Clorox to Buy Purell-Maker Gojo for $2.25 Billion

Clorox adds the hand sanitizer brand to its stable of cleaning and other consumer products

By Josh Beckerman

Updated Jan. 22, 2026 4:59 pm ET

A bottle of Purell hand sanitizer next to stacks of campaign canvass packets.

Clorox is buying Purell-maker Gojo Industries for $2.25 billion. brian snyder/Reuters

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Clorox is acquiring Gojo Industries, the maker of Purell hand sanitizer, for $2.25 billion.View more

Clorox CLX 1.14%increase; green up pointing triangle is buying Purell-maker Gojo Industries for $2.25 billion, adding the hand sanitizer brand to its stable of cleaning and other consumer products.

Clorox said the all-cash deal, which is being funded with debt, will help it expand further into the health and hygiene categories. It plans to accelerate growth of the Purell brand, while using Gojo’s business-to-business reach to give a lift to its professional business.

After considering tax benefits valued at roughly $330 million, Clorox said the net purchase price comes to about $1.92 billion.

The Akron, Ohio.-based Gojo benefited from a surge in demand during the pandemic, as consumers and businesses snapped up Purell to protect against infection.

The product, an ethyl alcohol-based hand cleaner that dries on its own, was invented in 1988, and later sold to Warner-Lambert, a Pfizer unit, in 2004. It changed hands again before Gojo reacquired full control of Purell in 2010 from Johnson & Johnson.

The Wall Street Journal reported in April 2023 that Gojo was seeing a buyer. People familiar with the matter said at the time that the company could be valued at about $3 billion, with industry players the likely buyers over private-equity firms.

Gojo currently has nearly $800 million in annual sales, with sales growing at an average of 5% over the last three years. More than 80% of sales come from business-to-business distributors, which is helped by some 20 million soap and sanitizer dispensers that help drive recurring sales.

Clorox, whose brands include Glad, Liquid-Plumr, Burt’s Bees and Kingsford, said the deal will help boost growth and support its long-term sales growth target of between 3% and 5%. It expects to generate at least $50 million in cost savings from the deal, which is expected to close by the end of June and will be accretive to its adjusted per-share earnings in the second year of ownership.

Clorox said that excluding the impact from the transaction, it reaffirms its fiscal year 2026 outlook for net sales, earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share.

Clorox shares fell 1.1% in late trading to $111. Through Thursday’s close, the stock had fallen nearly 30% over the last year, though has gained more than 11% to start this year.

Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com