soaps and sanitizers. The company’s brands, including Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech and KleenGuard are well known for quality and trusted to help people around the world work better.
These reportable segments develop and execute the company’s global strategies to drive growth and profitability of the company’s Personal Care, Consumer Tissue and K-C Professional operations. These strategies include global plans for branding and product positioning, technology, research and development programs, supply chain management and capacity, and capital investments for each of these businesses.
Products for household use are sold directly to supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drugstores, warehouse clubs, variety and department stores and other retail outlets, as well as through other distributors and e-commerce. Products for away-from-home use are sold through distributors, directly to manufacturing, lodging, office building, food service, and high-volume public facilities, and through e-commerce.
The company’s largest customer, Walmart Inc., represented approximately 13 percent in 2023 of the company’s consolidated net sales. Net sales to Walmart Inc. were primarily in the Personal Care and Consumer Tissue segments.
On February 24, 2022, the company completed its acquisition of a majority and controlling share of Thinx Inc. (‘Thinx’), an industry leader in the reusable period and incontinence underwear category. In the first quarter of 2023, the company delivered a redemption notice to the third-party minority owner with respect to a portion of the remaining common securities of Thinx. This redemption closed in the second quarter of 2023, and the company acquired additional ownership of Thinx, increasing the company’s ownership in Thinx to 70 percent. As part of the completion of a negotiated final redemption, the company acquired the remaining 30 percent ownership of Thinx in the fourth quarter of 2023.
On June 1, 2023, the company completed the sale transaction, announced on October 24, 2022, of the company’s Neve tissue brand and related consumer and K-C Professional tissue assets in Brazil. This transaction also included a licensing agreement to allow the acquirer to manufacture and market in Brazil the Kleenex, Scott and Wypall brands to consumers and away-from-home customers for a period of time.
Regulatory Compliance
The company is subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and antitrust and competition laws and regulations that govern the company’s dealings with suppliers, customers, competitors and government officials.
The company is also subject to expanding laws and regulations related to sustainability-related matters, non-financial reporting and diligence, labor and employment, trade, taxation and data privacy and protection, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, Brazil's General Data Protection Law, China's Personal Information Protection Law, and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.
History
Kimberly-Clark Corporation was founded in 1872. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1928.
