Ecolab Inc.

What does Ecolab own?
Ecolab owns brands including Ecolab, Nalco Water, Ecolab Pest Elimination, Purolite, and Ovivo Electronics. Its businesses span institutional cleaning, industrial water treatment, life sciences purification, and pest control.

Is Ecolab publicly traded?
Yes. Ecolab trades on the NYSE under ticker ECL and is a component of the S&P 500.

Who founded Ecolab?
Merritt J. Osborn founded Economics Laboratory in 1923 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Ecolab name, derived from the original, was adopted in 1986.

Where is Ecolab headquartered?
Ecolab is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, where it was founded.

What is Ecolab's revenue?
Ecolab reported FY2025 net sales of $16.1 billion, up 2% year over year, a record level. Adjusted diluted EPS was $7.53, up 13%.

How many brands does Ecolab own?
Ecolab operates primarily under two master brands, Ecolab for institutional markets and Nalco Water for industrial water treatment, plus specialized brands including Pest Elimination, Purolite, and Ovivo Electronics.

Merritt J. Osborn founded Economics Laboratory in 1923 in St. Paul, Minnesota, beginning with a carpet cleaning product before pivoting to commercial dishwashing compounds. The company's first major product, Soilax, established it in the institutional cleaning market.

The company built its business on service-heavy commercial models, dispatching field representatives to install and maintain dispensing equipment at customer sites, a model that remains central to its economics today. The name Ecolab, derived from ECOnomics LABoratory, was adopted in 1986.

The transformative acquisition came in 2011, when Ecolab acquired Nalco Holding Company for approximately $5.4 billion, merging its institutional cleaning business with Nalco's industrial water treatment leadership. Nalco Water became the company's industrial water brand, extending Ecolab from kitchens and hospitals into power plants, refineries, and manufacturing. Champion Technologies, an oilfield chemicals business acquired in 2013, merged with Nalco's energy services to form Nalco Champion.

The company expanded into life sciences water purification with the 2021 acquisition of Purolite for approximately $3.7 billion, and into microelectronics ultrapure water with the Ovivo Electronics acquisition completed in early 2026 for approximately $800 million.

Ecolab's sustainability mission is core to its business: water treatment reduces customer water consumption, and hygiene products reduce infection and food contamination. The company has committed to helping customers conserve 300 billion gallons of water annually by 2030, equivalent to the drinking water needs of 2 billion people.

The company reports progress on its own operational emissions and water use, and its products enable customer sustainability outcomes that exceed its own footprint. Ecolab is consistently recognized on corporate responsibility rankings, though the business model itself is not a sustainability certification play like a consumer brand.

• Fortune 500: Ecolab ranks on the Fortune 500 by revenue.
• Fortune World's Most Admired Companies: The company appears in the Chemicals category rankings.
• Barron's sustainability rankings: Ecolab has appeared on sustainable company lists for its water and emissions performance.
• Corporate Equality Index: The company has scored highly on workplace inclusion metrics.

Chemical safety and environmental compliance: As a chemical manufacturer, Ecolab operates under environmental regulations in every market, with periodic enforcement actions and remediation obligations disclosed in filings as routine.

Nalco Champion oilfield chemicals: The downstream energy business has drawn scrutiny during industry debates over hydraulic fracturing chemicals and water use, though Ecolab's role is treatment and management rather than extraction.

Acquisition integration: The large acquisitions of Nalco and Purolite created periodic integration scrutiny, and the company's earnings quality was debated during earlier restructuring cycles before the FY2025 record performance.