SIC 2842 Specialty Cleaning, Polishing, and Sanitation Preparations
SIC 2842
This category includes companies that primarily make specialty cleaning products (those designed for specific surfaces such as bathrooms, ovens, drains, carpets, and upholstery), polishes and waxes (such as for furniture, metal, flooring, and glass), and other sanitation preparations including disinfectants and deodorizers. This category also includes companies making products such as household bleaches and ammonia, laundry starches, and fabric softeners. Companies that primarily make industrial bleaches are in SIC 2819: Industrial Inorganic Chemicals, Not Elsewhere Classified. Companies that primarily make household pesticides are in SIC 2879: Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals, Not Elsewhere Classified.
325612
Polish and Other Sanitation Goods Manufacturing
In the mid-2000s, the polish and sanitation goods industry was holding steady. The "healthy homes" trend, based on environmentally friendly ingredients and high-performance products that help surfaces stay clean longer, helped drive growth in the early 2000s. Although rising energy costs continued to plague manufacturers of these products, most companies were able to pass along at least some of the increased costs to the consumer. According to an article in Household & Personal Products Industry, predictions that retail sales of household disposable wipes would hit $1.2 billion by 2000 were right. As of 2005, disposable wipes still held the spot as the fastest-growing household cleaning product. Although growth in the industry had slowed somewhat by the mid-2000s, product-line extensions and new product introductions continued to drive the market.
Another sign of the industry's growth was the number of new products introduced to the market. According to Household & Personal Products Industry, air care products were the most abundant, with 905 new products introduced in 2005. Hard surface care boasted 761 new products, and fabric care and detergents, 642. Other categories were cleaning equipment (379 products), dishwashing products (269), toilet care (155), and fabric softeners (153).
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in 2005, a total of 44,839 employees worked in soap and cleaning compound manufacturing. The polish and other sanitation good manufacturing industry shipped $9.2 billion worth of merchandise in 2005, representing a steady increase from $8.2 billion in 2002. The largest number of operations was in California, followed by New York, Ohio, and Florida.
Goods in this category were often classified as commodity cleaners or specialty cleaners. Commodity cleaners were usually sold in bulk at lower prices. Specialty cleaners were sold in smaller quantities at higher prices. About 65 percent of products were sold to the industrial and institutional market, which included contract cleaning firms, office buildings, restaurants, hospitals, schools, hotels, and nursing homes.
The specialty cleaning, polishing, and sanitation preparations industry made hundreds of products, each serving specific cleaning needs of consumers in different markets. Products were developed as a response to changes in technology, consumer need, government regulation, and other factors. This makes it hard to generalize about the industry's development, but the history of fabric softeners serves as an example of how certain factors have affected this category.
Fabric softeners were introduced during the early 1950s after synthetic laundry detergents became popular. Because detergents stripped natural oils out of fabrics as they cleaned, clothes came out scratchy and often developed negative ionic charges (static cling) in the dryer. The first fabric softeners were liquids that were added to the laundry during the rinse cycle. In the 1970s fabric softeners for use in the dryer were developed. Some were porous foam sheets doused with softener, while others were sprays and dispensing bars. The 1980s brought all-in-one detergents with fabric...
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