Invented by Wilfred Handley in 1929, Domestos bleach was outside of all the known patterns about bleach until then.
Thanks to his studies on sodium compounds used for bleaching clothes since the 18th century, Wilfred Handley made sodium hypochlorite usable for surface cleaning as well as for bleaching laundry. Thanks to the sales and marketing techniques developed for Domestos bleaches, the use of bleach has increased, and standards in the field of cleaning and hygiene have also increased. Together with Unilever, which took over the production and sales rights of Domestos in 1961, Domestos accelerated its growth in the bleach market.
Who is the inventor of Domestos?
The inventor of Domestos is Wilfred Augustine Handley, known as Wilfred Handley. Wilfred Handley, who was born in Essex, England in 1901, was the second child of the Handley family of 7 children. His father, George William Handley, who worked in an insurance agency, went to different cities for business, and his mother took care of little Wilfred and his siblings. George William Handley, who was struggling to make a living from insurance for his family, quit his job in 1911 and started working in a shipbuilding company. With the family moving to Gateshead, Wilfred Handley and his siblings had the opportunity to receive a good education. In his spare time from school, Wilfred Handley began an apprenticeship with a dentist. He improved over time and became a dental technician in 1921. After completing the necessary certificate programs, he started working as a dentist.
When and how was Domestos invented?
In the 1920s, Wilfred Handley was giving dental treatment to his patients in his practice on Chillingham Road. One of the chemicals used during the treatment was sodium hypochlorite. He bought this substance, which is mostly used to whiten dentures, from the ICI Billingham chemical company, and diluted it before use. Sodium hypochlorite, which had strong effects on dentures, was also a powerful cleaner. From this point of view, Wilfred Handley thought that if he succeeded in diluting the compound to an appropriate extent, he could achieve effective results in surface cleaning. Moreover, this compound was not yet suitable for use on real teeth. Wilfred Handley believed that if he developed the compound, he could achieve successful results in both whitening real teeth and cleaning surfaces.
Wilfred Handley, who started various studies to develop sodium hypochlorite, was aware of the wide potential of this compound. Indeed, since the 18th century, sodium solutions were already used in the field of cleaning. Among these solutions, the most preferred were sodium hypochlorite, sodium perborate monohydrate, sodium perborate tetrahydrate and sodium percarbonate. Bleach obtained from sodium solutions gave excellent results in laundry whitening. The most successful among them was sodium hypochlorite. However, this substance could cause some harmful effects on organic tissues. The oldest solution used for cleaning was potassium hypochlorite. Developed in the 19th century, chlor-alkali sodium hypochlorite reduced the harmful effects of sodium solutions.
In 1929, Wilfred Handley got successful results from his work to develop sodium hypochlorite. The compound he developed not only made sodium hypochlorite stronger, but also reduced its harmful effects on organic tissues. He named this new solution Domestos. He formed this name by combining the Latin word domes, meaning house, and the Greek word osteon, meaning bone. The word Domestos thus meant “the backbone of the house.” Wilfred Handley, who is aware of how the compound he developed will create a great transformation in the field of household cleaning, became the first name to make bleach suitable for surface cleaning with Domestos.
Invented by Wilfred Handley, Domestos has made significant changes in the bleach market. First of all, it made bleaches usable for surface cleaning as well as bleaching clothes. None of the experiments on this subject until that day had yielded as successful results as the compound developed by Wilfred Handley. Bleach, which causes color loss on surfaces and damage to tissues, has become suitable for home cleaning with Domestos. Moreover, access to bleach was limited until the 1930s. In Europe, where the effects of World War I were felt, there were very few cities producing bleach, especially Paris. For this reason, bleach was imported from abroad, which led to increased costs. Wilfred Handley had a similar problem. He had to buy a large amount of sodium hypochlorite, which he used in his practice, from ICI Billingham, and used it in his garden by diluting it.
Wilfred Handley, together with Domestos, provided a radical solution to such problems. He eliminated the difficulty of accessing this compound by producing sodium hypochlorite within the Hygiene Disinfectant company he founded in the same year. Moreover, it has developed brand new solutions for the sale and marketing of bleach. With Wilfred Handley and Domestos, bleach has ceased to be a cleaning agent that can only be reached by the high-income group and has begun to reach wider masses. Indeed, Wilfred Handley was selling Domestos in brown jugs. The vendors he hired were walking around on bicycles from street to street, providing access to Domestos bleachers from all walks of life. Moreover, Domestos bleach was not just an ordinary bleach, it was also a general purpose cleaning agent. This change in bleach provided by Wilfred Handley has increased the hygiene standards for general surface cleaning.
How did the Domestos brand grow?
With the sales of Domestos, Wilfred Handley started to generate significant revenues from the 1930s. He established a new factory in Quayside in 1932 to meet the supply need upon increasing demand. He expanded his team to strengthen his sales network and opened supply warehouses in Hull and Middlesbrough. After marrying Ivy Isabella Cissie Halliday in 1936, he received the greatest support from her husband. On the same date, he changed the name of the company to Domestos and made his wife a manager in the company. In 1938, the Wilfred-Isabella Handley couple bought a former confectionery factory on Albion Row, where they began using more advanced bottling technology. The new glass bottles specially developed for Domestos led to a slight increase in cost. As a solution, they started a deposit payment for glass bottles.
The growth of Domestos, It continued to increase during and after World War II. During this period, Domestos came to the fore in meeting the cleaning and hygiene needs of the military units. Due to the increasing demand, the production channels of Domestos were getting stronger, and at the same time, its sales network was spreading to England. Domestos sales were no longer carried out with bicycle dealers, but with sales units serving with minibuses. In 1952, Domestos had offices in London, Manchester, Cardiff, York and Glasgow, as well as an R&D center. Developed within Domestos, Stergene detergents were first introduced to consumers in 1948. Sqezy, which was launched in 1957 after these products specially designed for woollens, accelerated the growth of Domestos. Hytox, which was specially developed for out-of-home areas, was mostly used in hospitals.
When was Domestos sold to Unilever?
In the 1950s, Domestos reached a very important power in the British market. Beyond being an ordinary bleach brand, it was the brand that enabled the growth of the bleach market. Domestos' production, sales and marketing operations were becoming increasingly difficult to follow. Due to his advancing age, Wilfred Handley decided to sell Domestos to Unilever in 1961. Lever Brothers Ltd., operating under Unilever. With this acquisition, it gained a very important strategic advantage in the bleach and detergent market. Thanks to the production, sales and marketing operations of the company on a global scale, Domestos would begin to become a global brand. With the proceeds from the sale of Domestos, Wilfred Handley founded a charity company and was involved in charity work until his death in 1982.