---
title: Rub a dub dub, Dr. Bronner’s continues generating profits in the tub
description: It’s quite literally a rags-to-riches story.
---

[Hustle News ](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news)

# [Rub a dub dub, Dr. Bronner’s continues generating profits in the tub](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/rub-a-dub-dub-dr-bronner-s-continues-generating-profits-in-the-tub)

 Written by [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/jacob-cohen) | Jun 28, 2023 3:08:59 AM

It’s your first day working at Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps in Vista, California, a company known for the densely packed messaging on its 18-in-1 soap labels.

You walk past the garden and are greeted by the Foamy Homies in tie-dye coveralls, who, to the hum of a fog machine, have you introduce yourself with a disco dance move.

CEO David Bronner — that’s cosmic engagement officer, by the way — introduces the company and delivers a sermon, enlightening you on his grandfather’s “All-One path,” their Christian background, psychedelic rebirth, and more, [according to](https://www.gq.com/story/dr-bronners-corporate-success?) *GQ*.

#### **Unusual but effective**

In 2022, Dr. Bronner’s revenue reached $170m+, down from 2020’s pandemic-driven [$188m](https://www.sdbj.com/retail/dr-bronners-hits-188m-revenue-2020/), but up from [$4m](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/ketamine-bronner-bros.html) in 1998 and bankruptcy before that. Uniquely…

- The company’s highest-paid employees cannot make more than ~$300k, or 5x that of its lowest-paid vested employees.
- Benefits for its 300+ staff [include](https://www.drbronner.com/blogs/our-employees/progressive-business-practices) up to $7.5k in child care and 10% bonuses, free vegan lunch, Zumba classes, back massages, and ketamine therapy coverage.

A Certified B Corp, Dr. Bronner’s donated $23m+ to drug advocacy and research between 2015 and 2022.

#### **Riches through rags**

David’s grandfather, third-generation soap maker and not-actually-a-doctor Emanuel Bronner, [emigrated](https://www.drbronner.com/blogs/ourselves/the-dr-bronners-story) to the US from Germany in 1929, where his family was later killed in the Holocaust.

In America, Bronner consulted for soap manufacturers, was admitted to — and escaped from — the Elgin State Insane Asylum for preaching his “Moral ABCs” a little *too* much for some, and eventually founded Dr. Bronner’s in 1948.

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/rub-a-dub-dub-dr-bronner-s-continues-generating-profits-in-the-tub)

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