Featured Professionals: Tim Webb, Graham Gillam

Organizations and consumers are both seeking ways to maintain cleanliness and safety, driving sustained demand for many types of products.

At the intersection of the health and hygiene and janitorial and sanitation categories sits our recent client GOJO Industries. The company’s well-known PURELL® brand plays a unique and essential role in the daily lives of millions of people, whether in healthcare settings, at the workplace, in the businesses they frequent as customers, or in the home.

Harris Williams advised GOJO on its sale to The Clorox Company. “GOJO’s sale to Clorox is a hallmark transaction in the space, attracting a wide range of buyers and signaling immense interest in leaders with highly trusted brands, strong customer retention, a large installed base of dispensers, and differentiated IP,” says Tim Webb, a managing director in our Industrials Group.

Below, we explore what’s capturing buyer attention across the sector and why GOJO was a particularly appealing opportunity.

Ubiquitous and Vital

Keeping facilities clean and safe is an enduring priority for a vast array of businesses, from healthcare and education to manufacturing, food service, and beyond. Each area has stringent regulations for hygiene and sanitation, requiring the help of a diverse group of businesses that provide everything from floor cleaners and soaps to paper products, dispensers, and large equipment.

“These companies are ubiquitous and vital, offering non-discretionary demand, recurring revenue, and resiliency,” says Webb. “All these traits fuel steady buyer interest and M&A activity.”

The sector’s fragmented landscape of manufacturers and distributors is also highly alluring to private equity investors. It has substantial opportunity for consolidation, with many examples of platforms executing tuck-in acquisitions to establish national footprints and complementary capabilities.

As services and distribution platforms scale, for instance, they unlock better procurement leverage, higher route density with streamlined logistics, and the chance to expand into higher-margin private label products. “Investors can capitalize on the significant competitive advantage held by larger, more sophisticated players,” explains Graham Gillam, a managing director in our Business Services Group.

When supplemented by a widely known brand and universal presence, the expansion potential is exponentially greater, as shown by our recent client GOJO. “GOJO is a prime example of why companies with unmatched brand equity, an expansive installed base of dispensers, and sought-after IP are so attractive,” adds Webb.

GOJO: Everywhere Hygiene Is Critical

GOJO is a best-in-class manufacturer of hand and surface hygiene products for both businesses and consumers. One aspect of the company’s appeal rests in its category defining PURELL® brand, which has become synonymous with cleanliness where health and safety matter most.

“PURELL® is everywhere, reinforcing the brand on a daily basis and requiring virtually no advertising spend to expand into new channels,” says Webb.

At the same time, GOJO has built a robust “razor blade” business model leveraging its large installed base of dispensers, which is particularly differentiated in the sector. “GOJO has proprietary dispensers in place across healthcare, commercial, industrial, and institutional settings, generating predictable, high-margin revenue from recurring soap and sanitizer refills,” says Gillam.

GOJO’s strong performance in both B2B and B2C is also underpinned by its value-add channel relationships as well as its vertically integrated and automated manufacturing facilities. Through advanced production capabilities, efficient operations, and a broad distribution network, the company fuels growth while enabling expansion into other adjacent categories.

“This deal unites two of the most trusted names in hygiene, Clorox and PURELL®,” says Gillam. “Combining GOJO’s deep institutional reach with Clorox’s brand-building experience and ‘IGNITE’ strategy will position the organization for success in the years to come.”

Bringing GOJO’s potential to life for large strategic buyers required a deep, data-driven understanding of what makes the company so unique. By delving into the nuances of specific potential buyers and their growth opportunities, we developed compelling narratives tailored to each. “Honing GOJO’s story and supporting it with data allowed us to capture strategic buyer interest, while our rigorous approach and attention to detail helped us keep it,” adds Gillam.

“Throughout this sector and the broader industrials market, strategics continue to lean into M&A,” says Webb. “Going forward, we expect more interest in industrials businesses like GOJO with recurring demand, differentiated solutions, and access to high-growth end markets.”

Making Life Safer

Demand is strong for health and hygiene solutions that make businesses, institutions, and societies safer. As a result, both private equity investors and strategic buyers are focusing on products across the space—especially those with trusted brands, innovative technology, expansive distribution networks, and unique IP.

“GOJO demonstrates why companies that can become the brand of choice for both businesses and consumers are capturing so much attention,” notes Webb. “Investors and strategics will continue to prioritize these opportunities, and we look forward to participating in the sector’s growth.”

To further discuss M&A across the health and hygiene and janitorial and sanitation categories, please contact our senior professionals.