Who owns BUTLER?
BUTLER is owned by Sunstar (Switzerland).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Sunstar Group — Our Story, Sunstar Suisse S.A. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Sunstar Suisse S.A. reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland, Etoy
- Origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Category
- Personal care & beauty › Oral care › Toothpaste & toothbrushes
- Last verified
- · 3 sources
About BUTLER
BUTLER is the professional oral care brand Sunstar acquired with the John O. Butler Company in the 1980s, a purchase the group credits with the network in Sweden and Canada that turned it into an international oral care business. Its products are developed with dental professionals for use in the surgery and at home, and are sold in Japan, Europe and the United States.
Ownership timeline of BUTLER
Where BUTLER sits in Sunstar
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Sunstar ownership tree →
See the full Sunstar brand portfolio (8) →
Other brands owned by Sunstar
Sunstar controls 8 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in personal care & beauty.
Also in personal care & beauty
Other brands in toothpaste & toothbrushes, and who owns them
The 42 brands in toothpaste & toothbrushes on Brandtree belong to 23 owners. The largest is Colgate-Palmolive, with 5; Sunstar has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Colgate | Colgate-Palmolive | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Desensin | Dentaid | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| Close-Up | Unilever | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Parodontax | Haleon | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Pepsodent (United States) | Church & Dwight | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bioniq | Dr. Wolff Group | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| CLINICA | Lion | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Elgydium | Pierre Fabre | 🇫🇷 France |
About the owner: Sunstar
Sunstar is a privately held company headquartered in Etoy, Switzerland, founded in 1932. Brandtree records 8 brands under its control.
Sunstar is a privately held group run by the Kaneda family, with its global headquarters at Etoy in Switzerland and its Japanese headquarters at Takatsuki near Osaka, where Kunio Kaneda founded it in 1932 selling rubber cement in a portable metal tube for mending bicycle tyres. It moved into oral care in 1946 with toothpaste in a tube, and the Sunstar name was coined as a reminder to brush with the sun in the morning and the stars at night. It employs about 4,000 people in 21 countries and runs a consumer oral care business and an industrial one making adhesives, sealants and motorcycle parts.
🇺🇸 BUTLER and other American brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,399 brands that began in the United States. 461 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, BUTLER among them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of BUTLER?
The parent company of BUTLER is Sunstar, a privately held company headquartered in Switzerland.
Is BUTLER American or Swiss?
BUTLER originated in the United States, but it is owned today by Sunstar, which is headquartered in Switzerland. So BUTLER is an American-origin brand under Swiss ownership.
Is BUTLER still owned by Sunstar?
Yes. As of 27 September 2026, BUTLER is still owned by Sunstar. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Sunstar Group — Our Story — Sunstar Suisse S.A., Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [2] Sunstar Group — Professional Oral Care brands — Sunstar Suisse S.A., Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [3] Sunstar Group — Consumer Oral Care brands — Sunstar Suisse S.A., Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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