Larkin Company
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Formerly called
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Larkin Soap Company |
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| Founded | 1875 in Buffalo, New York |
| Defunct | 1942 |
| Headquarters | Buffalo, New York, United States |
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Key people
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John D. Larkin, Elbert Hubbard, Darwin D. Martin |
| Products | "Combination Box," "Sweet Home Soap," "Boraxine" soap powder, "Jet" harness soap, "Oatmeal" toilet soap, Glycerine, "Pure White" toilet soap, and "Ocean Bath" soap |
| Services | Mail-order |
| Owner | John D. Larkin |
The Larkin Company, also known as the Larkin Soap Company, was a company founded in 1875 in Buffalo, New York as a small soap factory. It grew tremendously throughout the late 1800s and into the first quarter of the 1900s with an approach called "The Larkin Idea" that transformed the company into a mail-order conglomerate that employed 4,000 people and had annual sales of $28.6 million (equivalent to $341,917,000 in 2016) in 1920. The company's success allowed them to hire Frank Lloyd Wright to design the iconic Larkin Administration Building which stood as a symbol of Larkin prosperity until the company's demise in the 1940s.
The Larkin Company was founded in 1875 as "J. D. Larkin, Manufacturer of Plain and Fancy Soaps" when John D. Larkin sold his interest in his brother-in-law's company J. Weller & Co. in Chicago to set up his own factory in Buffalo, New York. His first product was a yellow laundry bar named "Sweet Home Soap."
Larkin's first salesman was his wife's brother, Elbert Hubbard, who had also been working for J. Weller & Co. in Chicago as a salesman. The business grew very quickly, and in 1877 Larkin bought land on Seneca Street in Buffalo and built his first factory. By 1878, the company was producing 9 different soap products, ranging from "Boraxine" soap powder, through a variety of laundry soaps to "Jet" harness soap, "Oatmeal" toilet soap and Glycerine. In 1878, 13-year-old Darwin D. Martin was hired as a salesman in Boston. By 1880, as sales to general stores and other merchants who would buy products in large quantities increased, Martin relocated to Buffalo and became the first, and at that time the only, hired office-worker of the Larkin Company, as all office work was done by Larkin himself.
In 1881, the company initiated door-to-door sales to private residences to complement its mail solicitation to storekeepers. To establish brand identity and keep up with competitors, Hubbard inserted a modest Premium into every box of soap starting with a color picture of the company's logo. This coincided with the growth of the company's mail-order business and the strategy of gift Premiums escalated quickly into larger and more interesting souvenir picture cards than his competitors. From there, Larkin and Hubbard began experimenting and refining the practice. Soon a handkerchief was included with the "Pure White" toilet soap and then a bath towel with the purchase of "Ocean Bath" soap.
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