Andrex

Andrex is a British brand of toilet roll. It is owned by the American company Kimberly-Clark.[2] The "Andrex Puppy", a Labrador Retriever puppy that appears on the company's television adverts, is synonymous with the brand.

For the French comedian, see Andrex (actor).
Andrex
Product typeToilet paper
OwnerKimberly-Clark
CountryUnited Kingdom
Introduced1942 (1942)
MarketsUnited Kingdom
Previous ownersSt Andrew Mills
Bowater-Scott
Registered as a trademark inEU[1]
Websitewww.andrex.co.uk
The Andrex Puppy, seen here in a British advertisement from 1994.

Its sister brand in the U.S. and Australia is Kleenex Cottonelle. In Austria it is called "Hakle," and in Germany simply Cottonelle.[3] In The Netherlands, Andrex is known as Page.[4] In Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal it is branded as Scottex.[5] In South Africa, it is branded as Baby Soft.[6]

In Australia, the puppy is known as the "Kleenex Puppy" and Kleenex is a partner and supporter of Guide Dogs Australia.

History

Andrex was originally developed in 1942 by paper manufacturer St Andrew Mills Ltd., as a disposable handkerchief. Harrods department store in London sold the handkerchiefs exclusively. Before Andrex, brands such as Bronco and Izal produced products that were harsher. They were mainly sold through chemists and known as “shinies”.[7]

The name Andrex comes from St Andrew Mill, on St Andrews Road in Walthamstow, where the toilet tissue was first made. The concept of two ply luxury paper had been inspired by the facial tissues used by American women, as witnessed by the man who created the name Andrex, Ronald Keith Kent. It was the first two-ply tissue.

St Andrew Mills was taken-over by Bowater in 1955, and in 1956, Bowater formed a joint venture with the Scott Paper Company, Bowater-Scott, that specialized in tissue products, including Andrex.[8]

One of the most popular TV ads in the UK almost did not happen. The original idea in 1972 was for a girl to run through a house trailing a roll of Andrex. The television regulators did not approve this as they felt it encouraged children to be wasteful.[7] Bowater-Scott's Marketing Director, Raymond Dinkin decided to use a Labrador puppy instead. Since then there have been 130 different adverts featuring the puppy.

In 1986, Bowater sold Bowater-Scott to Scott Paper, and in 1995, Kimberly-Clark purchased Scott Paper.[9]

Andrex says that it marketed the first moist toilet paper in 1992.[10]

In 2004, Andrex replaced its advertising slogan “Soft, Strong and very very Long”, with “Tuggable, Huggable softness”, and changed to “Be Kind To Your Behind” in 2008.[11] By 2015, it was using the slogans “Andrex clean” and “How Andrex do you feel?”[12]

The Financial Times reported that panic-buying during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 13 per cent increase in sales of Kimberley-Clark's consumer tissues, including Andrex, Kleenex and Scott, in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the previous year. [13]

Operations

All Andrex mainstream is made in Northfleet. Factories in Flint and Barrow in Furness supplement production on the mainline product, along with the Puppies on a Roll, Aloe Vera and Quilts variations.

See also

References
  1. https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/000458000
  2. "About Us". Andrex.co.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  3. "Cottonelle Homepage". www.cottonelle.de. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  4. "Kimberly-Clark Combines Brands to Create Kleenex Cottonelle Bathroom Tissue". The Free Library. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  5. "scottex". Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  6. "Baby Soft". Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  7. "Superbrands case studies: Andrex". Brand Republic. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  8. R.P.T. Davenport-Hines; Geoffrey Jones (28 June 2005). Enterprise, Management and Innovation in British Business, 1914-80. Routledge. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-135-77870-5.
  9. Collins, Glenn (18 July 1995). "Kimberly-Clark to Buy Scott Paper, Challenging P.& G." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  10. Brand History, Andrex, retrieved 11 March 2015, Andrex® are always trying to be a forefront of toilet tissue innovation, and in 1992 were the first to launch moist tissues.
  11. Hall, Steve. "Cottonelle Wants to Be Kind to Your Behind". www.adrants.com. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  12. Andrex clean, Andrex, retrieved 11 March 2015
  13. Gray, Alistair (22 April 2020). "Toilet roll mania boosts sales of Andrex maker Kimberly-Clark". The Financial Times. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
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