It’s been a year of accolades for the maker of Purell hand sanitizer and other hygiene products. At ISSA Show 2024, Gojo President and CEO Carey Jaros received the Jack D. Ramaley Industry Distinguished Service Award from International Sanitary Supply Association in recognition of her outstanding service to the cleaning industry.

In addition to Jaros’ award, Gojo Corporate Sales Director Moshe Lewis was selected as a member of the inaugural class of ISSA Emerging Leaders for 2024, and was the first runner-up for the Rising Star Award. Lewis is part of a group of 30 industry professionals that represent the “next generation of leaders” and was selected from a group of more than 100 nominations of industry professionals under the age of 40 for his outstanding contributions, leadership and commitment to driving the industry forward.

In addition to Jaros and Lewis’ honors, the ISSA Hygieia Network awarded Gojo’s National Sales Vice President Ashley Fubini the Rising Star of the Year Award. The award recognizes the significant achievements of an ISSA Hygieia member who has demonstrated consistent upward mobility in her career within the cleaning industry.

Achieving Sustainability Goals

More good news was revealed on Earth Day 2025 when Gojo released its 2023–2024 Sustainable Value Report. The report details how Gojo continues to build on its long-standing commitment to creating Sustainable Value — balancing social impact, environmental stewardship, and economic growth, with each element reinforcing the other.

Key highlights from the 2023–2024 report include:

• Achievement of more than two-thirds of global sales now coming from third-party certified products, including Cradle to Cradle Certified Gold formulations.

• Reduction of 6.7% in chemicals of concern per thousand doses, building on Gojo’s leadership in ingredient safety and transparency.

Akron, OH
www.gojo.com

Sales: $625 million

Gojo Industries helps the world experience greater health and wellness by leveraging its 77 years of experience to continually introduce improved ways to keep hands—and the surfaces they frequently touch—clean. It is that focus, paired with three generations of family leadership, which puts Gojo in Happi’s Top 50 list for 2023.

This company best known for Purell, perhaps the most well-known hand sanitizer in the world, is reportedly up for sale. According to reports, Gojo has retained JP Morgan Chase to help it find a buyer. Well known among consumers, the company’s expertise in I&I/professional hand hygiene can be seen through its ubiquitous hand sanitizer and soap dispensers installed in schools, healthcare spaces, hotels, entertainment venues shopping malls across the country.

Recently, Gojo launched its newest Sustainable Value goals, its third set of goals. Its sustainability journey began in 2006, when Gojo launched its first-to-market green hand cleaner. And since then, the company reached many sustainability milestones, including its first sustainability report and policy (2011); being awarded the US EPA Safer; Choice Partner of the Year for Purell Surface Spray; and getting hundreds of its Purell hand sanitizer and Purell healthy soap SKUs Cradle to Cradle certified.

The company’s newest Sustainable Value Goals are designed to transform its business to deliver the Gojo Purpose over the long haul and innovate for a better world.  This phase of the company’s Sustainable Value strategy is focused on four priorities, which include clean chemistry; advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; a focus on plastics in its packaging and dispensing systems from incorporating recycled content and ensuring increased recyclability to exploring alternative materials and delivery models; and setting short- and long-term carbon reduction targets in alignment with the Science Based Targets Initiative’s Net-Zero Standard.

Akron, OH
www.gojo.com

Sales: $300 million (estimated).

Gojo is best known as the inventor of Purell Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer and the leading global producer and marketer of skin health and hygiene solutions for away-from-home settings. It is a privately-held, family-owned company headquartered in Akron, OH, with offices in the UK, France, Australia, Japan and Brazil.
The broad Gojo product portfolio includes hand cleaning, handwashing, hand sanitizing, skin care formulas and surface sprays under the Gojo, Purell and Provon brand names. Gojo contends its formulations use the latest advances in the science of skin care and sustainability.

The company is known for state-of-the-art dispensing technology, engineered with attention to design, sustainability and functionality. Gojo programs promote healthy behaviors for hand hygiene, skin care and compliance in critical environments.

Recently, Gojo expanded the Purell brand with the launch of Purell Disinfecting and Sanitizing Surface Sprays for the professional, healthcare and foodservice markets in 2016 and was awarded the 2017 Safer Choice Partner of the Year by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

According to Gojo, it is the first and only company to publicly declare its commitment to advancing sustainable chemistry by reducing its chemical footprint, both through the elimination of chemicals of concern and through informed substitution by 50% by 2020.

Gojo also introduced Healthy Soap products under the Purell brand name in 2017.

Akron, OH
330.255.6000
www.gojo.com
Sales: $133 million (estimated).

In business for more than 65 years, privately-held Gojo is best known for its Purell hand sanitizing products. The past year featured a variety of rollouts for Gojo.

This spring, the company debuted Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer, a new formulation that offers superior germ-killing protection that outperforms other hand sanitizers, according to the company. It contends that just one squirt of the formulation kills as many germs as two squirts of any other national brand.

“Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer has been available in hospitals and doctors offices, and now Gojo is excited to make it much more widely available,” said Kathleen Hooker, marketing director for the Purell Consumer Business. “We’re pleased to offer Purell Advanced for people who are seeking a more effective way to help stop the spread of illness-causing germs.”

Gojo also rolled out its new LTX and ADX Dispensing Systems. The LTX touch-free and ADX manual dispensing systems were designed to fit in tight areas and also feature large sight windows to allow for at-a-glance refill checks. Gojo Sanitary Sealed Refills snap into place quickly, minimizing labor time while protecting users from the contamination risks of bulk soap, according to the company. In addition, the dispensers utilize Gojo Controlled Collapse Bottles, which are engineered to hold their shape longer while emptying to allow for a more attractive appearance.

“The Gojo LTX and ADX Dispensing Systems set the standard for soap dispensing and refill systems for businesses and organizations dedicated to proper hand hygiene,” said Rick Henry, senior product manager, Dispensing Systems at Gojo. “In addition to dependability and ease of use, the LTX and ADX Dispensing Systems reflect the Gojo commitment to sustainability by featuring Gojo Smart Flex Bottles, which are made from durable, recyclable PET material to provide crystal clarity while using 30% less material than standard rigid HDPE bottles.”

Akron, OH

330.255.6000

www.gojo.com

Sales: $135 million

Sales:

$135 million (estimated).

Gojo, a privately-held company based in Akron, OH, sports offices in the UK, France, Japan and Brazil. Throughout its 64-year history, the brand has focused squarely on skin/hand health and hygiene—and it essentially created the hand sanitizer product category with Purell, which rolled out in 1988.

In 2004, Gojo sold the Purell brand to Warner-Lambert Company (although Gojo continued to market Purell in the I&I market). But last year, Purell returned home as Gojo reacquired the brand in October, purchasing it from its new owners, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, which picked up the hand sanitizer in its 2006 Warner-Lambert acquisition.

Under the Purell banner is a Green Certified version, which is made with 100% naturally renewable plant-derived ethanol in a readily biodegradable formula. This year, the USDA chose Purell Green Certified Instant Hand Sanitizer Foam as a featured product for the formal launch of its new BioPreferred Label Program.