Edgewell Personal Care Company
Explore Edgewell Personal Care
Core profile pages, annual revenue records, and related research hubs for this company.
Edgewell Personal Care Company
Explore Edgewell Personal Care
Core profile pages, annual revenue records, and related research hubs for this company.
Company History
Founded 2015 in Shelton, Connecticut
1772: Henry Nock and James Wilkinson establish the arms manufacturing business that would eventually produce Wilkinson Sword blades. 1926: Colonel Jacob Schick files patents for the first repeating razor in Hamden, Connecticut. These two brands would spend the next century as rivals before landing in the same portfolio through a 2003 Pfizer divestiture.
Edgewell itself did not exist until 2015. The corporate architecture that created it runs through Ralston Purina, which spun off its battery and lighting business as Energizer Holdings in 2000, which then spun off its personal care division fifteen years later. The personal care assets included not just Schick and Wilkinson Sword but Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic, Playtex, Carefree, and Stayfree — a collection assembled through decades of acquisitions.
The FY2015 spin-off gave Edgewell a challenging starting position: a portfolio of mature brands in categories facing secular headwinds from direct-to-consumer challengers. Dollar Shave Club had already disrupted the razor subscription model. Harry's was gaining traction. The wet shave market was fragmenting in ways that legacy shelf-based distribution couldn't easily counter.
Rod Little, who became CEO in 2019, inherited that structural challenge and responded with targeted M&A — Bulldog Skincare in 2016, Billie in 2021 — while simultaneously restructuring the manufacturing footprint. The December 2023 fire at the Wet Ones plant in Sidney, Ohio, added $12.2 million in costs to an already complicated fiscal year.
Edgewell Personal Care Company was created on July 1, 2015, through the tax-free spin-off of Energizer Holdings' personal care business. The company inherited a portfolio of brands acquired by Energizer over the preceding decade, including Schick-Wilkinson Sword (acquired from Pfizer in 2003 for $930 million), Playtex Products (acquired in 2007 for $1.9 billion), Edge and Skintimate (acquired in 2009), and American Safety Razor (acquired in 2010 for $301 million). While Edgewell as a corporate entity dates to 2015, its brand lineage extends to 1772 through Wilkinson Sword and 1926 through Schick. The company was incorporated in Missouri on September 23, 1999, as part of Ralston Purina's corporate structure, and has been publicly traded since April 1, 2000. Following the 2015 spin-off, Edgewell has pursued a strategy of selective acquisitions (Bulldog, Jack Black, Cremo, Billie) and operational improvement to transform from a legacy shave company into a modern personal care enterprise.
Edgewell is created from the spin-off of Energizer Holdings' personal care business.
Edgewell acquires Billie to expand in women's shaving and digital-native grooming.
A plant fire disrupts Wet Ones supply and creates incremental costs.
Edgewell reports $2.2235B net sales and $25.4M net income.
Edgewell completes the sale of Playtex, Stayfree, Carefree, and o.b. to Essity.
Added the #2 global wet shave franchise to Energizer's portfolio, establishing the foundation for what would become Edgewell's core business. The acquisition brought Schick and Wilkinson Sword razor systems, disposable razors, and shave preparations.
Added Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic, Wet Ones, Playtex feminine care, and Playtex infant care to the portfolio. The acquisition was Energizer's largest and transformed the company into a major personal care player.
Added the Personna brand and private-label razor manufacturing capabilities, strengthening the company's position in value-tier and custom brand razors.
Added a UK-based natural men's grooming brand to the portfolio, providing entry into the natural skincare segment and European distribution.
Added a premium men's grooming and skincare brand sold through specialty retail and department stores. The acquisition targeted affluent male consumers with high-quality formulations.
Announced in 2019 as a transformative acquisition to add DTC capabilities, digital marketing expertise, and a younger consumer base. The deal would have combined Harry's digital-native model with Edgewell's manufacturing scale and retail relationships.
Added a fast-growing masstige grooming brand with strong digital velocity. Cremo offered shave cream, body wash, hair styling, and fragrance products targeting male consumers seeking quality at accessible prices.
Added a digital-native women's shaving and body care brand targeting millennial and Gen Z consumers. Billie operated a DTC subscription model and had expanded into Target. The acquisition came after P&G's own Billie bid was blocked by the FTC.
Edgewell traces its origins to 2015, with Energizer personal-care spin-off predecessors tied to the founding story.
The Energizer spin-off created Edgewell as a focused personal-care company with legacy shaving and sun-care brands.
Edgewell expanded by building razors, blades, shaving products, feminine care, sun care, skin care, and infant care products, serving households, retailers, pharmacies, grocery chains, online shoppers, and personal-care consumers, and using shave stabilization, sun-care growth, brand renovation, e-commerce, international reach, and margin improvement.
This Edgewell history page covers founding, growth milestones, leadership changes, and modern strategic context.