Dr. Bronner's

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All One God Faith Inc.
legal form Corporation / Benefit Corporation
founding 1948
Seat Vista CA United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management Mike Bronner
David Bronner
Number of employees 230 (2019)
sales $ 129 million (2019)
Branch Cosmetics
Website www.drbronner.de
Status: 2020

The All One God Faith Inc. , better known as Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps is an American manufacturer of certified organic and fair trade cosmetic products, based in Vista CA . The family company with German roots is considered a pioneer in natural cosmetics and the largest American manufacturer of natural soap.

history

Soap factory Heilbronner & Cie.

In 1858 the Jewish soap maker Emil Heilbronner founded a soap manufactory at Judenberg 2 in Laupheim near Ulm . In 1903 Emil Heilbronner died and the management of the company passed to his nephew Abraham Erlebacher as the owner. His sons Karl, Sigmund and Berthold Heilbronner then founded the Heilbronner & Cie soap factory in Heilbronn in 1903 at Salzstraße 60 . KG . From 1905 to 1906 the soap factory was expanded according to plans by the Heilbronn architect Heinrich Stroh . The family business manufactured liquid soaps and delivered them to public washrooms in Germany. The company later renamed Madaform AG. The children of Berthold and Franziska Heilbronner joined the company in the third generation in 1920. Emanuel Heilbronner learned the craft of the soap boiler, followed by master craftsman exams and chemistry studies. His sister Luise worked there as a chemical laboratory assistant.

Emigration to the USA

Naturalization certificate from Emanuel Heilbronner

In 1929 Emanuel Heilbronner emigrated to his cousin Ludwig Brunner in the USA and received American citizenship on October 6, 1936. He changed his name and was henceforth Emanuel Theodore Bronner. In 1936 he was followed by his uncle Karl Heilbronner, his cousin Abraham Erlebacher and his family in 1937 and his sister Luise in 1938. Lotte had emigrated to Palestine in 1936. Sigmund Heilbronner died in 1939 and the soap factory in Heilbronn was transferred to H. Bauder in the course of Aryanization . Berthold and Franziska Heilbronner did not want to leave Germany and, like Sigmund's widow, became victims of the Holocaust . They died in the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps .

Better Health Foundation Dr. Bronner and Associates

From 1930 to 1941, Emanuel Bronner was Head of Research at Wrisley Soap and Perfume Co. in Milwaukee . During this time he and his friend Fred Walcher began working for a world without war and hate. He organized series of lectures on world peace and the dangers of fascism and communism and tried in 1932 to convince President Herbert Hoover of his ideas. His wife Paula died in 1944. She left him with their children Ellen (born 1934), Ralph (born 1936) and Jim (born 1938). Emanuel Bronner then gave his children to care facilities and concentrated on his political commitment. He later justified this step with: What is more important — uniting Spaceship Earth or raising your own family?

Bronner was imprisoned after one of his many public speaking at the University of Chicago in 1946. His sister Luise was concerned about his mental health and advised him to stay at Elgin State Mental Hospital, from where he escaped on one of her visits in 1947 and settled in California . According to his own account, he was given electric shocks there. Under Better Health Foundation Dr. Bronner and Associates he wrote over 6100 telegrams to politicians, authorities and institutions to draw attention to his concerns. Including 1957 to Vice President Richard Nixon . The rampant anti-communism gave him an increasing hearing.

All-One-God-Faith

In Los Angeles , Emanuel Bronner founded All-One-God-Faith Inc. in 1948 and began making peppermint soap in his bath tub according to a family recipe, which he distributed as a thank you to the audience at his events. He noticed that some visitors only took the soaps away instead of listening to him and consequently printed his philosophy on the bottle labels. The breakthrough of this Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps then came along in the late 1960s with the rise of the hippie movement and a new environmentally conscious consumer group. The soap became a cult in the USA almost exclusively through word of mouth . The products were soon available in health food stores and consumer cooperatives . Conventional retail followed. In 1962 the location was relocated to Escondido . In contrast to his two sisters, who had doctorates , Emanuel Bronner had never earned a doctorate.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps

The initial hype subsided and sales stagnated for many years at around USD 1 million a year. In 1985 an audit by the Internal Revenue Service found that the company was not a religious non-profit organization as stated. As a result, a tax liability of USD 1.3 million arose and Emanuel Bronner, who suffered from Parkinson's and was blind, threatened with bankruptcy . Help came from his sons, industrial chemist James A. Bronner, known as Jim, who had become successful at developing artificial snow and fire-fighting foam , and Ralph Bartholomew Bronner, who had studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was a teacher. They took over the company and continued to run it. Ralph in particular, who was only called "Uncle Bronner" in the company, carried on his father's philosophy. He drove around the country in his van , visited customers, campaigned for better working conditions and played his guitar . He successfully sold Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps while his brother Jim improved the structure of the company in Escondido. In the following years, Dr. Bronner's sales rose to $ 8 million annually.

