History
The original company was formed as a partnership in 1873 (becoming a limited company in 1881) by John Brunner and Ludwig Mond. They built Winnington Works in Northwich, Cheshire and produced their first soda ash in 1874.
In 1911 it acquired soap and fat manufacturer Joseph Crosfield and Sons and Gossage, another soap company that owned palm plantations. A few years later it sold the soap and chemical businesses to Unilever.
In 1917, the company's TNT factory in Silvertown, London exploded having caught fire.
In 1924 Brunner Mond acquired the Magadi Soda Company of Kenya and in 1926 Brunner Mond was one of the four main companies – along with British Dyestuffs Corporation, Nobel's Explosives Limited, and the United Alkali Company – which took part in the merger which created the massive industrial combine Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Alfred Mond – son of Ludwig and Chairman of Brunner Mond's – was a key figure along with Harry McGowan of Nobel's in bringing this merger about. The Brunner Mond business was absorbed into the Alkali Group of ICI, becoming one of the largest and most successful companies in the world (ICI acquired Crosfield and Gossage's chemicals business from Unilever in the 1997.) The Alkali Group's name changed over time, becoming the Alkali Division in 1951, then merging with the Runcorn-based General Chemicals Division in 1964 to form Mond Division, and finally becoming the Soda Ash Products group of ICI Chemicals and Polymers from 1986 until divestment.
During the early 20th century the company built managers' and workers' houses in nearby Hartford.
In 1991 Brunner Mond Holdings Limited was formed by the break-off of the UK and Kenyan soda ash businesses from ICI. This saw the return of the Brunner Mond name to the stock market but was unrelated to the original enterprise in all but name. In 1998 the company acquired the soda ash production capabilities of Akzo Nobel in The Netherlands to form Brunner Mond B.V., now a wholly owned subsidiary company of the group.
Brunner Mond acquired British Salt, a Cheshire-based brine company, in 2010 for an undisclosed amount, in a vertical acquisition aimed at securing the supply chain and creating synergies through reduced transportation costs.
Brunner Mond was purchased by Tata Chemicals in 2006. In April 2011 Brunner Mond was re-branded as Tata Chemicals Europe.
Read more about this topic: Tata Chemicals Europe
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