History

Kimberly-Clark was founded in 1872 in Neenah, Wisconsin, with $30,000 capitalisation. Their first business was running paper wood pulp mills. In 1995 Kimberly-Clark merged with the Scott Paper Company in a US$9.4 billion merger.

Governance

Current members of the board of directors of the Kimberley-Clark Corporation are: John Alm, Dennis Beresford, John Bergstrom, Abelanrdo Bru, Pastora Cafferty, Robert Decherd, Thomas Falk, Claudio Gonzalez, Mae Jemison, Linda Rice, Marc Shapiro, and Craig Sullivan.

Former members of the board of directors include: Wayne Sanders.

Relationship With Midwest

Airlines

Midwest Airlines began life in 1948, when Kimberly-Clark Corporation began providing air transportation for company executives and engineers between the company's Appleton headquarters and their mills.

In 1969, K-C Aviation was born from this, and was dedicated to the maintenance of corporate aircraft. After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Kimberly-Clark and K-C Aviation decided to form a regular scheduled passenger airline, and out of that initiative, Midwest Express was started in 1984. The name of the airline was shortened to Midwest Airlines in 2003.

Environmental controversy

In 2005, Greenpeace launched a campaign against Kimberly-Clark because they have been linked to the logging of ancient boreal forests. The environmental organization charges that Kimberly-Clark uses more than 3.0 million tonnes of pulp from forests to produce its tissue products, such as the Kleenex brand. The corporation is a purchaser of pulp from clearcutting operations in ancient forests in Ontario and Alberta, Canada that are home to threatened wildlife such as woodland caribou and wolverines. However, these charges are heavily disputed by Kimberly-Clark.

Brands that Kimberly-Clark manufactures from forest fibre include Scott, Andrex, Kleenex, Huggies, Pull-ups, and Cottonelle.

As part of its international Kleercut campaign, Greenpeace is publicizing the links between Kleenex brand tissue products and the destruction of ancient forests, moving shareholders to put pressure on Kimberly-Clark, and motivating customers to switch to more environmental tissue product manufacturers.

Major product lines

Kleenex

Kleenex is the brand name of facial tissue paper, toilet paper, and napkins

Depend

Depend is a brand name for an adult diaper worn by those afflicted with urinary or fecal incontinence.

Huggies

The main rival for Huggies in North America is Pampers.

Huggies has 2 lines of diapers. One is Ultratrim (also referred to as Baby Shaped) and the other is Supreme. Both are now unisex.

Each line has these sizes:

• Newborn up to 12 lb - These are for small newborn infants. May be too small for some infants.
• Size 1 - Up to 15 lb - For larger newborns and infants up to about 3 months old.
• Size 2 - 12-19 lb - For infants from about 2 months to 6 months.
• Size 3 - 15-23 lb - For the transition of infancy to toddlerhood - for babies from about 3 months to a year.
• Size 4 - 21-32 lb - for toddlers from about 9 months to just about 2 years of age.
• Size 5 - 28-40 lb - for toddlers to preschoolers from about 2 and a half years to anout 4 years old. Ideal for preschoolers who still wet heavily at night. About the size of size 4 underwear.
• Size 6 - 35 to 55 lb - for larger toddlers as well as preschoolers and elementary school kids. For children from 3 and a half to about 8. For children who toilet train later than usual as well as those who may be trained during the day but need nighttime protection for bedwetting and wet too heavily for Pull Ups or similar products, which are not as absorbant as diapers. About the size of Size 6 underwear.

Pull-Ups

• In 2000, Pull-ups added wetness indicators on each pair to tell whether or not the wearer is wet.
• In 2002, Pull-ups introduced easy-open sides, which caused a controversy amongst parents, some calling them a convenience, others a "glorified diaper."
• In 2005, to compete with Pampers, Pull-ups divided into two separate products. The original style was called "with Learning Designs" and the new style "with Wetness Liner" to compete with Pampers' Feel N' Learn product. The wetness liner helps the wearer to tell the difference between wet and dry by actually feeling a "wet" sensation for a few seconds.

Each Type has 3 sizes:

• Medium 1-2 T for toddlers 18-31 lb - For children just under 2 years old to just under 3 years old.
• Large 3-4 T - For Preschool Children 25-45 lb - For children from about 2 and a half to about 4 years old. The equivalent of size 4-6 underwear.
• Xtra Large 4-5 T - For preschool to early elementary school age children 38-60 lb . Ideal for chldren who have daytime accidents as well as younger bedwetters. Fit children from just under 4 years old to about 9 years old. The equivalent of size 8-10 underwear.