David Emanuel Bronner, Ralph Bronner's eldest son, graduated from Harvard with a degree in biology in 1995 and traveled to Amsterdam . He lived there for a few months in a house with a marijuana farm on the roof and became part of the alternative scene that made him more political and radicalized. Back in California, he originally intended to become a cannabis farmer and began to work with his grandfather's business. The decision matured in him to get involved in the company, as he thought it was a good platform for implementing his new and radical ideas. Emanuel Bronner died on March 7, 1997, a year later, in 1998, as did James A. Bronner. From then on, his brother Ralph, his widow Trudy and David Emanuel Bronner from the fifth generation of the soap boiler family ran the company.

Serendiworld

For years, Dr. Bronner's soaps with caramel contain an undeclared ingredient. In 1999 David Bronner was faced with the decision as part of the reorientation of the company as "social and natural": declare or leave out. Both would have had disadvantages. He decided to replace the caramel with hemp oil , which not only brought color, but also added value, it made the foam smoother. From then on, David Bronner campaigned intensively for the legalization of hemp .

In 2000, Michael, called Mick, followed his brother into management at his urging. In an agreement (equity split) they agreed to cap their salaries at five times the lowest employee salary. Any excess profits should be reinvested or donated. From then on Mike took care of the internationalization of the company. In subsequent years, the range has been expanded to include a number of new products under the leadership of the two brothers and the brand Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps established as fair trade and certified organic. The company developed into the largest American manufacturer of natural soap.

From 2007, Dr. Bronner's Fair Trade and organic certified. 2011, in Neuss Dr. Bronner's Deutschland GmbH, from 2013 Dr. Bronner's Europe GmbH, founded as a distributor for Europe. At the same time, the Serendiworld project was created , in which the company participated in various raw material suppliers in Africa and Asia in line with the company's philosophy. In 2014 the company moved to Vista to a newly built, waste-free company. Ralph Bonner died on February 10, 2015. In the same year the company received the status of a Benefit Corporation .

Companies

Emanuel Bronner is considered a pioneer in natural cosmetics. All One God Faith Inc. is now the largest American manufacturer of natural soap. Projects for the fair extraction of raw materials are initiated and cosmetic products are manufactured and sold worldwide through various subsidiaries. The export share of sales is 85 percent. The products are offered by well-known retail chains and on the Internet.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps

  • All One God Faith Inc., Vista CA, United States
  • Dr. Bronner's Europe GmbH, Neuss

Dr. Bronner's allfilates

  • Serendiworld Llc Vista CA
    • SerendiKenya Ltd. Ukunda , Kenya
    • Serendipol (Pvt.) Ltd., Kurunegala , Sri Lanka
    • Serendipalm Co. Ltd., Accra , Ghana

public perception

At Dr. Bronner's sees yourself more as an activist than an entrepreneur. The philanthropic approaches of the company founder can still be found in company policy today. An essential part of this is social engagement, social responsibility and sustainability, true to Emanuel Bronner's philosophy: "We are all one - or none."

  • Since 2001, Dr. Bronner's in a number of campaigns to legalize hemp. In 2012, Mike Bronner harvested hemp in a cage in front of the White House. The campaign for the legalization of cannabis ended with his arrest.
  • To the brand ambassadors of Dr. Bronner's belong to Hollywood stars like the actresses Drew Barrymore or Sandra Bullock .
  • The life of Emanuel Bronner was the subject of the 2007 documentary Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox by Mac McClelland which premiered at the Washington Jewish Film Festival .
  • In 2007, Ralph Bronner appeared on an off-off Broadway one-man show , where he shared anecdotes about his life, that of his father and Dr. Bronner's as a company.

social commitment

Dr. Bronner's is a certified benefit corporation and regularly donates at least two percent of sales to social institutions and projects. For example, in 2016 it was $ 7.2 million.

  • 1998 Jim and Ralph Bronner donated a 1,200 hectare large plot of land , north of Warner Springs at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego . The non-profit organization built a residential camp and outdoor education center there, which became the James A. Bronner Family Branch in 2013 . Advisors had previously recommended that the property be sold for $ 1.4 million to improve liquidity . Emanuel Bronner acquired it in the 1970s to create a rainforest there.
  • In 2016, Dr. Bronner's $ 660,000 to New Approach and the Marijuana Policy Project , two organizations working towards marijuana law reform, for campaigns in California, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona, and Nevada. David Bronner received the Seattle Hempfest's Cannabis Activist of the Year award for this .
  • In 2017, Dr. Bronner's Europe GmbH of the environmental protection organization Sea Shepherd a ship, which was ceremonially christened Emanuel Bronner on June 8th 2017 in Bremen .

