2019 PBN Innovative Companies: Manufacturing
Original Bradford Soap Works Inc.
ORIGINAL BRADFORD SOAP WORKS INC. has built a reputation as a developer and manufacturer of innovative personal-care cleansing products, from facial cleansers and moisturizers in stick form to the world’s first soap strips for razors, but most of its products end up carrying other company labels.
Bradford has developed 20 such products in the past two years, said CEO and President Stuart R. Benton. The company’s current focus, he said, is creating all-natural personal-care products that require little or no water to be used, that lower the carbon footprint and that don’t require preservatives to remain fresh and usable for a long period of time.
In other words, products made for consumers on the go. “People lead active lives now,” Vice President of Marketing Deborah McDonough said. “They need personal-care products they can easily take with them. We’re always assessing the market and changing what we do. Innovation drives us.”
Benton proudly notes as an example the “Rub Me the Right Way Anti-Chafing Stick” that Bradford developed for “Queen V,” a personal-care product line created entirely by and for women in 2018. The product won the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors Indie Beauty Innovators Award for 2019.
Another recent example is the company’s work with the Rainforest Alliance on sourcing 100% palm oil from the Middle East for a body lotion that won a 2018 Sustainable Standard Setter award from the alliance in 2018.
McDonough said Bradford has been an innovative company for 143 years. “It’s part of our DNA,” she said. “We’ve formulated products for a who’s who of the personal-care industry – including Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, SC Johnson and many more. Several brands have won awards for the products that they helped develop, even though you won’t see Bradford’s name on the box.”
Bradford is known around the world for its unique soap products, Benton said. “It’s not only about bars of soap,” he added. “It’s about a new category of cleansing.”
