Who owns Lifebuoy?
Lifebuoy is owned by Unilever (the United Kingdom, LSE: ULVR).[1]
Evidence: Unilever PLC Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2025, SEC EDGAR, 12 March 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Unilever PLC verified
- Owner HQ
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, London
- Origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Founded
- 1894
- Category
- Personal care & beauty › Bath, soap & hand care › Bar soap & body wash
- Parent ticker
- LSE: ULVR NYSE: UL AEX: UNA
- Trademark registrant
- Conopco, Inc. (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 2 sources
About Lifebuoy
Lifebuoy is a soap brand Lever Brothers launched in 1894 as a carbolic disinfectant soap, marketed on the claim that washing prevented disease. It is sold mainly in South Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia today and anchors Unilever's handwashing programmes, which have distributed hygiene education in schools across those regions.
What Unilever's annual report says about Lifebuoy
Sentences about Lifebuoy from Unilever's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
Dove delivered mid-single-digit growth, while Lifebuoy was flat as volume was impacted by commodity-driven pricing.
We are also reformulating products using lower- GHG ingredients, such as our Lux and Lifebuoy soap bars in India and Indonesia.
How often Unilever names Lifebuoy in its annual report
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named less often than it was three years earlier.
Trademark record for Lifebuoy
The USPTO record for the Lifebuoy mark lists Conopco, Inc. as the owner of record (serial number 88217918). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[2]
Ownership timeline of Lifebuoy
Where Lifebuoy sits in Unilever
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
- Axe
- Bango
- Brut
- Cif
- Clear
- Close-Up
- Colman's
- Comfort
- Degree
- Dermalogica
- Domestos
- Dove
- Dove Men+Care
- Grüns (80%)
- Hellmann's
- Horlicks
- Hourglass Cosmetics
- Impulse
- Kate Somerville
- Knorr
- Lifebuoy
- Liquid I.V.
- Living Proof
- Lux
- Lynx
- Maizena
- Marmite
- Murad
- Nexxus
- Nutrafol
- OMO
- Paula's Choice
- Pepsodent
- Persil
- Pond's
- Pot Noodle
- Radox
- Rexona
- Royco
- SheaMoisture
- Signal
- Simple
- St. Ives
- Suave (outside the United States and Canada)
- Sunlight
- Sunsilk
- Sure
- Tatcha
- The Vegetarian Butcher
- TRESemmé
- Vaseline
- VO5
- Zendium
Open the full Unilever ownership tree →
See the full Unilever brand portfolio (53) →
Other brands owned by Unilever
Unilever controls 53 brands on Brandtree, 34 of them in personal care & beauty.
Also in personal care & beauty
- Axe (1983)
- Brut (1964)
- Clear (1974)
- Close-Up (1967)
- Degree (1990)
- Dermalogica (1986)
- Dove (1957)
- Dove Men+Care (2010)
- Hourglass Cosmetics (2004)
- Impulse (1972)
- Kate Somerville (2004)
- Living Proof (2005)
- Lux (1899)
- Lynx (1985)
- Murad (1989)
- Nexxus (1979)
- Paula's Choice (1995)
- Pepsodent (1915)
Other brands in bar soap & body wash, and who owns them
Unilever has more brands in bar soap & body wash on Brandtree than any other owner: 5 of 42.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| MediHerb | Trade Kings | 🇿🇲 Zambia |
| Cavaillès | Bolton Group | 🇮🇹 Italy |
| Cristalino | CasaLuker | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| Protex | Colgate-Palmolive | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bath Roman | Earth | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Jovia | Jyothy Labs | 🇮🇳 India |
| Ivory | Procter & Gamble | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Claire | Sulfo Rwanda | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
About the owner: Unilever
Unilever is a publicly listed company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, founded in 1929. Brandtree records 53 brands under its control, and it is listed as LSE: ULVR, NYSE: UL and AEX: UNA.
Unilever is a British consumer goods company formed in 1929 by the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soap maker Lever Brothers. It reports through four business groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Foods. Its ice cream business was demerged as The Magnum Ice Cream Company in December 2025.
🇬🇧 Lifebuoy and other British brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 552 brands that began in the United Kingdom. 291 of them (53%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Lifebuoy is not one of them.
- Andrex — Kimberly-Clark 🇺🇸
- Batiste — Church & Dwight 🇺🇸
- Charlotte Tilbury — Puig 🇪🇸
- Childs Farm — PZ Cussons 🇬🇧
- Creed — L'Oréal 🇫🇷
- Cushelle — Essity 🇸🇪
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Lifebuoy?
The parent company of Lifebuoy is Unilever, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Is Lifebuoy British?
Yes. Lifebuoy originated in the United Kingdom in 1894 and its owner, Unilever, is also headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Is Lifebuoy still owned by Unilever?
Yes. As of 8 October 2026, Lifebuoy is still owned by Unilever. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (2) & 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] Unilever PLC Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2025 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 20-F, published 12 March 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
- [2] USPTO: LIFEBUOY, serial 88217918, registration 6348594 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 26 September 2026.
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