Why Kleenex is being wiped from Canadian shelves

In August of 2023, Kimberly-Clarke made an announcement. Kleenex was to disappear from Canadian shelves.

It was surprising news, since Kleenex has been a staple in this country since the 1920s.

Prior to World War One, European manufacturers had developed a product called creped cellulose wadding. It was a cotton substitute made from processed wood pulp. Ernst Mahler, head of Kimberly-Clark's technical division, saw the product while touring pulp and paper mills in Germany, brought the idea back to the U.S. and trademarked the material under the name cellucotton.

When World War One broke, it led to cotton shortages, so Mahler went to Washington, DC, where he convinced the government that cellucotton would be an ideal substitute for surgical cotton dressing when treating war wounds. He also suggested cellucotton could be used as a filter in gas masks.

When World War One ended, Kimberly-Clark needed to find a new use for their cellucotton product. With experimentation in 1924, it came up with a version of cellucotton that was a very thin, soft facial tissue. The name "Kleenex" was born from the word "clean" – only spelled with a "K." And the "-ex" suffix was taken from another Kimberly-Clark product – Kotex. The Kleenex brand name was coined and marketed by the genius adman Albert Lasker.

As women began using cosmetics more and more, Kleenex was positioned in the marketplace as a disposable tissue for removing makeup – instead of using cloths. And in 1927, Lasker's advertising agency began running print ads featuring popular Hollywood actresses using Kleenex to remove their movie makeup. Three years later, in 1930, Lasker did a survey to find out how people were actually using Kleenex. He discovered they weren't using it for makeup removal, but rather they were blowing their noses with it.

He took this finding back to Mahler at Kimberly-Clark, saying Kleenex could replace handkerchiefs. As it happened, Mahler suffered from hay fever. He loved the idea. Lasker coined the slogan, "Don't put a cold in your pocket."

Kleenex sales doubled in the first year.

Now the product didn't just appeal to women, but to men as well. By 1931, Kleenex was one of Kimberly-Clark's best-selling products. From that day forward, Kleenex became the number one facial tissue in the world.

So why is Kleenex exiting Canada?

The answer, as always, comes down to profit. Or lack thereof.

Kleenex was made at one single Kimberly-Clark manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Ontario. Shipping from there across the country, and bringing more product up from the U.S. was costly. The farther you ship, the less profitable it becomes. Inflation was another problem.

Shoppers have been turning away from big brands like Kleenex and moving toward private-label store brands to save money. The gap left by Kleenex is good news for Kruger, maker of Scotties tissues. Scotties actually outsells Kleenex in Canada, with a 35 per cent market share versus Kleenex at just 16 per cent. With Kleenex gone, that 16 per cent might just fall into Scotties' lap.

And that's nothing to sneeze at.

For more stories about Disappearing Brands, click or tap the play button above to hear the full Under the Influence episode. Find more episodes on the CBC Listen app or subscribe to the podcast.