In a classic American entrepreneurial story, Jerome Lippman built a thriving business that started with an idea to solve a single problem and grew to hundreds of products, dispensers, and educational programs that improve well-being through handwashing and healthy skin.

Jerry and Goldie Lippman worked in the rubber plants of Akron, Ohio, during World War II. Dirty hands were a way of life for the Lippmans and their co-workers. Soils like graphite, tar, and carbon black were difficult to remove. Chemicals like benzene got the dirt off, but they were dangerous to use and they irritated the skin.

The Lippmans found a better, safer way for rubber workers to clean their hands when Jerry, in collaboration with Clarence Cook of Kent State University, invented a grease-cutting soap that could be used with or without water.

After the war, Jerry and Goldie turned their full attention to this new heavy duty hand cleaner that they called GO-JO (our name was hyphenated back then). Jerry made the product at night and sold it to maintenance garages during the day from the back of his car. However, Jerry quickly learned that garage owners thought his new hand cleaner was too expensive to buy for their workers.

This customer feedback led Jerry to formulate a solution to the cost problem. He developed a portion-control dispenser which reduced the cost of clean hands to employers and expanded the hand cleaner market into factories and other commercial locations.

Jerry was granted a patent for the dispenser in 1952, and it became part of a successful business formula merging chemical and mechanical technology with skin care education. The GOJO® brand came to dominate the heavy duty hand cleaner market and became the company's flagship product.

Inspired by Jerry's leadership, inventive mind, and creative spirit, the company now holds dozens of patents on mechanical dispensing technology and proprietary chemical formulations for hand hygiene and professional skin care products, all for the pursuit of well-being through handwashing and healthy skin.

Today, GOJO makes a full range of well-being products including PURELL®, the #1 brand of instant hand sanitizer in America, PROVON®, our comprehensive line of healthcare products, and GOJO, our complete line that includes washroom, shower and heavy-duty skin care products.

GOJO products are available through retail stores and distributors who bring our dispensers, formulations, and educational programs to schools, manufacturing plants, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare locations, restaurants, automotive service and repair shops, arenas, recreational facilities, public and commercial buildings, and consumers around the world.