Culligan

Culligan International

Company type	Private
Industry	Water Treatment Products & Service
Founded	1936 (1936)
Founder	Emmett J. Culligan
Headquarters	Rosemont, Illinois
Products	Water, water softener, water filters, bottled water, bottleless water coolers
Owner	Majority ownership by investment funds affiliated with BDT & MSD partners
Number of employees	14,000

Culligan International leads the water services industry and is backed by over eight decades of research and innovation. The company provides more than 140 million consumers instant access to clean, safe, better-tasting water and helps eliminate up to 40 billion plastic bottles annually through expertise in sustainability, science and service.

History

Emmett J. Culligan

1921 - 1970:

In 1921, Emmett J. Culligan built his first homemade water softener using two coffee cans and zeolite sand. Emmett perforated the bottom of a coffee can and used greensand to make a water filter. Upon running water through his device, he discovered that the filter acted as a water softener. In the fall of 1936, with $50 and additional financing from his brother Dr. John M. Culligan, and his sister, Anna V. Culligan, Emmett established the Culligan Zeolite Company with his brothers Drs. John and Leo Culligan as partners. They started the business in Jack McLaughlin's Blacksmith Shop in Northbrook, Illinois.  By 1938, the company introduced the portable exchange water softener and opened the first Culligan franchised dealerships in Wheaton, Illinois, followed by another in Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1945, Emmett dissolved the partnership with his brothers and a new company was incorporated. Emmett was president until 1950 when he became chairman of the board and Harold Werhane was made President. In 1962, the name was changed to Culligan, Incorporated. The company became publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967, and the name was changed again in 1970 to Culligan International, which it remains today.  

1971 - 1985:

In the late 1970’s, as Culligan’s founding directors approached retirement, they began thinking about the marketability of their substantial holdings in Culligan stock. By merging with a larger company, they felt assured of a ready market for any number of shares to be sold at practically any time.  

In January 1978, a special meeting was held to announce an agreement in principle for a merger between Beatrice Foods Co. and Culligan. Beatrice was a large, Chicago-based company with sales approaching $6 billion in 1978, consisting of 418 operating units, over 600 factories, 45,000 shareholders and 90,000 employees.  

The merger between the two companies was officially announced on June 2, 1978, shortly after being approved by Culligan shareholders in a proxy solicitation. Beatrice Foods owned Culligan through 1985 and allowed the company to operate under its own name.  

1986 – 2012:

In 1986, Beatrice Foods, newly acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, spun off its specialty foods and non-food brands as E-II Holdings. E-II attempted to take over American Brands in 1988. Instead, American Brands purchased E-II. American Brands later sold the majority of the E-II brands to Meshulam Riklis. Riklis soon left the company, and E-II filed for bankruptcy in 1992. After a takeover battle from Carl Icahn, E-II emerged from bankruptcy in 1993 under the name Astrum International. Culligan was spun off in 1995, and Astrum was renamed Samsonite.

Culligan was acquired by United States Filter in 1998. US Filter was acquired by Vivendi in 1999. Vivendi spun off its water business in 2000, and the resulting company, Veolia Environnement, sold Culligan to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2003. In 2004, Entrepreneur Magazine named Culligan the number one franchise in its industry. In 2007, Culligan's international headquarters relocated from Northbrook, Illinois, to its current home in Rosemont, Illinois, with the only state-of-the-art analytical laboratory certified by the State of Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to be compliant with National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference standards.

2012 - present:

In 2012, Scott G. Clawson joined Culligan as CEO at the same time Centerbridge Partners acquired Culligan. Clawson quickly implemented a successful strategy to strengthen Culligan’s franchise dealer channel, improve recurring sales, focus on drinking water and expand both geographically and through acquisition. Since 2016, Clawson has led Culligan’s acquisition of various global water filtration and softening companies, including a combination with U.K.-based Waterlogic in 2022 and Primo Water’s European operations in 2023. Today the Culligan master brand includes 35-plus international brands known for their innovative filtration and softening technologies including Culligan, Quench, Blupura, Zip Water, Waterlogic, Purezza Premium Water and ZeroWater.

In 2016, Clawson steered Culligan through a sale process and acquisition by Advent International, generating a twenty percent return. In 2021, Clawson led the sale of Culligan to BDT Capital Partners, LLC.

Products and services

In 1936, Emmett J. Culligan designed the first home-owned water softener called the Faucet Water Softener. Two years later in 1938, the company introduced its portable exchange water softener.

In the 1960s, Culligan began expanding its global footprint by introducing new innovations. This included the world’s first mass-produced reverse osmosis water treatment system in 1965 called the Aqua 1 Water Purifier.

Culligan introduced the first two-step reverse osmosis system into hospitals for dialysis in 1987. The company introduced more filtration innovations to the market throughout the 1990s.  

In 2010, Culligan introduced the ClearLink PRO to market, giving consumers reverse osmosis water from their kitchen tap and launched a line of the most efficient water softeners and filters in the world.  

Culligan’s product portfolio includes in-home and out-of-home solutions filtration and softening solutions that fall under several categories:

• Bottle-free cooler: Dispenser of filtered water plumbed to the water supply providing filtered, hot, chilled, carbonated and/or flavored/mineralized water  
• Multi-functional tap: Taps providing boiling, chilled and carbonated water  
• Water softening: Point-of-entry systems that provide cleaner, fresher, soft water at every tap in the home.  
• Under-the-sink filtration: Under-sink point-of-use water treatment systems, with filtration technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO) and activated carbon      
• Consumer water products: Refrigerator pitchers, tap-mounted filters, shower filters, soda-makers and filtering/chilling bottles
• Filters: Specialty filters for refrigerators  
• Water conditioning: Removes scale from water to improve home appliances’ energy efficiency
• Bottle water coolers: Water dispensers using bulk water bottle on top of or inside the system

A water services company, Culligan’s network of over 4,000 technicians conducts 20,000-plus service visits daily.

Branding

Culligan delivery truck with old advertising slogan, Dundee, Michigan

Culligan’s first company logo was designed in the 1940s and touted the slogan “Soft Water for the American Home” which later came to be “Soft Water the Culligan Way.” Custom trucks were introduced in 1946 and Culligan's first known advertisement was in Life Magazine in 1947.  

The well-known “Hey, Culligan Man” campaign was launched in 1958. The campaign included a television and radio advertisement featuring a housewife yelling out the slogan "Hey, Culligan Man!" in a raucous tone, in response to the announcer advising her to "Call your Culligan Man."  

Culligan launched a North American branding campaign during the 2018 Golden Globes with a television advertisement featuring Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride. As of January 7, 2018, the slogan "Hey, Culligan Man!" became "Hey, Culligan!"

The company refreshed its brand with a new logo and slogan: Water You Love ™ in 2023.