Sano (Company)

Sano operates across four principal business areas: household cleaning and maintenance, paper products, toiletries and cosmetics, and other cleaning and maintenance products.[1][3] Its Israeli sales are handled primarily through The Southern Company for Marketing Ltd. in the retail market and Sano Professional Ltd. in the institutional market. Overseas activity is managed through Sano International and is concentrated mainly in Eastern Europe.[1][3]

Bruno Landsberg immigrated to Israel in 1952 and began marketing other companies' products in 1958.[6] He subsequently started manufacturing on his own, initially setting up a small cleaning factory in a hall on Levanda Street in Tel Aviv, staffed by three employees.[2] The factory's first two products were mothballs packed in cellophane bags and a toilet-bowl cleaner sold in a sealed pink plastic bottle. Landsberg named the toilet cleaner "Sano," derived from the Latin phrase Mens sana in corpore sano, translated by the company as "a healthy soul in a healthy body." The product's success led Sano to adopt the name across its product range.[2][7]

The first plastic Sano bottle won a packaging award in the 1960s, and Landsberg kept it in his office for decades, showing it to visitors as the artifact from which the company's story grew.[7] He launched The Southern Company for Marketing Ltd. to handle retail distribution; the company remains one of Sano's principal distribution arms.[1][8] Sano was incorporated and registered in Israel as a limited-liability company in 1965. Its stated founding principles include developing innovative solutions for home and environmental maintenance, producing high-quality products, and reducing environmental impact.[3][5]

A Jerusalem Post account describes an early scouring-powder plant in Bat Yam with one machine and four employees, before the company moved to permanent premises in Hod Hasharon in 1973.[8] Sano went public in 1982, with its shares listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.[3]

Sano organizes its activity into four principal segments: household cleaning and maintenance, paper products, toiletries and cosmetics, and other cleaning and maintenance products.[1][6] Household cleaning and maintenance is the largest revenue segment. In 2024 it generated NIS 1,238,703 thousand out of total group sales of NIS 2,273,947 thousand. Sales in that segment grew approximately 10.2% over 2023, while total group sales grew approximately 6.8%.[3] The company manufactures more than 500 products at five plants in Israel, spanning laundry care, home care, cleaning and hygiene items, kitchen accessories, air fresheners, insecticides, and household paper.[2]

The group's main brands include Sano, Careline, Natural Formula, Crema, Skin Guard, Neka, Keff, Orbitol, and Litufim, covering consumer and professional markets.[6] Its toiletries and cosmetics activity operates through subsidiary Sano Cosmopharm, which expanded after Sano acquired Careline's activity in March 2010. Toiletries are produced mainly at the Hefer Valley plant, which began operating in late 2011.[9]

Two independent marketing and distribution companies serve separate customer bases. The Southern Company for Marketing Ltd. reaches retail chains and thousands of outlets, while Sano Professional Ltd. markets to institutional customers including public institutions, hospitals, hotels, event halls, and community organizations. Sano reported approximately 5,000 retail customers across Israel.[1][5] Its 2022–2023 corporate-responsibility report also states that the company works with more than 1,000 Israeli suppliers, roughly 80% of them local.[5]

Sano's scale of domestic manufacturing, product development, and distribution has made it a prominent Israeli non-food consumer-goods producer. Its corporate-responsibility report describes it as a leader in its field, with five Israeli factories, a broad portfolio of household brands, and a distribution network serving thousands of retail and institutional customers.[5] The company has also combined family control with public trading and investment in product development, automation, robotics, and manufacturing technology.[3][4]

Sano's headquarters and principal manufacturing complex are located on Haharash Street in the Neve Ne'eman district of Hod Hasharon, within the city's industrial zone.[2][5] The Hod Hasharon site contains cleaning and home-maintenance production lines, household-paper production, warehouses, a distribution center, a product-development and quality-control laboratory, Sano International offices, and group management offices.[5]

