Ecolab Inc. is a US water treatment, hygiene and infection-prevention group listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ECL and headquartered at 1 Ecolab Place in St. Paul, Minnesota. Its industrial water arm, Nalco Water, supplies treatment chemicals, monitoring equipment and on-site service for cooling systems, boilers, process water and wastewater at refineries, petrochemical and chemical plants, power stations and heavy manufacturing sites, which places the company upstream of many oil, gas and power operators as a consumables and services supplier.
From Economics Laboratory to Nalco Water
The company was founded in St. Paul in 1923 as Economics Laboratory and built its early business on cleaning and sanitising products for food service and food processing. It took its present name in the 1980s and acquired Nalco in 2011, a merger that turned water treatment into its largest activity. Christophe Beck is chairman, president and chief executive officer. Ecolab reports its results in two main reporting segments plus smaller units: Global Water, which carries the Nalco Water industrial business, and Global Institutional & Specialty, which serves hospitality, food retail and quick-service restaurant customers, alongside Global Pest Elimination and Life Sciences.
How Global Water is organised
Global Water is managed as five businesses, which the company discusses separately in its quarterly reporting:
- Heavy Water, serving heavy industry including refining, chemicals, power and mining customers
- Light Water, serving manufacturing, food and beverage and institutional markets
- High-Tech, covering microelectronics fabrication and data centre cooling
- Food & Beverage, providing sanitation and process water programmes
- Paper, serving pulp and paper mills
Ecolab Digital, the group's connected monitoring and dosing platform, generated 121 million US dollars of sales in the second quarter of 2026, up 27 per cent, and is sold alongside chemical programmes under subscription and software arrangements.
Second-quarter 2026 results
For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 Ecolab reported sales of 4.415 billion US dollars, up 10 per cent, with organic sales growth of 5 per cent. Reported operating income was 757.9 million dollars, up 7 per cent, and adjusted operating income 809.0 million dollars, up 10 per cent. Reported operating income margin was 17.2 per cent and organic margin 18.8 per cent, while reported gross margin was 44.1 per cent. Reported diluted earnings per share were 1.90 dollars and adjusted diluted earnings per share 2.09 dollars, an increase of 11 per cent. Global Water recorded fixed-currency sales of 2,215.5 million dollars, up 10 per cent including a 6 per cent contribution from the Ovivo Electronics acquisition, and operating income of 347.7 million dollars. Global Institutional & Specialty reported fixed-currency sales of 1,617.4 million dollars and operating income of 389.9 million dollars. The company repurchased about 1.2 million shares during the quarter.
High-tech growth and two 2026 acquisitions
Ecolab has expanded its High-Tech business through acquisition. It bought Ovivo Electronics, an ultrapure water business for semiconductor manufacturing, and on 20 March 2026 announced a definitive agreement to acquire CoolIT Systems, a direct liquid cooling supplier for high-density data centres, from KKR in a transaction valued at 4.75 billion dollars. The CoolIT deal closed earlier than expected, in July 2026. Global High-Tech grew organically 29 per cent in the second quarter, Life Sciences 15 per cent, and the platform is approaching 1.5 billion dollars of annualised sales. Management targets 4 billion dollars of high-tech sales by 2030 at operating income margins of about 25 per cent, and expects the business to add more than two percentage points to group sales growth a year after the acquisition.
Energy costs, pricing and the 2026 outlook
Rising commodity and energy costs shaped the first half of 2026. Ecolab introduced an energy surcharge across its customer base, which lifted total pricing to 4 per cent in the second quarter, and reported that customer operations disrupted by conflict in the Middle East trimmed reported volume growth by close to one percentage point. The company raised its 2026 guidance to adjusted diluted earnings per share of 8.05 to 8.25 dollars, 7 to 10 per cent higher than 2025, and guided third-quarter 2026 adjusted diluted earnings per share to 2.13 to 2.23 dollars. Management said the ranges include a short-term drag from non-cash amortisation and financing costs connected with the CoolIT purchase, and reaffirmed medium-term ambitions of 5 to 7 per cent organic sales growth and operating income margins above 20 per cent.