Culligan Celebrates 85 Years of Better Water

In 1921, Emmett Culligan was in a hospital awaiting the birth of his child when he struck up a conversation with a maintenance man that led to an amazing idea. Soon after, two miracles occurred: the birth of his first child, and the creation of his first water softener. It took a few more years, but it was that invention that eventually launched Culligan’s home water softening business.

85 years later, Culligan Water is still helping families and communities get the cleaner, safer water that helps them thrive, and our dedication to providing best-in-class care for our customers and systems has only grown. So to celebrate our big waterversary, let’s look back at some of the ways that we’ve helped provide better water to build a better world.

Small-town Roots, Global Impact

From our humble, small-town beginnings, we’ve grown into a global leader in delivering cleaner, softer water, when and where people need it. Today, with the world’s leading water treatment and service brands in our portfolio and more than 900 dealerships in 90 countries, we continue to build on that legacy with a commitment to creating new ways to bring better, safer, softer water to consumers worldwide. At the same time, we’ve built our reputation on providing outstanding service that meets a broad range of customer needs, including water quality testing, water delivery, rental services, system maintenance, salt delivery and much more.

“Delivering our consumers water services and solutions is our passion,” says Culligan International CEO Scott Clawson. “We are excited to build on the progress we’ve made in the first 85 years creating more innovative consumer services to provide people around the world healthy, safe water while improving the sustainability of the planet.”

Legacy of Innovation

It all started with a softener, but it’s only grown from there. Some of our other pioneering Culligan moments include …

• 1936: Emmett Culligan officially launches Culligan’s first home-owned water softener, the Faucet Water Softener
• 1960-1963: Culligan expands into Italy, France and Spain with softening solutions and services.
• 1965: Culligan launches Aqua 1, the first small household reverse osmosis system
• 1987: Culligan Italy introduces the first two-step reverse osmosis system into hospitals for dialysis
• 2010: Culligan launches the world’s first high-efficiency water softener and increases its subscription services
• 2016: Culligan launched the ClearLink PRO™, the only device that gives RO water from an existing kitchen tap
• 2017-2020: Culligan launches in Australia, the UK, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Poland and multiple other global locations
• 2020: Culligan provides more than 50 million consumers better water services and solutions across homes and offices worldwide
• 2021: Stay tuned for some of our most innovative products yet later this year!

Every one of these industry-leading Culligan solutions is backed by our unparalleled approach to service and our worldwide network of professionally trained technicians.

Better Water For Everyone

Alongside our commitment to innovating for cleaner, softer water is a passion for ensuring that everyone has access to it. That outlook led us to adopt a set of corporate commitments to help improve both our social and environmental impact, including:

• Supporting sustainability through the reduction of single-use plastics
• Encouraging health and wellness through safer, cleaner water
• Mitigating climate change
• Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion
• Promoting responsible business conduct

Additionally, in 2005 we created Culligan CARES, the philanthropic arm of our company that’s focused on helping individuals, families and communities who are in need of cleaner and safer water. Part of this work includes partnering with groups like Convoy of Hope, American Diabetes Association, Waterwell Trust, and World Concern, to reach the communities where our help can have the greatest impact.

Better Water for a Better Future

We’re proud of all that the Culligan Water family has accomplished in these first 85 years, but we’re even more excited about our next 85! We’re still hard at work helping bring better water solutions and services to consumers all over the world, and we’re focused on developing the next big innovations that will change the way we all use water, from connected devices to smart solutions to data-driven systems. (In fact, we’ve got some pretty big things to announce soon …)

So join us in raising a glass of water in honor of our 85th anniversary! We couldn’t have done it without you.