The Mentholatum Company is a manufacturer and marketer of non-prescription drugs and healthcare products. Headquarters are in Orchard Park, New York, U.S.A. with operations in Australia, South Africa, Canada, Scotland, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Mexico, South Korea, China, and Japan. Manufacturing is carried out in 26 locations around the globe and marketing/distribution in over 150 countries. The company, privately held for 99 years, was acquired by Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. of Osaka, Japan in 1988. Rohto is a major player in the Japanese pharmaceutical market with top selling products in the eye care, topical, and stomach relief categories.
The Mentholatum Company's roots trace back to Wichita, Kansas. In 1889, despite a severe economic depression, Albert Alexander Hyde began a new venture, the Yucca Company, and turned it into a successful manufacturer and marketer of soap and shaving cream.
One of his earliest remedies was a cough syrup, made from a soothing blend of camphor and menthol. Hyde became intrigued by the relieving properties of menthol and sought to develop an ointment that would relieve a head or chest cold, headache or sore throat. After four years of research and consultation with pharmacists and physicians, he introduced his very first Mentholatum Ointment, which we still sell to this day.
Charlie Hyde, son of "A.A." Hyde, opened, in 1906, a Canadian subsidiary known as "Mentholatum Inter-American Inc." and constructed a 10,000 square-foot, two-story building in Fort Erie, Ontario. By 1974, "Mentholatum Inter-American" had become "The Mentholatum Company of Canada, Ltd".
In the summer of 2004, the manufacturing operations were consolidated with the Company's facility at Orchard Park, NY. The Canadian headquarters was moved to St. Catharines, Ontario.
Since 1889, The Mentholatum Company has grown and prospered from a small purveyor of soaps and toiletries into an international company, marketing quality healthcare products around the world.