Beyond Hod Hasharon, the company operates paper-product factories at Kibbutz Snir in northern Israel and in Netanya, toiletry production and institutional-market distribution in the Emek Hefer area, and additional warehouses in Migdal HaEmek and Kafr Qasim.[5] The Cosmopharm plant in the Hefer Valley mainly produces toiletries; cosmetics and some toiletries are produced at external plants or imported as finished products.[6][9]

Sano conducts overseas business principally in Eastern Europe, with a production plant and logistics center in Romania, additional overseas distribution warehouses, and a company in Ukraine.[6] Romanian sales have been reported at more than €20 million, while exports and overseas sales represented approximately 15% of total group sales in 2024.[3][6] In 2018 the company announced an Amazon US pilot to offer toiletries and cosmetics under its Natural Formula and Careline brands to the broader American market, having previously been present in the United States only within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.[9]

Sano has remained a family enterprise across three generations. Bruno Landsberg, who founded and built the company, stepped down as board chairman at age 94 and was succeeded by his son Alex. His grandchildren also held important positions within the group, and employees called the founder "Mr. Bruno."[8] A Globes profile described Sano as controlled by the Landesberg family and led by its third generation.[6]

In December 2025, Sano announced that Yuval Landesberg would leave the CEO position after approximately 15 years and move to a deputy CEO role from April 2026 to focus on business development and entry into new fields. Liran Nassimi, who joined Sano in 1999 and served as deputy CEO, was named as his planned successor.[10] During Yuval Landesberg's tenure, the company invested in research and development, automation, robotics, and new technologies.[4]

Sano has pursued environmental initiatives since the 1980s. The company reports that it was among the first in the world to stop using Freon gas in aerosol products, doing so in 1985 because of its harmful effects on the ozone layer.[3][4] Yuval Landesberg also described the company's work on reducing packaging and encouraging recycling.[4]

In January 2025, The Jerusalem Post reported that Sano had implemented a thermosolar system using Heliocol collectors made by Magen Eco Energy at Kibbutz Magen. The collectors cover 800 square meters of the factory roof and heat water used in fabric-softener production.[11] Sano said the approximately NIS 1.5 million project would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 68%, or more than 100 tons annually.[11] The 2024 annual report also described an ongoing program to replace gasoline vehicles in the company fleet with electric vehicles.[3]

During the Iron Swords War, Sano mobilized support for civilians and soldiers. The company reported donating hundreds of thousands of products to evacuated residents, soldiers, and aid centers, while supporting employees through psychological assistance and flexible working arrangements.[5] Sano Maxima partnered with retailer Avi Sofer to operate a mobile laundry station at an IDF base in the Gaza Envelope, providing soldiers with free use of washing machines, dryers, and Sano cleaning products.[12] The paper factory at Kibbutz Snir continued operating while the kibbutz itself was evacuated.[5]

Israeli television reporting in 2022, summarized by The Times of Israel, alleged that Sano's subsidiary Sano Professional had sourced some cleaning products from the Yahalom factory near the Karnei Shomron settlement in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and that the factory reportedly lacked required permits. Some containers were said to carry labels identifying Sano's Emek Hefer plant. Sano Professional responded that it had suspended trade with Yahalom while clarifying the claims, that the dealings had been on a small scale, and that it would correct any deficiencies identified.[13]

In February 2024, representatives of Israel's Competition Authority searched Sano's offices as part of an inquiry into suspected violations of the Economic Competition Law.[3] Globes reported in December 2025 that the Competition Authority had closed the investigation involving Sano.[10] The 2024 annual report separately described a proposed charge and payment demand of approximately NIS 16.4 million related to alleged violations of the Food Industry Promotion Law. Sano paid the sum in July 2024 under a settlement that did not include an admission of a violation.[3]

Published accounts use different dates for milestones in Sano's development. Calcalist dates the first Sano bottle to 1959, while a Globes obituary says the company was established in 1964.[7][14] Other Globes coverage and Sano's annual report give 1965 for the company's establishment or legal incorporation.[3][6] These dates may reflect distinctions between early production, brand development, company establishment, and legal incorporation, but the published sources do not fully reconcile them.