Vicks
 | |
| Type | Subsidiary of Procter & Gamble |
|---|---|
| Industry | Medicine |
| Founded | 1890 |
| Founder(s) |
Lunsford Richardson Dr. Joshua Vick |
| Products | Over-the-counter medications |
| Parent | Procter & Gamble |
| Website | http://www.vicks.com/ |
Vicks is a brand of over-the-counter medications owned by the American company Procter & Gamble. Vicks manufactures NyQuil and its morning sister medication, DayQuil. The Vicks brand also produces Formula 44 cough medicines, cough drops, Vicks VapoRub, and a number of inhaled breathing treatments. For much of its history, Vicks products were manufactured by the family-owned company Richardson-Vicks, Inc. based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Richardson-Vicks, Inc. was eventually sold to Procter & Gamble in 1985.
In Japan the product is distributed by Taisho pharmaceutical but is manufactured by P&G in India.
In German-speaking countries, the brandname Vicks was changed to Wick in order to avoid possible sexual connotations linked to Vicks or Vick. In Spanish-speaking countries, the brand name is changed to Vick.
History
In 1890, pharmacist Lunsford Richardson took over the retail drug business of his brother-in-law Dr. Joshua Vick, of Greensboro, North Carolina.[1] After Dr. Joshua Vick saw an ad for Vick's Seeds, Lunsford Richardson began marketing Vick’s Family Remedies.[1] The basic ingredients of the range included castor oil, liniment, 'dead shot' vermifuge.[1] The most popular remedy was Croup and Pneumonia Salve, which was first compounded in 1891, in Greensboro. It was introduced in 1905 with the name Vick's Magic Croup Salve and rebranded as VapoRub in 1912 at the instigation of Smith Richardson, Lunsford's oldest son;[1] Smith had gained valuable sales and marketing experience while working for a period in New York and Massachusetts after attending college. Smith Richardson assumed the presidency of the company in 1919 upon his father's death.
The flu epidemic of 1918 increased sales of VapoRub from $900,000 to $2.9 million in just one year. In 1948, Edward Mabry became president of Vicks (the first outside the Richardson family), then known as the Vick Chemical Company. In 1985, it was sold to Procter & Gamble and Procter & Gamble has since marketed the product as "The only thing more powerful than a mother's touch."
The company archives (including related personal records of the Richardson family) from at least about 1920 or so, up to the 1985 sale to Procter & Gamble, are housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.