Except as otherwise indicated herein or as the context otherwise requires, references to "Oil-Dri," the "Company," "we," "us" or "our" refer to Oil-Dri Corporation of America and its subsidiaries.
Oil-Dri is a leader in developing, manufacturing and/or marketing sorbent products. Our sorbent products are principally produced from hydrated aluminosilicate minerals, primarily consisting of calcium bentonite, attapulgite and diatomaceous shale, which we refer to collectively as our "clay," our "minerals," or "Fuller's Earth." We surface mine our clay on leased or owned land near our manufacturing facilities in Mississippi, Georgia, Illinois and California. We produce both absorbent and adsorbent products from our clay. Absorbents, like sponges, draw liquids up into their many pores. Examples of our absorbent clay products are Cat’s Pride and Jonny Cat branded premium cat litter, as well as other private label cat litters. Additional examples are our Oil-Dri branded floor absorbents, Amlan branded animal health and nutrition solutions for livestock, and Agsorb and Verge agricultural chemical carriers. Adsorbent products attract impurities in liquids, such as metals and surfactants, and form low-level chemical bonds. Examples of our adsorbent products include Ultra-Clear, Pure-Flo, Supreme, Perform, Select, Metal-X and Metal-Z which act as purification mediums for edible and non-edible oils. We also sell nonclay-based products, such as our Oil-Dri synthetic sorbents used for automotive, industrial and marine cleanup, silica gel-based crystal cat litter, and plastic cat litter box liners. Our principal products are described in more detail below.
Oil-Dri Corporation of America was incorporated in Delaware in 1969 as the successor to an Illinois corporation incorporated in 1946 (which was the successor to a partnership that commenced business in 1941). For additional information on recent business developments, see "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in Part II, Item 7, incorporated herein by reference.
We have two reportable operating segments for financial reporting derived from the different characteristics of our two major customer groups: the Retail and Wholesale Products Group and the Business to Business Products Group. The Retail and Wholesale Products Group customers include mass merchandisers, the farm & fleet channel, drugstore chains, pet specialty retail outlets, dollar stores, retail grocery stores, online retailers, co-packaged products customers, distributors of industrial cleanup and automotive products, environmental service companies and users of sports field products and sports turf materials. The Business to Business Products Group customers include processors and refiners of edible oils, renewable diesel, petroleum-based oils and biodiesel fuel; manufacturers of animal feed and agricultural chemicals; and distributors of animal health and nutrition products. Certain financial information on both segments is contained in Note 3 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements and is incorporated herein by reference.