This category lists products for the Combe Williams brand. Current products include US shaving soaps and European shaving creams.
History
Formulated around 1840 by James B. Williams of Glastonbury, Connecticut as "Williams Genuine Yankee Soap,"[1] the first soap for use in a shaving mug. Williams manufactured shave sticks along with its shave soaps for many years but no longer produces the stick-type soap.
By the early 1900s, the company was known throughout the world. In addition to its line of shaving creams, the firm produced talcum powder, toilet soaps, and other toilet preparations, eventually developing Aqua Velva and Lectric Shave. In 1950, the company merged with Conti Products Corporation of Brooklyn, New York, and took over its entire line of products, including Conti Castile Soap. In 1957, a New York based conglomerate, Pharmaceuticals, Inc., acquired the J.B. Williams Company. The new owner (maker of such products as Geritol and Sominex) adopted the name J.B. Williams Company. At that time, the Williams plant in Connecticut was taken over by ten former Williams employees who wanted to preserve the old soap-making process; that company was called Glastonbury Toiletries. The firm made shaving soaps, bathroom soaps, castile soap, aerosol shaving creams, body lotions, and shampoos. Its largest contract was with the J.B. Williams Company. In 1971, the J.B. Williams Company was sold to Nabisco, and in 1977, Glastonbury Toiletries closed.[2]
Beecham acquired the Williams brands from Nabisco in 1982 for $100M.[3] In the 1990s, the JB Williams company acquired the rights to produce another old-line men's personal care product: Brylcreem.[4] Beecham merged with other companies, becoming part of Smithkline Beecham and then GlaxoSmithKline in 2000. Today the brand is owned by Combe.
Historic variations of Williams include shave sticks, tonsorial (barber) soap, and mentholated soap.
