NotFiftyOne FAQ

Dr. Bronner's

US-owned · made in the US

Organic castile liquid and bar soaps, plus balms, lotions, toothpaste and a household cleaner.

Vista, CA US · www.drbronner.com

Found at Whole Foods
0.0 US-controlled
How is this scored?

Dr. Bronner's is an independent, family-owned American soap maker founded in 1948 and operated as All One God Faith, Inc. in Vista, California, where its main plant makes every soap and body care product it sells. It has no Canadian entity and reaches Canadian shelves through natural products distributors; the Vancouver Whole Foods listing was the only grocer confirmed by a fetched page, while the Walmart.ca results are all third-party marketplace sellers. Ownership, manufacturing and sourcing rest on the company's own statements, since it is private and files nothing with a regulator.

Switch: Single US family owner (All One God Faith, Inc., Vista, California) and all soap made at one Vista, California plant.

Factors

Ownership

0.0 reported

US 100%

The terms of use name the operating company as All One God Faith, Inc. dba Dr. Bronner's of Vista, California, and the company's press boilerplate describes an independent, family-owned business based in California, run by the Bronner family since 1998. Wikipedia and The CANADA List corroborate US family ownership. The company is private, so no SEC filing exists; the California Secretary of State registry could not be fetched, and a Corporations Canada search for Bronner returned zero results, so there is no Canadian corporate presence to check.

Manufacturing

0.0 reported

US 100%

The company's help centre says its main manufacturing facility is in Vista, California, and that every product except its virgin coconut oil, which is pressed at sister company Serendipol in Sri Lanka, is made in the United States. The coconut oil is a food product outside this category, so the soap and body care line is placed entirely in the US. No third-party audit of the plant was found.

  • Where are your products made? · the vendor's own site “Our main manufacturing facility is in Vista, CA, so all our products, except Regenerative Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO), are made in the United States.”
  • How is Pure-Castile Magic Soap made? · the vendor's own site “Soap is then cooled and transferred to storage tanks before being transferred to filling lines.”
  • The CANADA List · directory “Foreign-owned and manufactured in the USA.”

People

0.0 reported

US 100%

Headquarters, plant and executive team are in Vista, California, per the company's leadership page and careers page. Canada is served by five independent distributors named on the help centre (Johnston Wholesale, Ontario Natural Food Company, Horizon Grocery and Wellness, Indigo Natural Foods and Purity Life), not by a Canadian subsidiary, and Corporations Canada shows no Bronner entity. The fair trade sister companies abroad are separate businesses and are not counted here.

Inputs

9.0 reported

EU 5% · other 70% · US 25%

The company's ingredient glossary gives a country of origin for each input: coconut oil from Sri Lanka, Samoa and the Philippines, palm kernel oil from Colombia, palm oil from Ghana, olive oil from Israel and Palestine, mint oil from India, lavender from France and Bulgaria, and hemp seed oil, jojoba and the potassium hydroxide lye from the United States. Saponified tropical oils are most of a castile soap by weight, so the bulk of inputs sit outside the four blocs; the US share covers lye, hemp oil and packaging, and the split is an estimate since no weight breakdown is published.

  • Coconut Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : Sri Lanka (2006), Samoa (2016), Philippines (2021)”
  • Olive Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : Israel and Palestine”
  • Palm Kernel Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : Colombia”
  • Palm Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : Ghana”
  • Hemp Seed Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : USA”
  • Potassium Hydroxide · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : USA”
  • Mentha Arvensis Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : India”
  • Lavender Oil · the vendor's own site “Country of Origin : Bulgaria and France”

Where to buy

Grocers

Found via