On April 12, 1837, William Procter and James Gamble began making and selling soap and candles in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

In June 2006, Finfacts reported that Procter & Gamble, the world's top personal care products firm with a payroll of 135,000 in 80 countries, was reported to be in the process of winding down its skincare products plant at Nenagh, where about 500 people are employed.

Today workers have been notified of a meeting at the plant on Wednesday morning at which the future of the company will be outlined. In the meantime they have been told to take the day off.

The plant, which employs 600 people at capacity, has been the subject of a global review of its operations. The Nenagh plant manufactures the Oil of Olay and Hugo Boss ranges as well as a wide range of other cosmetics and toiletries.

Procter & Gamble will invest 157 million zlotys ($53.08 million) in a cosmetics factory in central Poland, Polish daily Rzeczpospolita said on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007.

The factory should open in 2008 in Aleksandrow Lodzki, a small city, and employ 200 people, the paper said, quoting local Polish officials.

The company has been in Nenagh since 1985 when the Richardson Vicks factory was acquired. In 1992, an extension was added to the plant for the production of cosmetics and in 1999, following uncertainty about a European rationalisation programme,  the Government approved support from IDA Ireland for a €27m (£21m) expansion programme to bring the headcount to 600 employees at the plant that was to become the group’s European centre for skincare products.

In December 2005, all part-time positions were terminated and the company cut 75 job cuts in February.