Product type Tampon Country United States Markets World | Owner Procter & Gamble Introduced 1931 Website www.tampax.com | |
Tampax (a portmanteau of tampon and pack) is a brand of tampon currently owned by parent company Procter & Gamble and sold in over 100 countries. Both the brand and the product was invented by Dr. Earle Haas, who filed a patent in 1931. The original product was designed from the start as flushable and biodegradeable.
During World War II, Tampax produced large quantities of wound dressings for the military. It was noted for having a mostly, almost exclusively, female workforce for much of its history. Financially, while still independent, it carried no debt for most of its corporate lifetime and ranked ~#4 on the Fortune 500 list for return on equity.
Tampax was an independent company for over 50 years, based in Palmer, Massachusetts with headquarters in New York City. Renamed Tambrands, Inc. in 1984, P&G purchased the company in 1997. It was noted for decades as having the dominant share of the tampon market, challenged in the USA mostly by Playtex, J&J (with the brands Carefree and Meds) and Kimberly-Clark. P&G also competed against Tampax with the failed product from the 1970s called "Rely".
Marketing for the product includes the company's BeingGirl website.