Historical traces

  • In front of Schillerstraße 48 in Heilbronn there are now the stumbling blocks for Berthold, Franziska and their sister-in-law Friederike Heilbronner.
  • Luise Helene Bronner emigrated to the USA in 1938. She became a professor at the University of Massachusetts and left a foundation that still enables student exchanges between Heilbronn and Baltimore to this day. It was accepted into the gallery of Heilbronn heads , and a Heilbronn secondary school is named after it.
  • The former factory at Salzstrasse 60 was the Madaform soap factory Dr. Helmut Bauder KG, later Madaform soap factory Franck KG. Today there is a die casting company there.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annual Report 2020
  2. ↑ Soap factory Heilbronner & Cie. KG, Heilbronn (HRA 569). In: Archive. Baden-Württemberg State Archives , accessed on August 16, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c Dominik Prandl: Return to the Laupheim roots . In: Schwäbische Zeitung . April 8, 2017 ( ggg-laupheim.de ).
  4. ↑ a b c d Janssen: Donation for the harbor porpoise rescue from Neuss. In: Neuss-Grevenbroicher newspaper . May 30, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Adrian Hoffmann: A (Heil) Bronner success story. In: Heilbronn voice . April 22, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b c The family name Heilbronner. In: Stadtgeeschichte Heilbronn. Heilbronn City Archives, accessed on August 16, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Hans Franke: History and Fate of the Jews in Heilbronn. Publication of the archive of the city of Heilbronn, 1963, p. 138 ( heilbronn.de [PDF]).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Christina Lubinski, Marvin Menniken: Emanuel Bronner (1908-1997). In: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 5th German Historical Institute , December 14, 2012, accessed on August 16, 2017 .
  9. ^ Letter from the new owner of Madaform Seifenfabrik Heilbronn, H. Bauder, to his business associates announcing “Aryanization” of the firm (approx. 1939). In: Immigrant Entrepreneurship. German Historical Institute , accessed on August 16, 2017 .
  10. ↑ a b c d e Pat Sherman: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps may be Escondido's cleanest (and perhaps oddest) success story . In: San Diego Magazine . February 2007, p. 107 ff . ( google.de ).
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g David Zax: Is Dr. Bronner's All-Natural Soap A $ 50 Million Company Or An Activist Platform? Yes. In: Fast Company. February 5, 2013, accessed August 16, 2017 .
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Tom Foster: The Undiluted Genius of Dr. Bronner's. In: Inc. Magazine . April 3, 2012, accessed August 17, 2017 .
  13. ↑ a b dweisman: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps: He was a giant. In: The Escondido Grapevine. October 10, 2015, accessed on August 18, 2017 .
  14. ↑ a b Michelle Breier: Ralph Bronner, 78, key family leader in famous soap business. In: The San Diego Union-Tribune. March 14, 2015, accessed on August 17, 2017 .
  15. ↑ a b Dr. Bronner's. In: B Lab. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Jennifer Wiebkind: Looking for traces in Heilbronn. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 17, 2013, accessed August 16, 2017 .
  17. ^ A b Kathrin Schuller: Company history Bronner: The philosopher and the soaps. In: Südwest Presse . April 21, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
  18. ^ A b Anna Heyward: David Bronner Cannabis Activist of the Year. In: The New Yorker . February 29, 2016, accessed August 19, 2017 .
  19. ↑ a b Will Yakowicz: Dr. Bronner's Enters the Marijuana Legalization Fight in 5 States. In: Inc. Magazine. September 21, 2016, accessed August 19, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox. In: Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. Retrieved on August 16, 2017 .
  21. ↑ a b Ann Hornaday: 'Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox ': An Unscrubbed Portrait. In: Washington Post . December 3, 2007, accessed August 19, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Iris Messerschmidt: Sea Shepherd presents a new ship for the North and Baltic Seas. In: Weserkurier . June 1, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
  23. ↑ a b Schillerstraße 48 Franziska Heilbronner, née Rosenstein, Berthold Heilbronner and Friederike Heilbronner, née Alsace. In: Stolpersteine ​​Heilbronn. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Gertrud Schubert: Unanimously for Luise Bronner. In: Heilbronn voice. December 22, 2016. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .