Tomorrow's Answers Today - AkzoNobel

Tomorrow’s
Answers Today
The history of AkzoNobel since 1646

Tomorrow’s Answers Today

The history of AkzoNobel
AkzoNobel, Amsterdam

© Akzo Nobel N.V. 2008
Tomorrow’s Answers Today is a trademark of Akzo Nobel N.V.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to, electronic, digital, mechanical,
photocopying or recording, without obtaining prior written permission from Akzo Nobel N.V.,
Strawinskylaan 2555, 1077 ZZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
AkzoNobel has made every reasonable effort to identify holders of copyrights, portrait rights
or moral rights related to the images included in this book (see Credits, page 277). Parties that
wish to assert alleged rights are invited to contact AkzoNobel Corporate Communications
at info@akzonobel.com.
Printed in the Netherlands
ISBN 978 90 9022883 9

7 Preface
Hans Wijers, CEO and Chairman of the
Board of Management, AkzoNobel
9 Introduction
Jonathan Steffen, Editor
10 A history in milestones
23 A history of histories
31 The evolution of AkzoNobel
33 The Akzo legacy
Map of the Netherlands
35 The creation of Akzo
41 The creation of Enka, AKU
and the Dutch synthetic
fibers industry
49 Sikkens:
From local start-up to
world leader in coatings
63 Ketjen:
A leading sulfuric acid
manufacturer
67 Koninklijke Nederlandse
Zoutindustrie:
The Netherlands’ first large-scale
salt manufacturer
73 Noury & Van der Lande:
Pioneers of peroxide
79 Kortman & Schulte:
The first manufacturers of soda
in the Netherlands
83 Boldoot:
The creation of a household name
91 Van Hasselt:
A lesson in home-grown innovation
95 Duyvis:
From animal feed to party snacks
101 Organon:
From meat products
to innovative pharmaceuticals
109 Intervet:
A tale of healthy growth
113 Armour and Stauffer:
From Chicago to Stenungsund
and back
119 The Nobel legacy
Map of Scandinavia
121 Nobel Industries
125 Alfred Nobel:
Inventor, entrepreneur and
industrialist
133 Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget:
Nitro Nobel, an explosive history
137 Bofors:
From a rural iron forge
to a legendary weapon
143 Stockholms Superfosfat:
A chemical precursor
of many Nobel businesses
149 Eka:
A world leader in electrochemistry
157 Sadolin:
The union of paint and enamel
165 Nordsjö:
Technology leader in
environmentally-friendly paints
173 Casco:
A journey of technical exploration
179 Barnängen:
Victorian paternalism
and personal care products
185 Berol:
From consumer products
to process ingredients
193 Crown Berger:
From innovative wallpapers
to innovative paints
199 The Courtaulds legacy
Map of Great Britain
201 Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
215 International:
A company with a truly international
mindset
223 The ICI legacy
Map of Great Britain
225 Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)
249 AkzoNobel
Map of the world
251 AkzoNobel 1994–2008:
Consolidation and focus
257 AkzoNobel in the
21st century
261 Afterword: Towards a more
sustainable society
263 Bibliography
265 Index
277 Credits
5

6
Hans Wijers, CEO of AkzoNobel

History is usually all about looking back. So why does this
book – the first general history of AkzoNobel ever to be
published – start with the word tomorrow?
Well, in many ways, every event in our rich history has been
leading to this point: the rebirth of our company. We have
been transformed, revitalized. We have a new brand and a
new identity.
Our new brand promise has been adopted for the title of this
book, which is being published at a pivotal time in our long,
proud history. Tomorrow’s Answers Today embodies the
fact that we have clear ambitions for the future. But now is
also a perfect moment to pause and reflect on how we got
here. And where we came from. As we enter a new era, it is
appropriate to recall how innovators in years gone by and
great names from the past have helped shape and build
AkzoNobel into the global industrial leader we are today.
AkzoNobel has been created from a variety of individual companies,
with their origins in the Netherlands, Scandinavia,
the United States and the UK. As their operations expanded,
these companies moved into new markets and territories,
many of them becoming multinational organizations in
their own right. They occupied leading positions in a host
of different industrial sectors, continually evolving in order
to remain successful. They grew by adapting to new challenges
and creating new solutions.
Despite the enormous variety of industrial sectors and geographies
in which our predecessor companies operated,
they are united by striking similarities. They were proactive,
pragmatic, and focused on delivering answers. Some of the
entrepreneurs who created the great industrial names of our
past actually failed in their first attempts to start a business.
Others were the sons of fathers who had not succeeded
as entrepreneurs. But they were not deterred by these setbacks.
On the contrary, they drew strength from them and
became even more determined to achieve success.
Many of the early company owners and managers were also
“early adopters” – not necessarily all great inventors like Alfred
Nobel, but hugely innovative in their understanding of technologies,
processes and markets. They knew what could be
achieved commercially if the right technology was presented
in the right way to the right market at the right time.
And history has proved them right. Time and again, their
entrepreneurial instincts put their businesses on course for
spectacular growth.
In many ways, today’s AkzoNobel is worlds away from our
founding fathers of the 18th and 19th centuries. We operate
a global company in a global economy, with all the opportunities
and challenges that globalization entails. Yet even as
we look to the future, I believe that we have much to learn
from our past. And I believe that the spirit that made so many
of our predecessor companies so great lives on among
AkzoNobel’s employees today. Because wherever you may
be, whenever you may be reading these words, you can be
sure that there will be AkzoNobel employees somewhere
in the world committed to delivering on our brand promise:
Tomorrow’s Answers Today.
Hans Wijers
CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management, AkzoNobel
7

The history of AkzoNobel is a history of histories – not a
single stream of consecutive events but rather a network
of stories that interrelate in ways that are always intriguing
and sometimes dramatic. In telling the story of AkzoNobel,
Tomorrow’s Answers Today attempts to make the main
threads of this multiple narrative clear to the general reader.
When compiling this first ever history of AkzoNobel, the editorial
team had many questions to address. Where should
such a narrative commence? How should it be structured?
What should it include, and what should it omit? And what
editorial criteria should inform such decisions?
Ultimately it was the extent, richness and complexity of
AkzoNobel’s history itself that provided the answers to these
questions. Study of the source material indicated that one
of the prime editorial challenges would be to present such a
wealth of information in an accessible way, so as to ensure
that the great stories and extraordinary facts of the organization’s
remarkable past were offered in readable form.
It was therefore decided to tell the story of AkzoNobel in
terms of the history of its constituent companies – rather
than, for instance, the development of its current technologies,
business units or product lines. Considerations of
space regrettably made it impossible to include every single
company that has contributed to the evolution of AkzoNobel.
Among those companies whose stories figure here, reasons
of space likewise precluded any attempt at a comprehensive
or definitive historical account. Rather, an attempt has been
made to highlight some of the key moments in the histories
of these organizations – their foundation, their major successes,
their greatest challenges.
The fact that many of these companies evolved along parallel
tracks in different countries before becoming involved
with each other also presented an editorial challenge. Again,
with the needs of the general reader in mind, it was decided
to structure the main bulk of the narrative in terms of the four
main streams of business activity that have made AkzoNobel
what it is today – the Akzo legacy, the Nobel legacy, the
Courtaulds legacy and the ICI legacy. It is hoped that this
approach will allow readers to enjoy this book either as a
linear narrative or as a resource that offers many different
points of entry.
The timeline – A history in milestones – provides a chronological
overview of some of the many significant dates in the
story of AkzoNobel. The next section – A history of histories
– offers a concise account of the company’s evolution in narrative
form. This account is complemented by The Evolution
of AkzoNobel, which presents a graphical overview of the
most significant acquisitions and divestments which have
occurred during the company’s history. It is hoped that
these three sections, taken together, will provide an accessible
introduction to a spectacularly vibrant industrial enterprise
which has assumed many shapes during the centuries
of its existence.
Most of the book is dedicated to the four legacies that have
combined to create today’s AkzoNobel. As the narrative
focuses on the stories of companies rather than products
or technologies, the individual chapters start with the foundation
of the companies in question and end at the point
at which those companies became part of a larger parent
company. The book concludes with a brief account of
AkzoNobel’s recent history and a snapshot of the organization
at the time that this book went to press.
Tomorrow’s Answers Today is the result of the efforts of
many people – namely the authors, living and deceased, of
the numerous books, articles and brochures on which it is
based, and colleagues around the world who have contributed
with insights, ideas and source materials.
I would like to thank John McLaren, Director of Corporate
Communications AkzoNobel, who came up with the original
idea to produce this book and whose support and vision has
been invaluable. Furthermore, my particular thanks go to:
Donald Anderson, Mark Bannister, Els Boom, Oskar
Bosson, Ian Chamberlain, Fred van Daalen, John Dawson,
Anette Furbo, Anthea Gordon, Harrie van Grinsven,
Peter de Haan, Annika Häll, Carol Heard, John Jennings,
Frank Jones, Annemiek Kadijk, Ole Kjellin, Anna Larsson,
David Lichtneker, Mikael Json Linde, Aarnout A. Loudon,
Heleen van de Lustgraaf, Walter Luykenaar, Pete Murphy,
Anna-Clara Olofsson, Berry Oonk, Evelien van Oudshoorn,
Geoffrey Owen, Valerie Pomeroy, Marijke Raanhuis, Philip
E. Radtke, Kent Renström, Wiggert Schurink, Ed Stec,
Ing-Marie Trygg, Robby Tulaar, Pepe Vargas, Peter
E. Vellinga, Robert van Vlijmen, Bert van der Wal, Derek
Welch, Erik Widén and Victoria Wisener.
A special thank-you also goes to Ian Cressie for editorial
assistance. His unflagging support and eagle eye have been
invaluable in creating this book.
Jonathan Steffen
Editor
Amsterdam, October 2008
9

Lewis Berger founds a paint
factory in London, England
Bofors forge founded in Sweden
Dyestuffs company Holmblad (a
forerunner of the Sadolin ® brand)
founded in Copenhagen, Denmark
Fragrances company Boldoot
founded as a pharmacy in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Lacquer manufacturer Sikkens
Lakfabrieken founded in
Groningen, the Netherlands
Bemberg founded in Wuppertal,
Germany, as a manufacturer of
dyestuffs
Duyvis founded in the Zaan
region of the Netherlands as a
producer of vegetable oils
Holmblad moves into paint
manufacture
Silk manufacturer Courtaulds
founded in Essex, Great Britain
Paint company Pinchin
Johnson & Associates
founded in the United States
Sulfuric acid producer Ketjen
founded in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands
Oils and oatmeal company Noury
& Van der Lande founded in
Deventer, the Netherlands
1646 1760 1777 1789 1792 1806 1819 1826 1834 1835 1838 1841
Tallow candle factory
Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik
founded in Stockholm, Sweden

The Italian Ascanio Sobrero
discovers nitroglycerin
Holmblad builds Denmark’s
first enamel manufacturing plant
Alfred Nobel invents the blasting
cap, a form of safe detonator
Explosives company Nitroglycerin
AB (Nitro Nobel) founded in Sweden
Alfred Nobel invents dynamite
Meat-producing company
Armour & Co. founded
in Chicago, Illinois
Ink manufacturer Barnängen
founded in Sweden
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks AB founded in
Stockholm, Sweden
Alfred Nobel patents blasting gelatin
Boldoot starts using Eau de
Cologne in toilet soaps
Bofors constructs its first
cannon armory
1847 1861 1863 1864 1867 1868 1871 1876 1881 1883 1884 1885
Paint company Holzapfels Limited,
the forerunner of International Paints,
founded in Newcastle, Great Britain
The British market for crepe
goes into rapid decline
Van Hasselt’s products win first prize
at the London Agricultural Exhibition
11

A history in milestones
Soda manufacturer Kortman &
Schulte founded in Rotterdam,
the Netherlands
Formation of the Nobel
Dynamite Trust Co.
Formation of Société Centrale
de Dynamite
Salt deposits are identified on
Dutch soil for the first time ever
Meat producer Zwanenberg
founded in the Netherlands
Holzapfels Limited builds a
paint factory in Russia
British scientists Charles
Frederick Cross, Edward John
Bevan and Clayton Beadle
patent the process for
manufacturing viscose
Alfred Nobel acquires the
Swedish armaments firm Bofors
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks opens a hydro-electric
power station at Månsbo
Electrochemical company
Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget
(the forerunner of Eka) founded
in Bengtsfors, Sweden
Alfred Nobel signs his will
providing for the establishment
of the Nobel Foundation
John Stauffer Sr. goes into
partnership with Joseph Mayer
to found Stauffer Chemical Co.
in San Franciso
Armour builds a soap works
and starts producing Armour’s
Family Soap
Barnängen launches its
Savon de l’Exposition at the
Stockholm Exhibition; the
company also launches the
mouthwash Vademecum
Courtaulds purchases a mill in
Lancashire, Great Britain – the
first outside the company’s
traditional Essex base
Kortman & Schulte launches
the cosmetic soap
Vereinigte Glanszstoff
Fabriken founded in Germany
Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget
successfully produces lye and
chloride of lime
Walpamur, or the Wallpaper
Manufacturers Ltd., is founded
in Darwen, near Bolton in
Lancashire, Great Britain
1886 1887 1888 1889 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
Kortman & Schulte moves to
Rotterdam’s Delfshaven, where
it produces soda and a meat
preservative
Sikkens starts producing
Japanese lacquers
Ketjen builds a new sulfuric
acid plant in Amsterdam

A history in milestones
First Nobel Prizes awarded
Boldoot builds its own
soap factory in Amsterdam
Paint company Nordsjö
founded in Malmö, Sweden
Courtaulds acquires the
British rights to manufacture
viscose and lists its shares on
the London Stock Exchange
Holzapfels Limited builds a
paint factory in Felling-on-Tyne,
Great Britain
G.W. Sikkens & Co. receives
the designation “Royal”
Walpamur commences paint
manufacture and launches
“Hollins” distemper
Noury & Van der Lande builds
a new oil factory in Emmerich
am Rhein, Germany
Sadolins Farver, specializing in
artists’ paints and printing inks,
is founded by Gunnar Sadolin
Duyvis starts exporting linseed oil
Courtaulds acquires the
American rights to the
manufacture of viscose
Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek
(Enka) is founded in Arnhem, the
Netherlands
1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1911 1912 1914
Ketjen builds a hydrochloric
acid plant in Amsterdam
Enka ® viscose filament yarns for
textile applications are launched
Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks
completes construction of Ljungaverk
hydroelectric power station
Sadolins Farver merges with paint
and enamel manufacturer Holmblad
13

A history in milestones
The Walpamur Company is
created to focus exclusively on
paint and varnish manufacture;
the Wallpaper Manufacturers
Ltd. continues to produce
wallpaper
Under the terms of the “Salt
Convention”, 34 associations of
salt miners in the Netherlands
agree to link 53.5% of their
production of salt for the
national market to that of KNZ
Boldoot opens its flagship
showroom in Amsterdam
KNZ builds its first salt silo
Armour develops fatty acid
fractionation
Fred Banting and Charles Best
discover insulin in Canada
Organon is founded in Oss, the
Netherlands, and commences
insulin production
Sadolin & Holmblad commences
production of synthetic organic
pigments
Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget
closes in Bengtsfors and starts
a new company under the same
name in Bohus, Sweden
Bofors commences production
of its first automatic weapon,
the 20mm AA naval gun
KNZ introduces an improved
production process. It launches
‘Jozo ® ’, an iodized salt, and also
starts producing soda
Sikkens makes its Rubbol Japanese
lacquer suitable for the painting of cars
Organon produces the female sex
hormone Menformon ®
ICI is founded via the Aquitania
Agreement
EKA (an abbreviation of
Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget)
commences production of
water glass
Sikkens introduces cellulose
lacquer
Organon produces the injectable
liver extract Pernaemon ®
Casco AB is founded in
Stockholm, Sweden
1915 1918 1919 1921 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930
Koninklijke Nederlandse
Zoutindustrie (KNZ) is founded
in Enschede, the Netherlands
Holzapfels Limited changes
its name to The International
Paint & Compositions Co. Ltd
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks acquires the majority
shareholding in Nitroglycerin AB
AKU becomes the majority
(76%) shareholder in Vereinigte
Glanszstoff Fabriken
American Enka Corporation
founded in Asheville, North Carolina
KNZ implements two deep salt
wells, one in Twekkelo and one in Oele
Margarine Unie, a predecessor of
Unilever, acquires the oil, fat and
soap works of Zwanenberg’s
original meat processing business
Casco commences production of
casein glue
ICI comes close to bankruptcy
EKA expands its product range to
include ferric chloride, hydrochloric
acid and hydrogen peroxide
Casco acquires the licensing rights
for the production of soy adhesive

A history in milestones
G.W. Sikkens & Co. receives
the title “Purveyor to the Royal
Household”
Samuel Courtauld IV founds the
Courtauld Institute of Art in London
Superphosphate production ends
at Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik and
a new potassium nitrate factory
opens a year later in Ljungaverk,
Sweden
KNZ inaugurates a new plant,
expanding its product range to
include hydrochloric acid, chlorine
bleach, liquid chlorine, caustic
soda and sodium hydroxide
International starts supplying
yachting paints to pleasure-boat
builders
Duyvis launches its first sauce,
a salad dressing named Salata ®
ICI invents Perspex ®
Noury & Van der Lande builds an
oil mill in Compiègne, France
ICI discovers polythene by accident
Sikkens launches the synthetic
lacquer Rubbol ® A-Z ®
KNZ launches Colorozo ® , a
salt for the preservation and
coloring of fine meat products
Bad Boekelo, a health spa
equipped with a natural saltwater
bath with artificial waves,
is built on KNZ’s Boekelo site
Ketjen develops activated carbon
Casco launches the casein/
rubber-latex adhesive LR-lim
KNZ inaugurates a new salt and
electrolysis plant at Hengelo
Bofors sells its first L/70 40mm gun
ICI enters the pharmaceuticals
business
Berol is founded in Södertälje,
Sweden, to produce impregnation
agents
Ketjen upgrades its sulfuric
acid plant to make it the
biggest in Europe
Noury & Van der Lande commences
citric acid production
Organon produces the thyroid
gland hormone Thyranon ®
Nordsjö launches the binding
agent Bindol ®
Barnängen joins forces with
Lars Montén to create the
Kema Companies
KNZ commences potash
production
Casco launches its first
adhesive for linoleum
ICI establishes its Plastics
Division
Sikkens relocates from
Groningen to Sassenheim
Armour uses the first
commercially produced
long-chain fatty amine for
the improvement of potash
EKA commences metasilicate
production
Swedish forest products
company Mo och Domsjsö
(MoDo) commences production
of ethylene glycol
ICI and Courtaulds form
British Nylon Spinners to
manufacture nylon under
license from DuPont
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks begins production of
carbide and calcium nitrate
Courtaulds is obliged to sell
American Viscose Corporation
The Calico Printers’ Association
presents the concept for
Terylene ® to ICI
Berol extends its product range
to include products for the
defense industry
ICI synthesizes medically usable
penicillin
1931 1932 1933 1934 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943
Casco launches RX ® Glue for
office and domestic use
15
ICI’s pilot plant for the production
of uranium goes into operation

A history in milestones
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks begins making plastics
and starts trial production of the
synthetic rubber Svedopren AKU begins to expand its
product portfolio to lessen its
dependency on rayon
Organon launches
Cortophine ® , a hormone that
regulates the adrenal cortex
ICI launches the herbicide
Methoxone ®
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks acquires Liljeholmens
Stearinfabrik
Ketjen commences construction
of a sulfur dioxide plant in
Amsterdam
Nordsjö starts building a new
manufacturing facility in Sege,
Sweden
Sikkens sets up the artificial
resin company Synthese
Zwanenberg & Co and
Organon merge to form
Zwanenberg-Organon
Armour launches Dial
Deodorant Soap
Laboratoria Nobilis (the forerunner
of Intervet) is founded in
Boxmeer, the Netherlands
Armour opens the world’s first
commercial fatty amine plant in
McCook, Illinois
Barnängen opens the Shantung
School for beauty care
Chefaro acquires Van Hasselt
following the untimely death of
managing director Johan van
Hasselt
Walpamur ® is awarded a royal
warrant; another is to follow in 1955
The International Paint &
Compositions Co Ltd changes
its name to International
Paints (Holdings) Ltd
Casco launches the wood glue
Cascol ®
Enka builds its Enkalon ® plant in
Emmen, the Netherlands, to manufacture
nylon yarns and fibers
Organon launches Bifacton ® , a
successor product to Parnaemon
for the treatment of anemia
Organon commences production
of cortisone
ICI’s Dulux ® paint enters the
retail market. In the same year,
ICI launches its revolutionary
new anesthetic Fluothane ®
Zwanenberg-Organon
receives its royal warrant
to become Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-Organon
1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks opens a PVC plant at
Stockvik
MoDo buys Berol
ICI’s anti-malarial drug
Paludrine ® is used extensively
by the British Army
Ketjen constructs a plant in
Amsterdam to make catalysts
for the oil industry
Sikkens lists on the Amsterdam
stock exchange
Enka develops a spinning process
for the continuous production of
viscose filament yarns

A history in milestones
EKA commences ammonia
production
KNZ produces calcined
(water-free) soda
KNZ commences construction
of a chlorine electrolysis plant
in Delfzijl
Organon launches Durabolin ® ,
one of the first anabolic steroids
ICI launches Procion ® reactive
dyes. In the same year it
establishes its Fibres Division
Organon launches Ovestin ®
for treatment of uro-genital
symptoms in menopausal
women
ICI establishes its Medical
Division
Duyvis receives the designation
“Royal” and lists its shares on
the Amsterdam stock exchange
Courtaulds acquires aircraft
coatings manufacturer Cellon
The Sikkens Prize is inaugurated
for artists, architects and
designers whose work creates
a synthesis of space and color
Armour enters into a joint
venture with Dan Hess in Great
Britain to produce fractionated
fatty acids and nitrogen
derivatives
KNZ starts producing salt in
Delfzijl
MoDo builds a petrochemical
ethylene plant in Stenungsund,
Sweden
Courtaulds acquires Pinchin
Johnson & Associates
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon acquires the personal
care and fragrances manufacturer
Boldoot
Koninklijke Nederlandse
Zoutindustrie (KNZ) and
Ketjen merge to form
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK)
Sikkens launches its Autoflex ®
one-day car refinishing system
Duyvis moves into the production
and marketing of packaged nuts
ICI makes an unsuccessful bid
to acquire Courtaulds
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon acquires Laboratoria
Nobilis, the forerunner of Intervet
Organon launches Humegon ® ,
a fertility hormone for women
KNZ acquires zinc producer
Kempensche Zinkmaatschappij
Kortman & Schulte starts
manufacturing enzyme-based
detergents
Sikkens becomes part of
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK)
Armour acquires Kessler,
a specialty ester manufacturer
Organon launches its first
contraceptive pill, Lyndiol ®
ICI launches the hormonal
weed killer Gramoxone ®
Nordsjö launches the Tintorama ®
paint color production system
Armour Industrial Chemical
opens a new soap facility in
Montgomery, Illinois
Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks changes its name to
Fosfatbolaget AB
Fosfatbolaget AB acquires
Casco
Courtaulds embarks on a new
strategy of vertical integration
Kortman & Schulte and
Noury & Van der Lande are
taken over by Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-Organon;
Nourypharma is absorbed into
Organon
Nitroglycerin AB changes its
name to Nitro Nobel AB
ICI launches the beta-blocker
Inderal ®
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen
acquires Chefaro, and with it
Van Hasselt
1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967
Last member of the Courtaulds
family to sit on the board of
Courtaulds retires
Dutch rayon market collapses
The Crown ® name is first used
to launch Crown ® Plus Two ®
paints in Great Britain
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK)
and Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon merge to create
Koninklijke Zout-Organon NV
(KZO)
17

A history in milestones
Organon launches Pavulon ® ,
the first steroidal non-depolarizing
muscle relaxant
Courtaulds (via Pinchin
Johnson & Associates)
acquires International Paints
(Holdings) Ltd
KZO acquires Duyvis
Akzo divests to Unilever the
meat factories that are the basis
of the former Zwanenberg & Co.;
Akzo’s remaining food activities
are bundled together with household
products in Akzo’s
Consumer Products division
Akzo acquires Armour from
Greyhound and forms Akzona
(Akzo North America)
American Enka and
International Salt are united
in Akzona Inc. to create a U.S.
equivalent of the European Akzo
Fosfatbolaget AB changes its
name to KemaNord AB
AKU and Glanzstoff merge under
the name Enka-Glanzstoff;
AKU is the holding company.
AKU and Koninklijke Zout-
Organon merge to create Akzo,
the fourth-biggest company in
the Netherlands and the 10thbiggest
chemical group in the
world, employing 91,700 people
Van Hasselt becomes part
of Akzo’s Chemicals division
Chefaro becomes part of
Akzo’s Pharma division
Organon launches the first
mini-pill
Intervet International bv founded
Greyhound Bus Company
acquires Armour
ICI establishes an
Environmental Sciences Group
The first unifying Akzo logo –
a blue triangle – is developed
Akzo acquires the Noury & van
der Lande plant in Emmerich
am Rhein Germany
Organon splits off its active
pharmaceutical ingredients pro-
duction and sales into an independent
company, Diosynth
Chefaro launches the pregnancy
test Predictor® (originally developed
by Organon)
MoDo consolidates its chemicals
companies into MoDoKemi AB
(headquartered in Stenungsund,
Sweden)
Intervet acquires Poultry
Biologicals in Great Britain
Akzo announces its master
plan in response to the collapse
of profitability of the fibers
division. Employees in Breda
respond with industrial action
and Akzo’s management
withdraws the master plan
Enka International becomes
Akzo International
KemaNord’s paper chemicals
business is combined into one
product group within specialty
chemicals
1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
Akzo Nederland bv is created,
bringing together some 50 works
councils in the Netherlands.
The company also formulates
a Code of Conduct to which its
management in 45 countries
has to adhere
CascoGard joins KemaNord’s
specialties division
Armak (formerly Armour
Industrial Chemical) builds
the world’s largest plant for the
production of fatty alkyl nitrogen
derivatives in Morris, Illinois
KemaNord AB acquires
the majority shareholding in
Barnängen
Intervet acquires
Láboratorios Saltor in Spain
Akzo plans to merge with Philips
Dunbar but the merger is called off
Organon launches its first antidepressant,
Tolvon ® , as well as
its intra-uterine device Multiload ®
Sikkens Car Refinishes Instruction
Center opens in Sassenheim
MoDo spins off its chemicals
operations to the Swedish state;
the new chemicals groups is
called Berol Kemi AB
International opens a new
factory in Felling, Great Britain;
it also launches the first selfpolishing
copolymer antifouling
coating for sea-going vessels
Akzo’s fibers division makes
losses that bring it to the brink
of financial ruin; the company
makes a net loss for the first
time in its history
T. Herrema, Director of Akzo’s
Ferenka plant in Limerick
(Ireland) is taken hostage by the
IRA; he is freed after 36 days
Sadolin Farveland ® , a chain
of independent paint shops,
is established
The Walpamur Company
changes its name to
Crown Decorative Products
Akzo’s management decides
that, despite the problems of the
fibers business, the company
will continue as a coherent industrial
group, concentrating on
a limited number of worldwide
positions
ICI builds the world’s first commercial
plant to manufacture
protein from methanol
A presidium within Akzo’s
Board of Management develops
a survival strategy for the company.
The product portfolio is
to be balanced between fibers
(33%), chemicals (30%) and
other products (37%) and the
number of employees reduced
Enka Glanzstoff and
Akzo International BV are
united as the “Enka Group”
KemaNord acquires part of
Nitro Nobel AB
BT Kemi pollution scandal in
Sweden
KemaNord acquires the
remainder of Nitro Nobel AB
Akzo posts net profits and pays
its shareholders a dividend for
the first time since 1975
KemaNord changes its name
to KemaNobel
Organon launches Andriol ®
for the treatment of men with
testosterone deficit
Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget
(EKA) changes its name to
Eka AB
Eka researchers discover the
foundations of its revolutionary
Compozil ® paper chemicals
system
C.A. (later Sir Christopher)
Hogg begins a complete reorganization
of Courtaulds

A history in milestones
Akzo launches a three-year
energy saving campaign which
will generate annual savings of
NLG 135 million
British branding agency Wolff
Olins develops a uniform visual
identity for the Enka Group
Organon launches the
low-dose contraceptive pill
Marvelon ®
Sikkens Painters Museum
opens in The Hague, the
Netherlands
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991
Akzo records a net loss once
more. The company enters into
patent litigation with DuPont
over their respective products
Arenka ® (Twaron ® ) and Kevlar ® .
The conflict will go down in history
as “the patent litigation of
the century”
Eka commences production
of its revolutionary new paper
chemicals system Compozil ®
Intervet acquires
Inter-Continental Biologics
in the United States
Malaysian Oleochemicals
Sdn Bhd is incorporated into
KemaNord
Akzo increases its shareholding
in Akzona to 100% and transforms
it into Akzo America Inc.
The Akzo fibers plant in Breda
is closed down, and the chairman
of the works council and
three other employees go on
hunger strike
Erik Penser engineers the
purchase of Bofors
Casco launches the floor
adhesive Cascoflex ®
Akzo acquires the American
Wyandotte Paint Products
Company
Casco, now part of KemaNobel,
acquires Nordsjö
Organon launches the muscle
relaxant Norcuron ®
Eka expands paper chemicals
production based on Compozil ®
The food systems groups of
KenoGard and KemaNobel
combine
Duyvis merges with Recter and
loses its “Royal” designation
Akzo posts its best operating
results since the company’s
foundation and invests in new
and improved products and
production processes.
It commences a six-year acquisition
drive that will result in the
purchase of over 30 companies,
most of them in the important
U.S. market
Erik Penser purchases
KemaNobel, reuniting it with
Bofors in a company called
Nobel Industries
Intervet develops the first
vaccine based on recombinant
DNA technology to fight the E.
coli bacterium in piglets
Akzo’s Group Council formulates
the company’s first Mission
Statement
The company builds plants at
Delfzijl and Emmen (NL) for aramid
fibers. Akzo makes numerous
acquisitions and also sells
American Enka to BASF.
A test kit to identify AIDS in
blood and blood products is
launched by Organon Teknika
The number of employees in
Akzo’s fibers division increases
for the first time for many years.
The company moves the office of
Akzo America from Asheville,
North Carolina, to New York and
also opens an office in Moscow
Eka is acquired by Nobel
Industries and becomes Eka
Nobel AB. The merger makes
sodium chlorate a major Eka
product
The soap operation of the original
Armour & Co. is renamed the
Dial Corporation
Bofors scandal in India
Akzo America acquires the
specialty chemicals division
of Stauffer
Akzo issues its first company
policy statement on health,
safety and the environment
Akzo divests its consumer
products division to
Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts
Nobel Industries acquires
Sadolin & Holmblad
Akzo launches a new worldwide
corporate identity, designed by
Wolff Olins
Akzo reorganizes its activities
into six divisions
Organon launches its third-generation
low-dose contraceptive
pill Mercilon ® as well as Livial ® , its
drug for the treatment of menopausal
symptoms in women
Intervet acquires the animal
health activities of Gist-Brocades
in the Netherlands.
Nobel Industries buys Berol
Kemi from Procordia and
merges it with Kenobel to
form Berol Nobel AB
Akzo and DuPont terminate
their law suit
Williams Holdings unites
Crown Paints with the successor
companies to Lewis Berger &
Sons to create Crown Berger
Akzo celebrates its 20th
anniversary by giving its 75,000
employees branded sports
jackets
Eka Nobel AB merges with
Stora Kemi and Alby Klorat,
as well as Albright & Wilson
paper chemicals division
Courtaulds separates itself into
two businesses: Courtaulds
Textiles for apparel manufacture;
and Courtaulds plc for
fibers and chemicals
Nobel Industries acquires
British paint company Crown
Berger Ltd
ICI commences manufacture
of KLEA 134a as an alternative
to CFCs
Akzo introduces a new top
management structure, ending
the traditional federation
of divisions
For the first time in its history,
Akzo recruits a board member
from outside the company. It introduces
flexible working hours and
childcare for working mothers,
and it completes the worldwide
implementation of its new environmental
management system
Intervet acquires Nordisk
Drøge & Kemikalie
Nobel Industries is restructured
under the state-owned bank
Securum
19

A history in milestones
Akzo’s Chemicals and
Salt divisions are merged
Sikkens Painters’ Museum is
relocated from The Hague
to Sassenheim
Nobel Industries divests its
Consumer Products division to
German consumer chemicals
group Henkel
Akzo merges with
Nobel Industries, forming
Akzo Nobel
Akzo Nobel publishes its
first environmental report
Organon launches its
dual action antidepressant
Remeron ®
The use of chlorine for pulp
bleaching is fully eliminated
in Sweden
Organon launches Puregon ® , a
recombinant Follicle Stimulating
Hormone (FSH) fertility drug
Nordsjö becomes the first
European manufacturer permitted
to use the EU flower, an environmental
label
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Organon launches
TOF-Guard ® , the first modern
compact acceleromyograph
for objective neuromuscular
transmission monitoring
Intervet acquires Norbio
in Norway
ICI’s pharmaceuticals and
agrochemicals businesses
are demerged to form Zeneca
Akzo Nobel builds a powder
coatings plant in Sweden
Eka Chemicals launches paracetic
acid as a bleaching agent
Eka Chemicals acquires
Enso Paperikemia, extending
its operations to include paper
coating
ICI acquires Unilever’s Speciality
Chemicals businesses and
divests its bulk and intermediate
chemicals businesses
Akzo Nobel acquires
Courtaulds of Great Britain.
The European Commission
forces the sale of Akzo Nobel’s
aeronautical films and sealants
businesses as a precondition for
the acquisition of Courtaulds
Organon launches Implanon ® ,
a contraceptive rod implanted
under the skin
Intervet acquires Ausvac in
Australia
Akzo Nobel divests its fibers
group Acordis to CVC Capital
Partners
Organon launches the estrogen-free
oral contraceptive
Cerazette ®
Akzo Nobel divests Chefaro
and the diagnostics business
of Organon Teknika
Intervet acquires German-based
Hoechst Roussel Vet as well
as Gellini in Italy
Eka Chemicals acquires
Hopton Technologies Inc. in
the United States to add coatings
technology to its portfolio
Organon launches NuvaRing ® ,
the first monthly vaginal ring
for birth control
Intervet acquires Bayer’s
U.S. Biologicals operation
Akzo Nobel divests its nonprescription
pharma business
Chefaro
Akzo Nobel divests its
diagnostics pharma business
Organon Teknika
Akzo Nobel sells its Printing
Inks business to private equity
company NeSBIC
Akzo Nobel acquires
Crompton Corporation’s
Industrial Specialties business
Intervet opens a new life
science center in DeSoto,
Kansas

A history in milestones
2004
Akzo Nobel’s catalyst business
is sold to Albemarle Corp., its
Phosphorus Chemicals business
to Ripplewood Holdings
LCC, and its coatings resins
business to Nuplex Industries
Diosynth and Organon are
integrated into one operating
business unit
Henkel acquires the
Dial Corporation
Enka is sold by Acordis
to the International Chemical
Investors Group
Akzo Nobel publishes its
first CSR Report, launches
its Community Program and
is included in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Indexes
2005 2006 2007 2008
Akzo Nobel announces that it
will separate its pharmaceutical
activities from its coatings and
chemicals businesses.
Organon BioSciences, comprising
Organon, Intervet and
Nobilon, is created.
Akzo Nobel acquires the
Canadian coatings company
Sico Inc.
Akzo Nobel moves its corporate
headquarters from Arnhem to
Amsterdam
Akzo Nobel sells its pharma
business Organon BioSciences
to Schering-Plough
ICI is acquired by Akzo Nobel
To symbolize its transformation
into a focused coatings
and chemicals company, Akzo
Nobel rebrands itself, acquiring
a new logo and changing its
name to AkzoNobel
21

22
Chairmen of the Board of Management 1966–2003
(from top left to bottom right):
Klaas Soesbeek, 1966–1971
Gualtherus (“Guup”) Kraijenhoff, 1971–1978
Adolf Gustaaf van den Bos, 1978–1982
Aarnout A. Loudon, 1982–1994
Cees van Lede, 1994–2003

The name AkzoNobel derives from the 1994 merger
between the Dutch conglomerate Akzo and the Swedish
conglomerate Nobel Industries. This move marked the
culmination of more than a century of acquisitions and
mergers that created the two conglomerates. Indeed,
some of the companies that Akzo had acquired could be
traced as far back as the 18th century (Sikkens, Bemberg
and Boldoot), while the earliest origins of a Nobel Industries
subsidiary stem back to the 17th century (Bofors).
23
Overview
Setbacks in the 1970s and 1980s
The recovery plan
Consolidation in the 1990s
The merger with Nobel Industries
Alfred Nobel: inventor and entrepreneur
The Nobel Foundation
The creation of Nobel Industries
Crises in the 1980s
Post-merger expansion and reorganization
Focus on pharmaceuticals, coatings and chemicals
Synthetic fibers divested
Growth of Pharma
Rebalancing the portfolio
The split into Akzo Nobel and Organon BioSciences
Akzo Nobel acquires Imperial Chemical Industries
Industrial metamorphosis

24
A history of histories
The foundation of Akzo itself, however, was based on
Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken, a German chemical company
formed in 1899. In the early decades of the 20th century,
Vereinigte established itself in the chemicals industry as
a leading producer of rayon and various paints and other
coatings. In 1929, Vereinigte merged with Nederlandse
Kunstzijdefabriek (NK or Enka, for short), a competing Dutch
manufacturer of rayon. The resulting organization was named
Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU).
From the 1930s to the 1960s, AKU became a solid market
leader in the development and manufacture of synthetic
fibers. In addition to rayon, AKU began producing such
breakthrough synthetics as nylon and polyester. Chief among
the company’s significant innovations was the invention of a
derivative of nylon – an aramid synthetic fiber with interesting
characteristics. AKU experimented with this synthetic fiber in
the late 1960s.
AKU had enjoyed generous profits from its core synthetic fiber
products during the 1960s, and its corporate strategy looked
sound for the 1970s. AKU joined forces with Koninklijke Zout-
Organon (KZO) – a major Dutch producer of chemicals,
drugs, detergents, and cosmetics – in 1969, and the resultant
organization took the name Akzo.
Setbacks in the 1970s and 1980s
Further expansion plans on the part of Akzo were thwarted
in the early 1970s, however, when an oil embargo by the
OPEC oil cartel wreaked havoc with petrochemical markets.
Akzo’s businesses, particularly those related to synthetic
fibers, suffered. In addition to these oil-related problems, the
fibers market was affected by turbulence from other quarters.
During this period, many synthetic fibers became commodity
products, and low-cost Far Eastern manufacturers took control
of many industry segments. Burdened by weak demand
and manufacturing overcapacity, Akzo’s profits plunged.
By the late 1970s, some analysts speculated that Akzo was
headed for bankruptcy.
Another setback occurred in the 1980s, when the company
was selling its new aramid synthetic fiber under the name
of Twaron ® . Unfortunately for Akzo, fibers industry leader
DuPont, headquartered in the United States, was simultaneously
developing the fabric under the name of Kevlar ® , and
DuPont began selling its product first. The two companies
entered into litigation with each other over the patents in
their respective products. Akzo was shut out of the lucrative
U.S. market for Twaron ® and also faced stiff competition in
its home market of Europe. The acrimonious litigation procedures,
which took place not only in the United States but in
many other countries too, were to last 11 years and earn the
nickname ‘the lawsuit of the century’. Akzo’s failure to carve
out a market for Twaron ® proved to be the culmination of the
setbacks that had adversely affected its synthetic fibers operations
throughout the 1970s.
The recovery plan
Throughout this turbulent period, Akzo executives scrambled
to overcome adversity. They reduced the percentage
of revenues attributable to synthetic fibers from more than
50 percent in the early 1970s to less than 30 percent going
into the 1980s. At the same time, they tried to supplant
income from the struggling Fibers division with higher-
margin products such as paint, non-commodity chemicals
and pharmaceuticals. Akzo executives made another significant
move towards reorganizing their operations in 1982,
when they appointed Aarnout A. Loudon as Chief Executive
Officer of the company. Loudon, a 46-year-old banker turned
executive, had demonstrated strong leadership in turning
around ailing Akzo subsidiaries in France and Brazil. Upon
assuming leadership of the company, Loudon initiated an
aggressive restructuring strategy designed to stabilize
Akzo’s unwieldy balance sheet and to ensure the company’s
long-term profitability.
Among other maneuvers, Loudon further reduced Akzo’s
emphasis on synthetic fibers to only 20 percent of corporate
revenues and boosted its position in coatings and industries
related to healthcare. He also decentralized decisionmaking
and eliminated management layers. At the same time,
Loudon launched an ambitious acquisition drive in 1984,
chiefly designed to increase Akzo’s presence in the important
U.S. market and to diversify into higher profit margin chemicals
businesses. The preparatory step for this diversification
process was the expansion of Akzo’s shareholding in its
American subsidiary Akzona from 66 percent to 100 percent.
The removal of Akzona’s minority shareholders – who had
often been obstructive towards Akzo’s plans for development
in the United States – allowed Akzo to bring its activities
in that country in line with the policies of the entire company.
Between 1984 and 1990, Akzo purchased more than 30
companies, most in the United States, at a cost of approximately
$1.8 billion. These firms were primarily involved in the
production of salt, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. To fund
these purchases, Loudon simultaneously jettisoned poorly
performing assets that were worth more than $1.5 billion. By
the end of the acquisition campaign, Akzo had emerged as
the leading global producer of salt and peroxides and one
of the top 20 chemicals companies in the world. 1990 sales
approached $10 billion and profits surged.
Consolidation in the 1990s
During the early 1990s, Akzo concentrated on improving efficiency.
Compared with chemicals companies in Japan and
the United States, its operations were bloated, chiefly due
to restrictive government and organized-labor regulations
in Europe. An important move of this period was the divestment
of Akzo’s majority shareholding in the struggling artificial
fibers manufacturer La Seda de Barcelona, a publicly listed
company which was suffering such extensive losses that it
was ultimately sold for one peseta. Gradual improvements in
efficiency led to marked success in important divisions such
as pharmaceuticals, which captured a key position in the
reproductive medicine market. Its most notable product was
Desogen ® , the top-selling birth control formula in the world.
Similarly, Akzo enjoyed steady market share gains in some
of its coatings businesses. The net result was that Akzo sustained
steady sales and profits throughout the early 1990s,
despite a global economic downturn.
The merger with Nobel Industries
Going into the mid-1990s, Akzo continued to reduce its
emphasis on low-profit commodities such as salt and fibers
and to boost its dependence on coatings and specialty
chemicals. To that end, Akzo consummated a pivotal merger
early in 1994 with Nobel Industries of Sweden. Nobel was a
major competitor in global coatings and specialty chemicals
markets. It operated subsidiaries worldwide and enjoyed a
relatively strong position in U.S. markets. The company that
arose out of the merger – Akzo Nobel N.V. – elevated Akzo’s
revenues figure by more than 25 percent, gave the new
company a leadership role in the global coatings industry,
and bolstered the former Akzo’s stance in the European and
United States markets. Access to cheaper raw materials was
also facilitated by virtue of the increased size and enhanced
purchasing power of the joint company. For the former
Nobel Industries, the merger likewise offered reduced costs

Salt-drilling rig in Hengelo, the Netherlands. Koninklijke Nederlandse
Zoutindustrie (KNZ) was founded in 1918 to exploit newly discovered,
naturally occurring reserves of salt

26
A history of histories
because it could obtain necessary raw materials such as salt
and chlorates more cheaply from Akzo than in the past.
Alfred Nobel: inventor and entrepreneur
Akzo’s merger partner took its name from the progenitor of
the Nobel Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel. Nobel was born in 1833
into a Swedish family which claimed heritage to the prodigiously
gifted 17th century Swedish anatomist, botanist, writer
and architect Olaf Rudbeck. Alfred Nobel’s father, Immanuel,
was a self-educated inventor with an interest in explosives.
An unsuccessful businessman, Immanuel was forced to file
for bankruptcy in 1832 after the family home burned down.
Leaving his family behind in Sweden, Immanuel moved to
Russia in 1837 to start a new business. There, he invented
an explosive device for which demand gradually increased.
By 1842, Immanuel had achieved modest success with his
invention, and he sent for his family. Alfred’s exposure to
that environment, combined with his natural interest in
chemistry, prompted him to form his own company called
Nitroglycerin AB in 1864.
Alfred’s key invention was finding a process for making nitroglycerin
such that it did not explode during production and
handling. However, the perfection of this technique came at
great personal cost for Nobel, because during the testing
process, an explosion killed Alfred’s brother and four other
workers. The breakthrough led in 1866 to Nobel’s development
of dynamite, which combined nitroglycerin with
an absorbent substance composed mostly of silica. Nobel
went on to create blasting gelatin and smokeless powder,
and eventually claimed 350 patents. In an effort to overcome
opposition from established gunpowder manufacturers and
other competitors, Nobel and several associates formed the
Nobel Dynamite Trust in 1886. This cartel eventually dominated
five continents and Nobel dynamite factories dotted
the globe.
The Nobel Foundation
A surprising turn of events occurred for Nobel in 1888
when his brother, Ludwig, died and a French newspaper
accidentally reported Alfred’s death instead. To his dismay,
Alfred read his own obituary, in which he was described
as the inventor of dynamite and the “merchant of death,”
even though most of his explosives were used in nonmilitary
applications. This experience motivated Nobel to
demonstrate his true intent. Thus, when he died in 1896,
Alfred directed that the bulk of his considerable fortune
be used to establish a fund, the interest on which was to
be awarded annually to persons whose work had been
of the greatest benefit to mankind. One endeavor to be
honored with a prize was that of having “conferred the
greatest benefit on mankind.” The Nobel Foundation,
which manages the fund’s assets, was founded in 1900
and the first Nobel Prizes, including the prize for peace,
were awarded in 1901.
The creation of Nobel Industries
After his death, Nobel’s conglomeration of businesses
was divided into various corporations. Nobel’s Swedish companies
evolved into two separate organizations. His original
company, Nitroglycerin AB, continued to make explosives.
Its name was changed to Nitro Nobel in 1965 and it was
bought out by a chemicals group controlled by the prominent
Wallenberg family in 1978. The resultant organization
was called KemaNobel. The other segment of the Swedish
Nobel operations became Bofors, a manufacturer of munitions.
In 1982, Erik Penser, a young Swedish stockbroker,
engineered the purchase of Bofors. Two years later, he purchased
KemaNobel, reuniting the two firms in a company he
called Nobel Industries.
Crises in the 1980s
In 1986, Penser’s company won a five-year, $1.2 billion
contract to supply field artillery to the Indian government.
Business analysts lauded the deal as one of the largest
orders ever secured by a Swedish company – until it was
discovered that Nobel Industries may have made illegal,
covert payments of more than $4.5 million into a secret
Swiss bank account to get the contract. To make matters
worse, a year later it was discovered that Nobel Industries
had illegally shipped arms to Iran, Iraq, and other countries
not sanctioned for arms trade by the Swedish government.
Meanwhile, in 1985, Nobel’s U.S. chemicals subsidiary,
Bofors Nobel, Inc., filed for bankruptcy, largely because
the U.S. Department of Natural Resources had sued
the division for $15 million in environmental clean-up costs.
Initially, Bofors Nobel had agreed to pay the clean-up
expenses, but once higher-than-expected costs accrued,
they elected to file for bankruptcy instead.
Post-merger expansion and reorganization
Despite Nobel Industries’ setbacks, Akzo executives viewed
the company as a potential asset to their organization.
In 1994, Akzo completed a pivotal merger with Nobel’s six
business groups to create Akzo Nobel, then one of the ten
largest chemicals companies in the world. Shortly before
the merger, Akzo had implemented a sweeping reorganization
drive to dismantle its five major business divisions
and recreate them in four new groups – Chemicals, Fibers,
Coatings, and Pharmaceuticals. Akzo Nobel continued to
develop its U.S. markets aggressively, while it worked
simultaneously to penetrate Asian and South American
markets. By this time, Akzo Nobel had invested about
33 percent of its resources in the Netherlands, 20 percent
in Germany, and 22 percent in the United States, with
many of its remaining investments scattered throughout
Europe. In 1994, Akzo Nobel posted sales of approximately
$11.5 billion, roughly 5 percent of which was netted as
income. Akzo Nobel faced several challenges as it entered
the mid-1990s. In 1995, its pharmaceutical unit, Organon,
lost revenues following a scare that Marvelon ® and Mercilon ® ,
its oral contraceptive pills, were linked to increased risk of
thrombosis (abnormal blood clotting). Falling fiber prices,
stagnant markets, and declining sales in the Coatings group
also led to a mere 0.3 percent increase in profits in 1996.
The company did forge some key partnerships, however,
including a joint venture with Courtaulds to develop and
market NewCell ® , a cellulosic filament yarn. It also spent
$240 million to expand its production capacity for fluid catalytic
cracking (FCC) and hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC).
This capital investment was made to attract partners to
its FCC and HPC businesses. A start was also made with
restructuring the company’s specialty surfactants business,
which had been suffering from overcapacity, as
well as a stagnant market. As a result, the business unit
began cutting costs and consolidating production. In 1997,
Akzo Nobel sold its subsidiary Akzo Nobel Salt, Inc. as part of
its effort to focus on its core operations.
Focus on pharmaceuticals, coatings
and chemicals
Akzo Nobel’s restructuring of its pharmaceuticals, coatings
and chemicals businesses began to pay off, and the balance
sheet in 1997 reflected this. The company recorded a 7

Airbus. One in every three aircraft in the world
is painted with AkzoNobel coatings
Organon’s oral contraceptive pills being
inserted into monthly strips
27

28
A history of histories
percent increase in overall sales, while operating profits in its
pharmaceutical interests climbed by 17 percent. Its Coatings
and Chemicals groups secured a healthy 27 percent increase
in operating profits. In 1998, the firm focused on making key
alliances and acquisitions, as well as paring back less profitable
operations. An agreement with Bayer AG was reached
in which the German-based firm would produce ethylene
amines exclusively for Akzo Nobel. Three printing-ink companies
– Louis O. Werneke, Werneke & Mulheran and Label Inks
– were purchased to secure a position as a leading supplier
of printing inks in the United States market. In a move which
was to allow a transformational reshaping of its portfolio, the
company also acquired the British firm Courtaulds plc in July
1998, thus creating the world’s largest coatings company.
Following the acquisition, Akzo Nobel merged its various
fibers businesses into a newly created company, Acordis.
At the same time, because of poor growth and overcapacity,
the company continued to consolidate its surfactants
operations, while also selling off its plastics packaging and
laminate and aluminum tube interests (the latter having entered
the Akzo Nobel portfolio via the acquisition of Courtaulds and
being divested by means of a management buy-out in 1998).
Synthetic fibers divested
A disappointing 1 percent increase in net profits in 1998
led to a renewed focus on integrating Akzo Nobel’s newly
acquired operations into its current businesses. The firm’s
pharmaceutical operations – growing twice as fast as other
companies in the industry – also became a major focus.
The group’s Organon business had a strong position in
the women’s healthcare market and was the world’s fourth
largest producer of oral contraceptives. Akzo Nobel also
strengthened its animal healthcare business, Intervet, with
the purchase of Hoechst Roussel Vet, a deal which doubled
the size of its veterinary interest. Perhaps the most important
move was the sale in 1999 of Acordis to CVC Capital
Partners. This highly complex deal, which was closed in
December 1999, was further complicated by the simultaneous
requirement for the company to prepare its IT systems
for the new millennium. The completion of the agreement
marked Akzo Nobel’s exit from the synthetic fibers business
and solidified the company’s intent to focus on its core
activities – Pharma, Coatings, and Chemicals.
Growth of Pharma
As Akzo Nobel entered the new millennium, its Pharma group
was the fastest-growing pharmaceutical company in Europe.
The unit accounted for 47 percent of Akzo Nobel’s total profits
and its core operations focused on human and animal healthcare,
while the company’s other groups also fared well despite
weakening market conditions. The Coatings group acquired
the aerospace and specialty coatings business of Dexter
Corporation in the U.S., which strengthened its position in the
global market and significantly increased the size of its aerospace
coating operations. The Chemicals group also acquired
Hopton Technologies, which was purchased to boost the
paper chemicals business in the United States.
Rebalancing the portfolio
The impressive growth of Akzo Nobel’s Pharma group was,
however, impacted by the collapse in sales of its potential
blockbuster antidepressant Remeron ® after an unfavorable
court ruling on one of its patents in the United States in 2002,
opening the way for generic competition there. Two years
later, Remeron ® suffered a similar fate in Europe. Against
the background of a general economic downturn in world
markets from 2002–2005, the Pharma group’s profitability
was defended by a mixture of counter-measures including
the recombining of Organon and Diosynth into a single unit,
the launches of the contraceptive NuvaRing ® and Puregon ® /
Follistim ® fertility products, and the initiation of a range of
codevelopment and copromotion arrangements to speed
the market entry of innovative new Pharma products. At
the same time, the company’s Chemicals portfolio underwent
a significant realignment. Akzo Nobel’s Catalysts,
Phosphorous Chemicals and Coating Resins businesses
were divested for a combined total of approximately
c1 billion in 2004 and the company’s Chemicals activities
were refocused on five growth platforms: Pulp &
Paper Chemicals, Base Chemicals, Functional Chemicals,
Surfactants and Polymer Chemicals. With the Coatings
group further strengthened by a number of acquisitions
during 2005, and the company increasingly concentrating
on China and the Far East as growth markets, Akzo Nobel
recorded sales revenues of c13 billion in 2005. This was also
the year that the company produced its first CSR Report,
launched its Community Program, and was included for the
first time on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.
The split into Akzo Nobel and Organon BioSciences
In 2006, Akzo Nobel announced its intention to split into two
independent companies: Akzo Nobel, to focus exclusively
on coatings and chemicals; and Organon BioSciences, to
focus exclusively on human and animal healthcare. The initial
plan was for a minority listing of Organon BioSciences on
the Euronext Bourse in Amsterdam, with full separation of the
two companies to occur within the following three years. On
March 12, 2007, however, Schering-Plough made an offer to
acquire Organon BioSciences for c11 billion. The offer was
accepted, marking the termination of Akzo Nobel’s long association
with pharmaceutical manufacture. Five months later,
in August 2007, Akzo Nobel relocated its headquarters from
its traditional base in Arnhem to Amsterdam – the financial
capital of the Netherlands.
Akzo Nobel acquires Imperial Chemical Industries
On January 2, 2008, Akzo Nobel further strengthened its position
as the world’s leading paints and coatings player through
its acquisition of Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI) for
£8.1 billion (c10.8 billion). ICI, which in 2007 had achieved
50 percent of its revenues from its paints businesses, traces
its origins back to 1926, when it was founded in the United
Kingdom via the merger of four companies, one of which was
the British arm of Nobel Industries. ICI’s roundel logo was in
fact derived from the Nobel Industries logo in use at that time.
It would be an exaggeration to say that this acquisition ‘closed
the circle’ of this history of histories; yet it does demonstrate
the constantly interacting forces of continuity and change that
continue to shape the company.
Industrial metamorphosis
The acquisition of ICI marked the completion of a transformation
that Akzo Nobel had been undergoing. In the space
of roughly a decade, the company had gradually shed its
conglomerate structure and brought increasing focus to its
activities. It had exited from the Fibers sector with the sale
of Acordis and drastically rationalized its Chemicals activities,
divesting three business activities in doing so. The creation
of Organon BioSciences in 2006, and with it plans to seek a
stock exchange listing for its combined pharmaceutical business,
had set this trend in motion; with plans to relocate the
company headquarters from Arnhem to Amsterdam recon-

A history of histories
firming the new course. It was, however, the announcement in
March 2007 of the sale of Organon BioSciences to Schering-
Plough that boosted the momentum of the transformation.
Following closely on the heels of this deal, Akzo Nobel used
the proceeds of the sale to acquire ICI, a strategic acquisition
which would make the company the undisputed world
leader in the coatings sector and in particular the decorative
coatings market.
The metamorphosis Akzo Nobel had undergone brought with
it the need to rebrand the company as a whole. On April 25,
2008, four short months after closing the ICI acquisition, Akzo
Nobel launched its new corporate brand, featuring among
other things a subtle change in the way its name was to be
written: from then on it would be known as AkzoNobel. More
striking, however, was the new logo, depicting an athletic
figure reaching out to the future, complete with a tagline which
provides the title for this book: Tomorrow’s Answers Today.
29

Ketjen
(1835)
KNZ
(1918)
Sikkens
(1792)
Zwanenberg
(1887)
Organon
(1923)
Nederlandse
Kunstzijdefabriek
Enka
(1911)
Nordsjö
(1903)
Nitro Nobel
(1864) remaining 50%
Barnängen
(1868)
Casco
(1928)
1961
Van Hasselt
(date unknown)
Vereinigte
Glanzstoff
Fabriken
(1899)
Nitro Nobel
(1864) initial 50%
Stockholms
Superfosfat
Koninklijke
Zout-Ketjen
(KZK) (1961)
(acquired by Chefaro 1950;
Chefaro acquired by KZK 1965)
1947
1929
1918
Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-
Organon
(1953)
Algemene
Kunstzijde
Unie (AKU)
(1929)
renamed renamed
(1871) KemaNord KemaNobel
(1970)
(1978)
1962
1965
1967
1965
1965
1961
1961
KZO
(1967)
1964 1973 1977 1982
Noury & Van der Lande
(1838)
Kortman & Schulte
(1886)
Boldoot
(1789)
Intervet
(1949)
Crown Berger
(1760)
Sadolin
(1777)
Berol
(1937)
Eka
(1895)
Duyvis
(1806)
Bofors
(1646)
1984
1968
1969
Akzo
(1969)
Armour
(1867)
Stauffer
(1895)
Nobel
Industries
(1984)
1970
1987
Akzo Nobel
(1994)
1990
1987
1988
1986
1987
1992
1991
1986
Consumer
Products
divested
Consumer
Products
divested
Bofors
divested
Nitro Nobel
divested

Key acquisitions and divestments
International
(1881)
1968
Courtaulds
(1826)
1998
Hoechst
Roussel Vet
(1863)
1999
Acordis (Fibers)
divested
Legend
(Date) – earliest foundation of company/name change/new company after merger
Date – acquisition/divestment/merger of companies
KNZ = Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie
KZO = Koninklijke Zout-Organon
1999
Bayer
Biologicals
(1863)
2000
2001 2004 2007
Organon
Teknika
divested
Printing
Inks
divested
Catalysts
divested
ICI
(1926)
2008
Phosphorus
Chemicals
divested
Resins
divested
Chefaro
divested
Polymerization
Catalysts
divested
Organon
Biosciences
divested
31

32
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Enka, AKU, p. 41
Arnhem
Breda
Delfzijl
Ede
Emmen
Sikkens, p. 49
Groningen
Apeldoorn
Sassenheim
Ketjen, p. 63
Amsterdam
IJmuiden
Rotterdam
Koningklijke Nederlandse
Zoutmaatschappij (KNZ), p. 67
Boekelo (Enschede)
Botlek (Rotterdam)
Delfzijl
Hengelo
Oele (Hengelo)
Twekkelo (Enschede)
Usselo (Enschede)
Noury & Van Der Lande, p. 73
Deventer
Apeldoorn
Emmerich
Kleve
Roermond
Kortman & Schulte, p. 79
Rotterdam
Boldoot, p. 83
Amsterdam
Van Hasselt, p. 91
Rotterdam
Dordrecht
Herkenbosch
Hilversum
Duyvis, p. 95
Koog aan de Zaan
Zaandam
Organon, p. 101
Oss
Intervet, p. 109
Boxmeer
marks the place on the map where the company
in question (see the left-hand column) was
founded.
Locations named in a chapter are listed on the
left under the name of the relevant company. The
first location named is the place where the company
was founded; all other locations are listed
alphabetically.
If locations cannot be distinguished from one
another because they are too close together, a
place already shown on the map or one that is
central to those locations is given in parenthesis.
Belgium
8
6
Koog A/d Zaan
Amsterdam
3
7
Rotterdam
9
10
Oss
11
Maastricht
5
1
Arnhem
Boxmeer
The Netherlands
Deventer
2
Groningen
Hengelo
Enschede
4
Germany

34
Lunch break at the Perlon plant
in Oberbruch, Germany, 1951.
Perlon was a form of nylon

The Akzo legacy
The roots of Akzo – the Dutch component of AkzoNobel – go back to
the foundation of a lacquer manufacturing business by Wiert Willem
Sikkens in Groningen in 1792. Many more companies were eventually
to become part of the 20th century Dutch conglomerates AKU
(Algemene Kunstzijde Unie) and KZO (Koninklijke Zout-Organon),
which merged in 1969 to create Akzo.
35
Overview
The creation of AKU
The creation of KZO
The creation of Akzo
Pressure in key markets
Efficiency gains and financial recovery
The creation of Akzo Nobel

36
The creation of Akzo
The Akzo legacy
Chief among these companies were, by date of foundation
– on the AKU side – Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken (1899)
and Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek (1911) and – on the KZO
side – Duyvis (1806), Koninklijke Zwavelzuurfabrieken van
het Ketjen (1835), Noury & Van der Lande (1838), Kortman
& Schulte (1886), Zwanenberg & Co. (1887), Koninklijke
Nederlandse Zoutindustrie (1918) and Organon (1923).
The companies that were to join forces under the Akzo name
manufactured products ranging from vegetable oils (Duyvis)
through salt (Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie) and artificial
fibers (Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken and Nederlandse
Kunstzijdefabriek Enka) to specialty paints (Sikkens), speciality
chemicals (Vulnax), and pharmaceuticals (Organon).
The history of the Akzo side of the company is a story of
start-ups, acquisitions and mergers in both specialty and
commodity businesses. Indeed, the drive to grow through
mergers is inherent in Akzo’s very name.
The creation of AKU
In 1929, the German synthetic fibers company Vereinigte
Glanzstoff Fabriken merged with its Dutch rival in the rayon
market Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek. The new entity was
called Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (General United Viscose),
or AKU for short. From the 1930s to the 1960s, AKU became
a solid market leader in the development and manufacture of
synthetic fibers. In addition to rayon, AKU began producing
such breakthrough man-made materials as nylon and poly-
The summer of 1969:
Dutch industry holds its breath
ester. Chief among the company’s significant innovations
was the invention of a heat-resistant and strong synthetic
aramid fiber, a derivative of nylon.
The creation of KZO
Rumors abounded in Arnhem during the summer of 1969. According to the newspapers,
several large conglomerates were holding secret merger talks. Such a merger would affect
the whole of Dutch industry. There was much stock market speculation about who was
involved, but no one knew the exact details. Then, on July 11, the uncertainty came to an
end. Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO) and Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU) announced
that they were investigating the possibility of a full merger.
In those days, AKU was a company operating approximately 47 factories on almost every
continent, making it the world’s second largest synthetic fiber producer. KZO had been
founded on October 13, 1967, and in the ensuing two years had taken over an impressive
The evolution of AKU’s future merger partner KZO involved
two pairs of mergers. Zwanenberg and Organon merged in
1953 to create Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon, receiving
the royal warrant that year (Kortman & Schulte and Noury &
Van der Lande were added in 1965). Koninklijke Nederlandse
Zoutindustrie and Koninklijke Zwavelzuurfabrieken van het
Ketjen, meanwhile, merged in 1961 to create Koninklijke
Zout-Ketjen (Sikkens being added in 1962).
The creation of Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen is regarded by many
economists as a turning point in the evolution of the Dutch
chemicals industry, setting a trend whereby more and more
companies merged in order to survive. The drive towards
closer co-operation had its original roots in the years immediately
following World War II, however, when the leaders of
several Dutch chemicals businesses that had been ravaged
by the war combined forces to create a joint sales office for
their various products.
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon and Koninklijke Zout-
Ketjen merged in 1967 to create Koninklijke Zout Organon,
or KZO. KZO was a huge group by Dutch standards. It was
organized into six divisions. The two largest were the Salt
Chemicals division (with salt and its by-products such as
soda and chlorine) and the Chemical Division (with a large
variety of products ranging from sulfuric acid to catalysts
for crude oil, peroxides, fatty amines, alcohol, and rubber
chemicals). Then came the Coatings division, with Sikkens
as its main part. There was also the Pharma division (with
contraceptives and healthcare products) and the Food division
(with products such as soups, sauces, peanuts and
snacks). Finally, there was the Household Products division
(with soaps, washing powders, detergents and cosmetics).
The creation of Akzo
AKU and KZO merged in 1969 to become Akzo, a diversified
chemicals player of world standing. The logo of the new
company was an open triangle.
Pressure in key markets
During the 1970s and 1980s, Akzo’s business with low-profit
commodities such as salt and fibers came under severe pressure,
and the company experienced periodic financial dif-
ficulties. This trend was countered by selected divestments
in combination with a major acquisition drive. Between 1984
and 1990, Akzo purchased more than 30 companies, most of
which were located in the United States, at a cost of approximately
$1.8 billion. The acquisitions were primarily involved
in the production of salt, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
Not without reason was Akzo often referred to as a “republic of
number of companies both inside and outside the Netherlands, including
Pure Chemicals Ltd (United Kingdom), Hoesch Chemie (Germany) and Duyvis,
the Dutch party snack maker.
Under the heading “The pill with a pinch of salt,” the Deventer Dagblad wrote on
July 8, 1969: “When we look at what has been going on in other countries, a close
cooperation between this new chemical company and AKU, with its production of
chemical fibers, seems most likely.” The paper hastened to add: “However, this is a
matter of sheer speculation on our behalf.”

The Enka plant in Arnhem, the Netherlands, in 1929
37

38
The creation of Akzo
The Akzo legacy
1988: ‘Akzo, a new spirit’
When Akzo launched its new corporate identity in 1988, it introduced more than just a
new logo. The object of the new identity was to help create a united company in place of
Akzo’s traditional federation of product groups and divisions. Brand guru Wally Olins was
tasked with redesigning the existing ‘Akzo triangle’ into a more modern symbol representing
the new Akzo; Olins’ company, the British branding agency Wolff Olins, had a few years
earlier developed a new corporate identity for Enka.
The symbol Wally Olins proposed, which became known as ‘the Akzo Man’, was inspired
by a Greek sculpture dating back to 450 BC; it had one hand reaching back and the
other stretching forwards, symbolizing an all-embracing balance between past tradition
and future ambition. Wally Olins had discovered the sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford, England. Akzo’s Board of Management was divided on Wally Olins’ proposal.
Chairman of the Board Aarnoud Loudon, who had the casting vote, came down in favor of it.
The new identity was launched internally in December 1987 at a conference for Akzo’s
top 300 managers. ‘Akzo, a new spirit’ was the slogan that accompanied the roll-out.
The official launch to the outside world followed in March 1988, supported by a massive
advertising campaign and coinciding with the publication of Akzo’s annual report for 1987.
The new corporate identity had a considerable effect both within Akzo and in the outside
world. For the first time ever, Akzo presented itself as a single company – and some of Akzo’s
constituent businesses had to abandon their own identities to make that step possible.
kingdoms.” By the end of its acquisition campaign, Akzo had
emerged as the leading global producer of salt and peroxides
and one of the top 20 chemical companies in the world.
In 1990, the company’s sales approached $10 billion.
Efficiency gains and financial recovery
During the early 1990s, Akzo concentrated on enhancing
efficiency. Gradual improvements led to marked success
in key divisions such as pharmaceuticals, which captured
an influential position in the reproductive medicine market.
Similarly, Akzo enjoyed steady market share gains in some of
its paints and coatings businesses. The company sustained
sales and profits throughout the early 1990s, despite a global
economic downturn.
The creation of AkzoNobel
The need to restructure the company’s portfolio and boost
its existing activities in coatings and specialty chemicals
led to the 1994 merger with Nobel Industries of Sweden –
a major competitor in the global paint, coatings, and specialty
chemical industries. Nobel Industries operated subsidiaries
worldwide and enjoyed a relatively strong position in
U.S. markets. The company that resulted – Akzo Nobel N.V.
– boosted Akzo’s revenues by more than 25 percent, gave
the new company a leadership position in the global paints
and coatings industry, and bolstered the former Akzo’s position
in the European and U.S. markets. The former Nobel
Industries benefited from economies of scale offered by
Akzo, providing inexpensive access to raw materials such as
salt and chlorates.

Akzo’s first corporate headquarters in Arnhem,
the Netherlands, in the early 1970s
39

40
Jacques Coenraad Hartogs, who founded the rayon company
Enka in 1911, having previously worked as a manufacturing
supervisor for the British rayon company Courtaulds

The Akzo legacy
On May 8, 1911, a select group of men stood on the doorstep of Van
den Bergh, a notary public in The Hague. They were all related to their
leader, Jacques Coenraad Hartogs, a former chemistry teacher who
had learned how to make fibers out of viscose (dissolved wood pulp)
when working for the firm of Courtaulds in England. The notary drew up
a contract on the basis of which the men established the Nederlandse
Kunstzijdefabriek, abbreviated to NK or Enka, on Vosdijk in Arnhem.
Arnhem had clean groundwater for the manufacturing process and
personnel were easy to find in the city.
41
Overview
An order is an order
Expansion during and after the Great War
The genesis of AKU – and a first economic crisis
World War II: from full to zero capacity
Post-war innovations
A world leader in synthetic fibers
The collapse of the rayon market
The formation of Enka-Glanzstoff and Akzo
Losses – and a master plan to stem them
Resistance in Breda
A new product – and a new problem
Further cutbacks
Pressure on profitability
Competition from Asia

42
The creation of Enka, AKU and
the Dutch synthetic fibers industry
The Akzo legacy
An order is an order
A brand new pilot plant was commissioned in 1912, and
manufacturing and sales started that autumn. A year later,
Enka employed 60 workers and six office staff. The company
boasted five spinning machines but, while the first of
these had managed to produce yarns of reasonable quality,
the other four flatly refused. Initial orders had already been
accepted, so the goods had to be delivered. Dismantling
of the full apparatus revealed that constantly switching the
machines on and off had fouled up the viscose piping so
badly that hardly any flow was possible. A couple of brushes
were soon purchased from the corner shop and fastened to
a braided wire rope, and the piping was cleaned out. This
saved the day and the first orders left the plant just in time.
Expansion during and after the Great War
During World War I, the borders of the Netherlands (which
was neutral during the conflict) were closed. Textiles and textile
raw materials could no longer be imported, and demand
for Enka’s synthetic fibers and yarns grew sharply. The company
expanded significantly and by 1918 had 300 employees.
The Arnhem plant could no longer keep up with demand,
A debt to Courtaulds –
and a battle with a rival
and in 1922 a plant with four times the spinning capacity was
built in Ede. Three years later, a third plant, with an associated
research center, was built in Tivolilaan in Arnhem.
Other people saw that a lot of money could be earned with
fibers, and a number of competitors established themselves
in the Netherlands. Enka, meanwhile, expanded further.
The firm’s initial exports had been mainly to Germany, but
Enka extended its market to include other European countries.
Enka participated in other fiber companies while building
its own plants in France, the United Kingdom and Italy.
In Germany, an existing fibers plant was taken over in joint
partnership with the Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabrieken.
The genesis of AKU – and a first economic crisis
The firm of Courtaulds tried to stop the establishment of Enka in 1910. While Jacques
Coenraad Hartogs was working as a manufacturing supervisor for Courtaulds, he developed
a new spinning bath, a crucial component in the process of spinning synthetic fibers.
Hartogs offered his invention to Courtaulds, who were not interested, deeming it “nothing
new.” Hartogs was granted a patent for it and later implemented his invention in Arnhem.
Courtaulds protested, but lost the battle over the patent. After that, Enka’s relationship with
the British company was somewhat cool until, at the end of the century, Akzo Nobel took
over the whole of Courtaulds and merged its own Fibers business with that of Courtaulds
to create the separate fibers company Acordis.
The step across the Atlantic followed in 1929. The company’s
own employees built the American Enka Corporation
site in Asheville (North Carolina). The same year, Algemene
Kunstzijde Unie (AKU), of which Enka was only a part,
was created through a merger with the German Vereinigte
Glanzstoff Fabrieken. There were separate management
boards for the German and Dutch parts of the company.
A close alliance with the Hollandse Kunstzijde Industrie
in Breda was also formed in 1930. Then came the Great
Depression, resulting in plummeting prices, cancelled orders
and a large accumulation of stocks. Most of the manufacturing
facilities managed to stay open, but only with difficulty.
Not until 1939 could light be seen at the end of the tunnel.
World War II: from full to zero capacity
By the beginning of World War II, the plants in Arnhem and
Ede were running flat out. The Netherlands was occupied
by Nazi Germany, and AKU built two new plants under
pressure from the occupying power. One of these was to
process straw to produce raw materials for rayon yarns and
paper; the other, also on the Kleefse Waard industrial estate
in Arnhem, was to make rayon fiber as a replacement for
wool and cotton, which were in short supply during the
war years. These plants continued to operate until 1944.
The Germans then terminated production and forced
the workers to help construct lines of defense as the tide of
the war turned against them in Europe. By the time
Germany surrendered in 1945, the plants in Arnhem and
Ede were deserted ruins.
Reconstruction soon started, however, and by 1946 all
the Dutch plants were producing again. However, Enka’s
German companies were either in the Russian zone or else

A female operator in an Enka plant during
the mid-1950s
The fibers plant in Breda, the Netherlands, was occupied by employees in 1972 in response to a
draconian restructuring plan put forward by Akzo’s management. The plan aimed to return the
fibers business to profitability but was withdrawn in the face of massive employee resistance

44
The creation of Enka, AKU and
the Dutch synthetic fibers industry
The Akzo legacy
Viscose
Viscose is a viscous organic liquid used to make rayon and cellophane.
Cellulose from wood or cotton fibers is treated with sodium
hydroxide, then mixed with carbon disulfide to form cellulose xanthate,
which is dissolved in more sodium hydroxide. The resulting
viscose is extruded into an acid bath either through a slit to make
cellophane, or through a spinneret to make viscose rayon (sometimes
simply called viscose).
Viscose was created by French scientist and industrialist Hilaire
de Chardonnet (1838 - 1924), inventor of the first artificial textile
fiber, artificial silk, in Échirolles in 1884.
The process for manufacturing viscose was then patented by three
British scientists, Charles Frederick Cross, Edward John Bevan and
Clayton Beadle, in 1891.
The manufacture of viscose became big business when Samuel
Courtauld & Co. started manufacturing it in the early 20th century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, it had almost completely replaced the
traditional cotton and wool for women’s stockings and underwear
in Europe and the United States.
had been badly damaged. In Arnhem, the
manufacture of viscose rayon for car tire
yarns began. Rayon was also the raw material
for Enka ® -spons (Enka ® sponge).
Post-war innovations
The Arnhem research center experimented
with the production of man-made fibers
and, in 1952, a plant for manufacturing
nylon yarns and fibers – under the brand
name Enkalon ® – was built in Emmen.
Another nylon product was Akulon ® , for
the plastics industry. In 1955, the plant in
Emmen was also making polyester yarns
and fibers, under the brand name Terlenka ® .
AKU by that stage had 50,000 employees,
spread over 30 companies in eight countries.
These were huge organizations. For
example, at any given point in time there
were around 5,400 people working in Ede
alone. Some were foreign workers, while
others were drawn from all four corners of
the Netherlands. The personnel were transported
by the firm’s own bus company, the
Eigen Vervoers Organisatie (EVO). The Ede
site boasted the largest private transport
company in the Netherlands, with buses
traveling from Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam,
to Emmen and even picking people up from
Kleve, across the border in Germany.
A world leader in synthetic fibers
It was a time when AKU was expanding significantly,
but the company was not alone in
this. The entire fibers sector was doing the
same. In Europe alone, the production capacity
of nylon expanded by 20 percent, and by
the mid-1960s a further 60 percent had been
added. A downturn had to come sooner
or later. However, AKU’s board expected
demand for synthetic yarns and fibers to continue
rising. AKU expanded its manufacturing
capacity everywhere, as well as entering
into joint ventures with other fiber manufac-
turers. In 1966 they invested 3.5 billion Dutch
guilders worldwide, a billion of that in the
Netherlands alone. With 65,000 employees,
AKU was one of the biggest synthetic fiber
and yarn manufacturers in the world.
The collapse of the rayon market
In 1966 the tide turned. The economy stagnated,
rayon prices plummeted and the manufacture
of rayon fibers on the Kleefse Waard
(Arnhem) site was stopped. Nevertheless,
the expansion plans for synthetic fibers continued:
AKU wanted to quadruple production
The competitors, however, also expanded,
and supply exceeded demand. Many synthetic
yarns now came from the Eastern
Bloc. In 1967, the number of personnel in
the Netherlands fell from 15,200 to 13,700,
although without mass redundancies. New
products were also introduced, such as
the Enka ® chamois and a synthetic leather,
Xylee, made on the Kleefse Waard site.
The formation of Enka-Glanzstoff
and Akzo
In 1969, matters seemed to be improving
in the light of an upturn in the economy.
It was in this year that Enka-Glanzstoff was
created (in the years following the 1929
merger of Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken
with Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek [Enka]
to form AKU, the company had traded in the
Netherlands as AKU but had retained the
Glanzstoff name for operations in the German
market). Prior to 1969, Enka and Glanzstoff
both had separate Dutch and German
management boards, but this time they
merged to form a united company whose
Board of Management had two chairmen
and equal numbers of Dutch and German
members. AKU remained the holding
company. In that same year, AKU merged
with Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO) to
form Akzo. AKU’s research and develop-

The creation of Enka, AKU and
the Dutch synthetic fibers industry
The Akzo legacy
ment departments represented the core of
Akzo’s research capabilities.
Losses – and a master plan to
stem them
A year later, the situation changed dramatically.
Demand for fibers tailed off and prices
fell, while manufacturing costs – mainly for
personnel – increased sharply in what was
a labor-intensive business. In 1972, losses
were made on nylon yarns, polyester fibers,
synthetic leather and cellophane. The Board
of Management drew up a far-reaching
master plan. Five factories in four countries
were to be closed. In the Netherlands, Breda
and Emmen were on the list.
Resistance in Breda
The master plan met with massive resistance,
above all in Breda – a state-of-the-art
fibers plant in which new spinning lines had
been commissioned only a few months earlier.
Enka Glanzstoff’s Central Works Council
rejected Akzo’s proposals. The local works
councils backed the Central Works Council,
and the works councils of Akzo’s non-fiber
companies lent their support to the protests.
The unions demanded that not a single Enka
company should be closed down before
alternative employment had been found
for all employees, speaking of “disastrous
plans”, presented with “gross disregard for
the interests of employees.”
The management of Akzo and Enka
Glanzstoff was divided as to how to face
these demands, as were the Dutch and the
German sides within Enka Glanzstoff itself.
Their disunity was apparent to the outside
world, and public opinion turned against
Akzo. To break the deadlock, two commissions
set to work: a technical-economic
commission of the Central Works Council,
and a commission composed of independent
experts. The former advised the
withdrawal of the master plan; the latter lent
it qualified support.
On 18 September 1972, employees took
over the Breda site, demanding that the
Enka companies should be kept open.
It was the first ever organized take-over
of a site in the Netherlands; Dutch and
Belgian flags were flown at half-mast by
the occupying employees. Intense negotiations
involving the participation of the
Dutch Secretaries for Economic Affairs
and Social Affairs were initiated, and on
23 September Akzo’s Board of Management
withdrew the master plan, stating that the
restoration of order within the company
was of prime importance. It pointed out,
however, that both its Fibers and non-
Fibers activities would suffer the economic
consequences of this decision. The Dutch
and Belgian flags were hoisted in celebration
at Breda. Reflecting later on these
events, Guup Kraijenhoff – who occupied
the informal position of Chairman of Akzo’s
Board of Management at the time – stated
that it would have been better for the entire
company had the master plan been carried
out at this juncture rather than later, as eventually
happened. “It would also have been
better from a social point of view, because
the employment situation was favorable at
the time, creating better chances of alternative
employment for those being made
redundant,” he said. The employees went
back to work at Breda, but the structural
problems of the Fibers business remained
unresolved. A deceptive hope presented
itself in the form of the 1974 oil crisis, which
drove up crude oil prices, thus triggering
higher prices for chemical fibers and yarns.
With the unrest of the recent past still fresh
in their minds, Enka-Glanzstoff’s Board of
Management reluctantly announced plans
to expand production of selected products
in line with the company’s competitors.
An informal – but highly influential
– chairman
Gualtherus (“Guup”) Baron Kraijenhoff
played a pivotal role in the development of
Akzo during the 1970s. Originally Chairman
of the Board of Management of Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-Organon, he oversaw the
merger of that company with Koninklijke
Zout-Ketjen (KZK) to form Koninklijke
Zout-Organon, or KZO. As its Chairman,
he pushed for a merger between KZO and
AKU after AKU had abandoned merger
talks with DSM in the late 1960s and, following
the completion of the merger in 1969,
initially served on Akzo’s new fifteen-man
Board of Management as one of four vicechairman
under Chairman Klaas Soesbeek.
On Soesbeek’s retirement in May 1971,
Kraijenhoff assumed the informal chairmanship
of Akzo until his own retirement in 1978.
Although never fully official, this position
was extremely influential. Guup Kraijenhoff’s
chairmanship coincided with difficult economic
circumstances, but it also witnessed
the introduction of many important building
blocks of what would eventually become
AkzoNobel. The first unifying Akzo logo
– a blue triangle – was developed under his
leadership, as was Akzo Nederland bv (an
organization which brought together some
50 works councils in the Netherlands). The
first ever Akzo Code of Conduct, which was
formally binding on the company’s management
in 45 countries worldwide, was introduced
at the same time. And the rebalancing
of the company’s portfolio in 1977, which
A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work
It was extremely difficult to find suitable personnel in Emmen in the 1950s. The locals
were used to the free outdoor life of Drenthe. They decided on their own working hours,
ate and smoked whenever they felt like it, fetched beer from the grocer’s on the corner
and refused to wear a white overall to work. After all, they reasoned, it would only get dirty.
If they didn’t feel like working, they just stayed at home. “What’s the problem?” asked one
Emmen lass, surprised when her boss took her to task for absenteeism. “I’m not asking you
to pay me for that day!”
45

46
The creation of Enka, AKU and
the Dutch synthetic fibers industry
The Akzo legacy
occurred in response to the net loss posted in 1975, turned
Akzo’s fortunes around and allowed it, a year later, to pay its
shareholders a dividend for the first time in three years.
A new product – and a new problem
During the 1970s, Enka’s research departments were
working flat out to improve product quality and develop
cost-saving processes. In time they produced something
totally new: aramid, a class of very strong synthetic fibers
ideal for reinforcing rubber and plastics, which can be used,
for example, in cables and conveyor belts. Aramid yarn is five
times stronger than steel.
Aramid production was stepped up in 1982. The Delfzijl salt
site started to produce the raw material, which was then
spun to make Twaron ® , the brand name of the aramid fiber.
Because of the high development costs, the Dutch government
invested significantly in this new process. Almost
immediately difficulties arose with the American company
DuPont. They were also making an aramid yarn under the
brand name of Kevlar ® , and they claimed that they had a
patent on an essential component of AKU’s manufacturing
process, the spinning bath for producing the aramid.
A long and costly legal battle ensued which was only settled
– peacefully – many years later.
Further cutbacks
Enka remained in the red during 1977 and 1978. The conclusion
was that the future would lie mainly in industrial yarns
for applications such as tires, technical fabrics, ropes and
nets, as well as in non-fiber products such as plastics, membranes,
dialysis membranes, machines and chemical drilling
fluids and binders. The plant for nylon stocking yarns in
Emmen was closed, and the production of polyester textile
yarn in Breda was cut.
Agreements were made with other European fiber manufacturers
concerning a general reduction in production but,
in 1980, a reduction of 550,000 tons was still needed. The
extremely low value of the dollar was enabling the United
States to export large quantities of chemical fibers, intermediate
products and carpets to Europe cheaply.
Enka had already significantly reduced its dependence on
chemical fibers. Further restructuring led to the disappearance
of 4,000 of the 30,000 jobs in the Netherlands, Germany and
Northern Ireland. The manufacturing facility in Breda finally
closed in September 1982 and approximately 250 jobs at the
Arnhem head office gradually disappeared. Earnings from
textile yarn and fibers and carpet yarn still remained weak.
Pressure on profitability
With more than 31 percent of turnover, 42 percent of personnel
and 31 percent of profits, Enka was still Akzo’s
largest business in 1986. At the same time, it depended
heavily on the concern for support and was a significant
drain on its financial resources. Enka’s top management
readily admitted that their business would never have
survived the chemical fibers crisis without Akzo’s help.
The money earned by other parts of Akzo, especially by the
ever profitable Pharmaceuticals division, was used to cover
the losses from Fibers. Chairman of the Enka Board Joseph
R. Hutter warned, however, on the occasion of its 75th jubilee,
that Enka would have to find its own financial resources
for further growth, modernization and rationalization if it
were to generate an acceptable return and contribute to
Akzo’s further development.
That was precisely the problem. Despite extensive and
far-reaching reorganizations, cost savings and personnel
reductions, the Fibers division as a whole was unable to
meet Akzo’s profitability requirements. Because of this, in
the middle of the 1990s the final finishing of viscose yarn
was moved from Ede to the low-wage economy of Poland in
order to reduce costs. Plans were developed to sell service
units in Emmen and at the Kleefse Waard site in Arnhem.
That did not mean that certain parts of the Fibers business
were not doing well. One example was the Membrana business
unit in Germany, which made technical membranes
for medical and industrial applications and for water purification.
Membrana very quickly acquired a good name for
quality products. Earnings from other industrial products
were also very satisfactory.
Competition from Asia
It was primarily manufacturing for textile applications that
was in difficulties. The biggest problems were experienced
by the companies making viscose yarn. This was used to
manufacture, among other things, menswear and luxury
blouses for women. During the 1980s, however, there was
a flood of cheap textiles from Eastern Europe, and this was
later compounded in the early 1990s by enormous competi-
tion from Asia. Akzo – by now Akzo Nobel – preferred to
invest in its Pharmaceuticals and Coatings groups, where the
profitability was higher. However, the company felt responsible
for its Fibers group and looked for partners or prospective
buyers willing to take over that part of the business.
Akzo Nobel failed in this, but found a solution instead in the
takeover of UK fibers player Courtaulds in 1998. The Fibers
division of the former Courtaulds together with Akzo Nobel’s
Fibers group was then spun off into a separate company,
Acordis, on January 1, 1999. Acordis had sufficient scale to
be able to succeed on its own as a pure fibers player.
In August 1999 an international investment group, CVC
Capital Partners, announced its interest in taking over
Acordis. Akzo Nobel entered into an agreement to sell its
Fibers business to CVC for c825 million. Acordis took with
them provisions of approximately c225 million. CVC had a
64 percent share in the new company, which was established
in the Netherlands; the management of Acordis took
15 percent, and the remaining 21 percent share was taken
by Akzo Nobel. Acordis had a two-tier management structure,
consisting of a board of management and a supervisory
board, on which Akzo Nobel was also represented.
At the end of the 20th century, Folkert Blaisse, chairman
of the Acordis Board of Management, observed that the
transition period was at an end. “Acordis is now going to
work on becoming a solid, independent company with good
opportunities for the future,” he said. The fibers company
had started on a new chapter in its history. With manufacturing
facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, the United
Kingdom, the USA, Brazil, Italy and Poland, Acordis focused
on the production of a wide range of fibers (acrylic, alginate,
carbon, polyamide, staple and viscose) for industrial, textile,
medical and hygiene applications, as well as yarn.

An Enkalon advertisement from 1964 Workers leaving Akzo’s Breda fibers plant after its closure in 1982

48
The Sikkens Painters’ Museum in Sassenheim, the Netherlands, houses
a complete replica of an antique painter’s workshop, as well as a replica
of a car bodyshop

The Akzo legacy
Fifteen years after the Danish dyer Jacob Holmblad founded the
forerunner of Sadolin in Denmark, another paint manufacturing company
began in the Netherlands. In 1792, the painter and glazier
Wiert Willemszoon Sikkens opened a small paint and varnish works
in a gatehouse in the city wall of Groningen. His son, Geert Willem,
continued the business and in 1837 entered into partnership with his
cousin by marriage, Willem Penaat. Their company traded under the
name G.W. Sikkens & Co.
49
Overview
A new factory and a new product
World War I – A brake on expansion
An innovative application for the automotive field
Keeping pace with the USA
Sikkens in color
Relocation to Sassenheim
Surviving World War II
A new move into synthetic resins
Car refinishing systems
The route to KZO – via KZK
Serving the bodyshops
“Our attitude was different”
A quick invisible repair
The power of a brand

50
Sikkens:
From local start-up to world leader in coatings
The Akzo legacy
By 1880, the Sikkens family was no longer
in charge, but the business retained the
name. The firm had a warehouse for paints
on Heerebinnensingel and a small factory
in Zwarteweg. G.W. Sikkens & Co sold primarily
to the building trades, although even
at this point it also produced special lacquers
for carriages and wagons. The company’s
interest in the automotive sector was
in fact to become the defining factor in its
evolution. By the end of the 20th century,
this small enterprise would become one of
the three largest car refinishes companies
in the world.
A new factory and a new product
Around 1900 a large number of homes
were built close to the factory. The smells
from the open lacquer boilers caused a
great deal of nuisance, and the local residents
were afraid of fire. The nuisance was
so great that in 1903, Sikkens built a new
factory on the south side of the city of
Groningen, in the Helpman district. It was
there that they also began producing socalled
Japanese lacquers. These were
Recipe for varnish
smooth, high-gloss lacquers for finishing
decorative objects and for interior decoration.
Branded Pinorin Japan, they achieved
great success, not only in the Netherlands
but throughout Europe.
In 1905, Queen Wilhelmina granted the firm
the title Koninklijke (Royal). From that year,
the full name of the firm became Koninklijke
Lak- en Japanlakkenfabriek G.W. Sikkens
& Co. The managing director, Willem Albert
Penaat (son of Wiert Willemszoon Sikkens’
original partner), traveled throughout Europe
acquiring orders, while his brother Johannus
made sure that everything ran smoothly at
home from a technical point of view.
World War I – A brake on expansion
The business was doing well until the
fatal year 1914, when World War I broke
out. The Netherlands was neutral and so
was debarred from trading with any of the
warring nations. The country’s borders were
closed and, in one fell swoop, 70 percent of
Sikkens’ turnover was lost. There was only
one way to survive – increase sales in the
Netherlands – so depots with Sikkens ® pro-
“Take a new earthenware vessel. Add four parts linseed oil, a dash of massicot, one ounce
completely burned umber, a peeled clove of garlic and a piece of rye bread. Let these boil
until they thicken. Place half a pound of seed lacquer in another vessel. Cover, allow it to
melt, and carefully stir. Remove it from the fire and let it cool (until the pot no longer glows).
Make certain that no lit candle or open flame comes in contact with the turpentine, as it will
ignite. Stir the turpentine and heat it in a thick-walled bottle. Fill a pot with hot water and
place the bottle in the water so that it reaches a high temperature. Stir the turpentine well
and pour it through a piece of gauze into the glass bottle. If the mixture is cold and thickens
as a result, add a bit of turpentine.”
Sikkens varnish formula, approximately 1800
ducts were set up all over the country. They
were managed by well-trained wholesalers
who were located close to their customers
– painters and other building tradesmen.
These distributors were appointed as Official
Dealers and given exclusive rights to sell
Sikkens ® materials.
The shortage of raw materials severely limited
Sikkens’ expansion, but did not prevent
the company from planning for the aftermath
of the war. The company conceived not only
a national, but also an international sales
and distribution system during this period.
This was put into full effect following the termination
of hostilities.
Nevertheless, Sikkens was still a small company
which, since its establishment 126
years earlier, had not grown beyond having
only a dozen employees. Internationally,
however, the firm had a good name – Sikkens
stood for quality products. In the decades
to come, Sikkens was to produce paints for
many application sectors, including the protection
of buildings and boats as well as interior
decoration. The company’s involvement
with the automotive sector was to prove
decisive, however.
A dedication to safety
An innovative application for the
automotive field
In 1924, the gatehouse next to the Sikkens
factory was demolished and replaced by a
large new factory. A laboratory for quality
control and product development was then
added at the instigation of August Mari
Mees, who joined the company in 1924 and
who, in due course, was to become the
founder of the Sikkens Group. The company
was already producing the decorative
paint Rubbol ® A–Z ® , which was originally
a phenol/wood oil paint. In 1926, the new
laboratory succeeded in making a quickdrying
derivative of this product, Rubbol ®
Japanlak sneldrogend, suitable for cars.
This lacquer dried more quickly and was
more durable than rival lacquer types.
In America, however, the automobile in-
dustry was using different lacquers. Employing
explosives left over after the war
(guncotton or nitrocellulose), people there
were making lacquer which was no longer
applied with a brush but with a spray gun.
This made it possible to quickly paint massproduced
cars.
In the 19th century, Sikkens in Groningen had its own safety department. The varnish boiler
Van der Veer, who had worked for the company since 1870, always had a large sheet of iron
to hand in case of emergencies. Whenever the hot stand-oil boiler caught fire, he would
quickly throw the iron sheet over it and cover this with a wet sack. He would then jump on
top of the boiler and stay there until he was certain that the fire was out.

Sikkens first made its Rubbol ® Japanese lacquer suitable for the painting of cars in 1926.
It was a decisive development for the paint manufacturer

52
Sikkens:
From local start-up to world leader in coatings
The Akzo legacy
Keeping pace with the USA
Not everyone at Sikkens saw a future in these cellulose lacquers,
but they could not risk missing the boat – or, rather,
the car. In 1928, a new manufacturing facility was built next to
the still new paint factory to house the brand new company,
Sikkens Celluloselakfabriek. On December 14, 1928, at the
official opening, wholesalers were introduced to the new cellulose
products Nitro Rubbol ® and Nitro Reparatie Zwart.
The company now had two horses in the race for the favors
of the automobile industry and the car owner – its improved
Japanese lacquers, made from teak oil and natural resin, and
Rubbol ® lacquer, based on nitrocellulose. Sikkens’ development
from decorative paints and lacquers to coatings for
automotive and also aircraft applications was to prove a key
factor in the company’s successful expansion and internationalization.
Another important brand for the automotive sector,
Autoflex ® , which was launched in 1932, would remain on the
market for the next six decades.
Sikkens in color
The company grew and, along with it, so did its factories. In
1932, the firm was awarded the title Purveyor to the Royal
Household. Sikkens published trade magazines for house
painters and also a magazine for wholesalers. The first
Sikkens advertising films appeared in the second half of the
1930s. One of these was even partly in color – an exciting
innovation in those days.
Sikkens opened up new markets. Industrial paint users were
offered batches of paints and varnishes specially made
to meet their requirements. Regular customers already inclu-
ded famous names such as radio and light bulb manufac-
turer Philips, truck builder Kromhout, aircraft manufacturer
Fokker, train builder Werkspoor, airline KLM and lock manufacturer
Lips. In 1938, Sikkens employed around 90 people.
Relocation to Sassenheim
The company’s manufacturing site in Groningen was by the
late 1930s bursting at the seams. The cellulose factory had
already moved a couple of streets away, but that was not
very convenient because it was easier when everything was
together on one site.
With the knowledge that most of its major customers were
located in the western part of the Netherlands, the company
looked there for a suitable site for its paint factories. They
ended up in Sassenheim, where there was a field which
could no longer be used for growing bulbs. And there,
where the busiest motorway and the busiest railway line in
the Netherlands crossed, the new Sikkens factories were
built. In 1939 the threat of war was imminent. The management
wanted at all costs to move to the new site before the
war upset things.
In a lightning move on September 13, 1939, everything was
relocated from Groningen to Sassenheim – filing cabinets,
office furniture and machinery. When the first people arrived,
there were no windows in the buildings and the site had not
yet been surfaced, so everyone had to trudge through wet
sand to get to work.
Eighty of the 90 Groningen personnel moved with the factories
to Sassenheim. The other ten did not dare to make the
move to the west. Most of the office staff found homes in the
fashionable town of Oegstgeest, whereas the majority of the
factory workers ended up in Noordwijk. Many of them lived
together in the same street. Natives of Noordwijk still refer to
it as Groningen Street.
Surviving World War II
The newly-relocated company had a hard time of it during
World War II. During the fighting in May 1940, Sikkens was
in the firing line between German paratroops and Dutch
defenders. In 1942, the company set up its own fire brigade
and an air defense squad. Two years later, it became clear
just how necessary these organizations were because, following
an air raid, a fire caused a great deal of damage.
Production fell to zero.
A new move into synthetic resins
Reconstruction started swiftly after the end of the war, however.
A hundred thousand homes had to be repaired in the
Netherlands, not to mention the many roads, bridges, viaducts
and rail links that had been damaged. And paint and
varnish were needed for all of them. Because of the shortage
of raw materials, in the beginning Sikkens could not produce
enough to meet the demand. The company therefore started
to make synthetic resins itself as raw materials for its own
paints. The production of synthetic resins was subsequently
transferred to an independent part of the company, Synthese,
later to become the Resins business unit.
Car refinishing systems
By 1948, the shortage of raw materials was a thing of the
past and manufacturing was again running flat out. Sikkens
at this point had 229 employees and Synthese 31. The postwar
era saw a huge growth in prosperity in the Western world
and, with it, a massive increase in car ownership. The concept
of a dedicated car refinishes industry – for repainting
cars that had been repaired following an accident –
first developed in the United States. Perceiving the potential
of this trend, Sikkens set out to exploit this new market,
as well as the original automotive manufacturing sector.
The fast-drying Autoflex ® Sneldrogend – based on alkyd
resin technology which had been developed in Sassenheim
during the war – gave the company a huge advantage over
its competitors and this breakthrough product was followed
up in 1961 by Autoflex ® Washprimer and Autoflex ® Filler,
thus creating a refinishing system which could be completed
in a single day.
Sikkens set itself ambitious growth targets and in 1954 it
listed on the Dutch stock exchange in order to fund its plans.
By this stage, the company was producing automotive
coatings for many public transport companies and vehicle
body constructors including FIAT, Ford, Morris and Simca.
The company’s aircraft coatings, meanwhile, were being
successfully used for Gloster Meteor and Hawker Hunter
jet fighters, while the innovative 24-hour and one-pot systems
were introduced for the domestic decorative (home)
paint market.
In 1957, a new oil mill was installed on the Sassenheim site.
Sikkens Constructieverven, serving the building trades,
started up under the name Sicova in nearby Leiden.
Acquisitions and joint ventures abroad during the late 1950s
gave the company access to a wider range of markets and
lifted the headcount to around 1,600. In 1960, the various
activities were consolidated to form the Sikkens Group.
Approximately 40 percent of the company’s output was
being exported.
The route to KZO – via KZK
In 1962, the Sikkens Group became part of Koninklijke
Zout-Ketjen (KZK), which included Gembo, a manufacturer
of water glass, printing inks and Valspar ® paints. Two
years later, Sikkens took over the Valspar ® paints activities
from Gembo. In 1963, CetaBever, a manufacturer of DIY

Hoarding advertising: the planned construction
of the new Sikkens plant in Sassenheim,
the Netherlands, shortly before World War II
broke out
Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
during World War II, visits Sikkens’ Sassenheim
site in 1946
53

54
Sikkens:
From local start-up to world leader in coatings
The Akzo legacy
products, and Talens, a producer of artists’ paints based in
Apeldoorn, also became part of Sikkens.
Then, in 1967, KZK merged with Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon to create Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO). From
that point on, Sikkens shares the same history as that of
KZO, becoming part of Akzo in 1969 and in 1994 part
of Akzo Nobel. Together with the German Lesonal and
the French Astral, Sikkens formed the Coatings division
of Akzo Nobel.
Serving the bodyshops
By the mid-1960s, the Autoflex ® product line had more
than 500 ready-mixed colors. To help bodyshop sprayers
identify paint colors accurately, the company introduced
the Sikkens ® Car Color Selector, an innovative color selection
book. Encouraged by its successes in the Dutch
market, Sikkens then targeted the large and technologically
advanced German car refinishes market, building on the
success of the Autoflex ® line and following this up with its
revolutionary two-component topcoat Autocryl ® . Autocryl ®
was more expensive than existing car refinish systems, and
it called for a change in working methods on the part of
bodyshop sprayers, but energetic marketing in combination
with an extensive training program assured the success
of the new product line.
The difference between
lacquer and paint
“Our attitude was different”
Both lacquer and paint are mixtures of pigment and binding medium, which are thinned
with a solvent to form a liquid vehicle. Both are used to decorate or protect surfaces and
are generally applied in thin coats that dry (by evaporation or by oxidation of the vehicle)
to an adhesive film.
Lacquer was first made more than two thousand years ago in Asia from the resin of the
Lacquer tree, Toxicodendron vernicifluum, and used to make and decorate traditional
artifacts. Lacquer is light but strong. It is resistant to acid or alkali and it changes color
and hardens on contact with air to give a jet-black, impermeable finish which can be
Further innovations followed, fuelling growth throughout
and beyond Europe – mixing machines that allowed onthe-spot
mixing of paints were introduced into bodyshops,
the first integrated color documentation for car refinishes
(Colorscala ® , later called Colormap ® ) was created, and
microfiche technology was employed to keep bodyshops
informed about changes in the central color database.
Meanwhile, the old-fashioned customer orientation that had
helped Sikkens penetrate the German car refinishes market
was applied to the massive U.S. market. As Henk Groen,
the “godfather” of the Car Refinishes Group, was to recall:
“Our attitude was different – going to the bodyshops and
working with them to solve their problems. We didn’t come
wearing white coats. Our people wore overalls and had dirty
hands and said, ‘Let me show you how it can be done.’ That
attitude towards the customer created an opening for us,
and that’s why it took 12 or 13 years before the competition
caught up with us.”
Quick invisible repair
Each time Sikkens was launched in a new country,
Groen would hear the same remarks: “Our country is different.
Our culture is different. You have to take a different
approach here.” But Groen and his colleagues understood
that no matter how different cultures might be, customers
all wanted the same thing when they brought their car to
the repair shop. They wanted it back with no sign of the
damage and as quickly as possible. That was the essence
of the Sikkens slogan: “Quick invisible repair.” The simplicity
of this message was complemented by advanced
concepts in customer service aimed at the entrepreneurs
who owned the repair shops. Sikkens offered them support
with their financial planning, marketing, advertising and sales
promotion, to help them grow their businesses. The Acoat
selected ® partner program has since spread around the world
to serve the market’s largest and most prestigious body-
shops. Meanwhile, building on Sikkens’ strength in providing
user training for products, the first Car Refinishes Instruction
Center was established in Sassenheim in 1974.
The power of a brand
Towards the end of the 1980s, Sikkens introduced computer
technology to link its successful color database to
its equally successful on-site mixing machines. This Mixit ®
system made for even more precise mixing, while reducing
paint usage and increasing efficiency in the bodyshops.
The company celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1992.
By 1998, it was producing the same amount of paint in a
built up in layers. A similar product, shellac, is derived from the secretions of the Lac insect
Laccifer lacca, dissolved in alcohol. The term lacquer now refers to any fast-drying clear or
colored coating applied by spray in a variety of finishes from ultra matte to high gloss, and
composed of a resin dissolved in solvent.
First used in cave paintings in France and Spain more than 15,000 years ago, paint is an
opaque solid film applied to a substrate. It is composed of finely ground pigments, natural
or synthetic, which give it color and consistency, solvents to make it easy to apply, resins to
help it dry, and additives to improve its covering, filling or anti-fungal properties.

Sikkens assumed a powerful position in the car refinishes market
through a combination of innovative products and high-quality
training in their use
55

56
Sikkens:
From local start-up to world leader in coatings
The Akzo legacy
single day as was made in a whole year in 1946. As part of
Akzo Nobel’s Coatings division, the organization no longer
traded as Sikkens, but the name was, and still is, used as a
brand name.
In 1994, the then Akzo merged with Nobel Industries, whose
portfolio included significant coatings activities. The merger
brought with it decorative coatings brands such as Sadolin ®
and Crown ® Berger, which were incorporated into the
Coatings division of the newly-created Akzo Nobel. The division
was then split up into a number of business units, which
continued the tradition established by Sikkens. Akzo Nobel’s
acquisition of the British Courtaulds in 1998 added even
more coatings operations.
Today, AkzoNobel is the biggest paint manufacturer in
the world, with activities in decorative coatings for interior
and exterior decoration and protection, industrial finishes
and powder coatings, marine and protective coatings
and car refinishes. Decorative coatings brands include
Sadolin ® , Dulux ® and Flexa ® , while industrial brands include
International ® , Interpon ® and Resicoat ® .
The Sikkens Painters’ Museum
The Sikkens Painters’ Museum showcases a unique collection which pays tribute to every
aspect of the painter’s trade, from home decoration to carriage painting. This is reflected
not only in the museum’s large collection of painting materials and equipment, and the
magnificent craftsmanship demonstrated there, but also in its extensive library and precious
collection of historical wallpapers.
The museum shows the workshops where painters once produced their own paints from
all kinds of raw materials, the ladders and scaffolding that they used, and their means of
transport. It also highlights techniques of the past, such as wood and marble imitations,
and the crafts of carriage painters, glaziers and wallpaper-makers.
The heart of the museum is the Cees Tromp collection of artifacts celebrating the evolu-
tion of painting. Tromp himself was a master painter who witnessed the sweeping changes
in the trade during the 1950s and 1960s. On his travels through the Netherlands, Tromp
amassed a unique collection providing a broad view of the history of the painter’s trade.
Sikkens Lakfabrieken acquired the collection in 1973 and opened the Sikkens Painters’
Museum in The Hague in 1981, with Tromp as the curator. In 1992, the museum moved
to the former town hall of Sassenheim.
In the museum’s Sikkens Room, the history of the Sikkens brand and the development of
AkzoNobel are displayed, with presentations from each business unit showing how products
and services have changed over time. The museum also houses a complete replica
of an antique painter’s workshop and a replica of a car bodyshop, as well as individually
themed exhibitions.

Production of Sikkens paint at Sneek, the Netherlands, in 1996.
Sikkens sold the Sneek operation in 2001 to CPS Colors

58
Sikkens:
From local start-up to world leader in coatings
The Akzo legacy
The Sikkens Foundation
The Sikkens Prize was inaugu rated in 1959 on the initiative of
A.M. Mees, the then director of the Sikkens Paint Factory in
Sassenheim. The prize was introduced as an appreciation of
artists, architects and designers whose work created a synthesis
of space and color.
Mees’ initiative stemmed on the one hand from his interest in art,
and on the other from his position at a company in which color was
the leading factor in the manufacture of products. In the years that
followed, many Sikkens Prizes were awarded to architects, artists
and organizations in the Netherlands and abroad, and the Sikkens
Prize became a household name in the world of art and culture.
In 1972, Akzo Nobel disengaged the Sikkens Prize from industrial
patronage and placed it under an independent foundation, the
Sikkens Prize Foundation, later called the Sikkens Foundation.
The award formula was expanded and increased attention was
given to color as a universal phenomenon.
The core activity of the Sikkens Foundation is to periodically
award the Sikkens Prize to persons and organizations that, in
the board’s opinion, have made a special contribution to the
Foundation’s goals. The recipient of the first Sikkens Prize was
the architect Gerrit Rietveld (in 1959). Among those who came
after him were Le Corbusier (1963), Theo van Doesburg (1968)
and Donald Judd (1993).
In recent times, the Sikkens Prize has usually been awarded to
artists and architects who have carried out pioneering work in the
field of color application. The Sikkens Foundation does not restrict
itself to art and architecture, however, but sees the universal phenomenon
of color in a very broad context – as testified by the award of
Sikkens Prizes to the Hippies (1970), the governmental department
responsible for the IJsselmeer polders (1979), the filmmaker Ettore
Scola (1983), and the sanitation department of the City of Paris (1995).
A.M. Mees, founder of the Sikkens Group and
initiator of the Sikkens Prize. Bronze bust by
Hans Verhulst

Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder House in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Rietveld won the first Sikkens Prize in 1959 for his entire oeuvre,
in particular for his “realization of a synthesis between space and color”
Maurice Agis and Peter Jones won the Sikkens Prize in 1967 for their
conception of spatial structures, based on the interrelation of surfaces,
lines and colors
59

60
Richard Paul Lohse won the 1971 Sikkens
Prize for his new compositional techniques in
painting. These were adjudged “Of the highest
merit” and “A signpost towards visual necessities
in the developed environment”
Ettore Scola won the 1983 Sikkens Prize for the
use of color in his films, including Una giornata
particolare and Passione d’amore. The scene
shown here comes from Il mondo nuovo (That
night in Varennes)

Donald Judd won the 1993 Sikkens Prize for his surprising use of form
and particularly color in the fields of furniture-making and architecture
The Dutch retail company HEMA won the Sikkens Prize in 2004
in recognition of the attention it pays to the color and design of its
broad assortment of articles for daily use

62
Ketjen’s operation in the north of Amsterdam, 1835

The Akzo legacy
On September 6, 1835, King William I of the Netherlands granted three
residents of Amsterdam a patent to import and manufacture sulfuric
acid. This chemical, which was used primarily by weaving and cottonprinting
mills for dyeing textiles, was in short supply in the Netherlands
on account of the war that was being fought with Belgium at the time.
One of three entrepreneurs awarded the patent was the apothecary
Gerhard Tileman Ketjen. He and his two partners set up a sulfuric acid
works on Trapjesschans in Amsterdam, approximately where the Nieuwe
De la Mar theater now stands.
63
Overview
Innovation and diversification
Destruction and reconstruction
From Ketjen to KZO
Incorporation into the Chemicals division

64
Ketjen:
A leading sulfuric acid manufacturer
The Akzo legacy
In 1900 the firm of Ketjen built a new sulfuric acid plant in
Amsterdam, on the banks of the River IJ near Nieuwendam.
Situated in a desolate and unpopulated area, the plant was
close to the water, offering easy access to tankers. This facilitated
the export of large quantities of sulfuric acid. The new
plant was followed in 1914 by a hydrochloric acid plant. As
the Netherlands did not have an indigenous salt industry at
the time, the hydrochloric acid plant used imported salt as
raw material. World War I proved very profitable for Ketjen.
The Dutch government purchased two-thirds of all the company’s
output for the manufacture of explosives, while the
company’s products were also used by the glass industry.
Innovation and diversification
Hard times arrived after the war and remained until 1929,
when a further sulfuric acid plant was built, primarily to supply
the Mekog fertilizer plant in IJmuiden near Amsterdam. The
1930s witnessed both innovation and diversification. In 1935
a Ketjen researcher, Piet Smit, developed a new invention.
He treated sawdust with sulfuric acid and in so doing created
activated carbon, which was ideal for decolorizing
cane- and beet-sugar juice. A Ketjen subsidiary, Activit,
commercialized Smit’s invention.
Another employee, a Belgian named Du Saar, invented a
water softener for treating the boiler feed water on steamships.
Further subsidiaries were set up to exploit this
development. In 1937 the old contact sulfuric acid plant
was upgraded to become the biggest sulfuric acid plant in
Europe. Additional plants were built for the manufacture of
different products – for example, sulfite, bisulfite and potassium
permanganate. The last of these is a raw material for
Emissions – and restitutions
making the artificial sweetener saccharin – a product that
was to be much sought-after during World War II.
Destruction and reconstruction
Sulfuric acid is highly corrosive, and during the past century Ketjen had several problems
with leaks in its manufacturing equipment. One evening, poisonous sulfur vapors escaped
from the plant on Trapjesschans. People in an old timber city theater nearby took to their
heels. The Amsterdam city council insisted that the company relocate and Ketjen moved to
a site at the end of Overtoom. Things were not much better at the new location, however.
Acidic emissions were bad news for local market gardeners, who brought their withered
carrots and lettuces to the company, demanding restitution. Ketjen paid up. In due course
the farmers looked on such compensation as a fixed part of their income.
Allied bombers hit Ketjen’s sulfuric acid storage facilities on
July 28, 1943, with the result that thousands of tons of sulfuric
acid ended up in the River IJ. In September the following
year, the Germans destroyed the cranes and transport facilities.
By the end of the war, the plant was completely inoperative.
A revival commenced in October 1945, however. Ketjen
was invited to manage a number of German companies on
behalf of the Dutch government and it profited from post-war
reconstruction. The building of a sulfur dioxide plant started
in 1947, followed by the construction of laboratories.
A plant to make catalysts for the oil industry was built in 1953
under an American license. Over the next few years two
more plants were added, one of them specifically to make
desulfurizing catalysts that removed sulfur from oil.
Ketjen also purchased a large tract of land on the other side
of Amsterdam’s Nieuwendammer Canal and connected it
to the existing site by a causeway. Here the company built a
new sulfuric acid plant and an installation for making sulfurbased
products. Railway sidings were built over the entire
site. Goods wagons crossed the River IJ on the company’s
own rail ferry. Ketjen constructed a plant jointly with the
American Cabot Corporation in Europoort, near Rotterdam,
to make special varieties of soot for the tire industry. A sulfuric
acid plant was also built there. More new plants were
erected in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 1960s. These
included installations to make biphenyl and plasticizers for
the plastics industry.
From Ketjen to KZO
In 1961, Koninklijke Zwavelzuurfabrieken van het Ketjen,
as the company was now known, merged with Koninklijke
Nederlandse Zoutindustrie (KNZ) to form Koninklijke
Zout-Ketjen (KZK), which in turn merged with Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-Organon to form a new conglomerate,
Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO).
Incorporation into the Chemicals division
After the creation of Akzo in 1969, Ketjen formed part of
Akzo’s Chemicals division. It numbered more than 1,100
employees at the time. The golden age of the chemicals
industry was drawing to a close, however, and Ketjen was
losing money. In 1978 dozens of employees had to take
early retirement; further staff cuts continued in the ensuing
years. The remaining parts of the former Kejten operations
were integrated into the Catalysts business unit of
Akzo Nobel’s Chemicals division. A sulfuric acid specialties
plant at the Nieuwendammer Canal site still provides
a reminder of yesteryear, however. Just before the end of
the 20th century a new owner for this plant appeared in
the form of PVS Chemicals, a Belgian subsidiary of the
American PVS Chemicals Inc., which makes and sells
inorganic chemicals and processes chemical waste. The
employees in the sulfuric acid plant in Amsterdam had
extensive experience with the combustion of wastes containing
sulfur because that is how they made sulfuric acid.
Akzo Nobel and PVS Chemicals entered into an agreement
and 20 to 30 employees transferred to the new owner.

Construction work on a new sulfuric acid plant in the 1950s
65

66
Early salt manufacture was a labor-intensive process

The Akzo legacy
Salt is one of the most pivotal products in the evolution of AkzoNobel.
The company’s involvement with this valuable commodity began in 1887,
when Jacob Pieter Vis read in the newspaper that a recently dug well on
the Twickel estate in Twente (in the east of the Netherlands) produced
salt water rather than fresh water. This was the first time that salt had
been found on Dutch soil. Vis was interested in the news because he
was a salt boiler by trade, producing salt by boiling brine rather than
extracting it from the earth.
67
Overview
Wartime shortages – and a new industry
Striking it rich
Diversification into salt derivatives
Merger with Ketjen
Dishwashers and icy roads
Merger with Zwanenberg-Organon

68
Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie:
The Netherlands’ first large-scale salt manufacturer
The Akzo legacy
Wartime shortages – and a new industry
Knowing that considerable underground reserves of
salt existed in neighboring Germany, and surmising
that some of these must extend under Dutch soil,
too, Vis recruited some partners to join him in
setting up a new salt manufacturing company. In 1911
they applied for a concession to drill for saline water near
Buurse, south of Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands.
The bill concerning their application went before the
Lower House of the Dutch parliament, which threw it out
– only to discover during the ensuing World War I how short-
sighted this decision had been. For the borders of the
Netherlands were sealed during the war, leaving the
country unable to import the salt so necessary for many
industrial and domestic uses. In due course, the Dutch
Lower House changed its mind, and in 1918 the state
took a stake in Vis’ company, which soon became
known as KNZ (Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie).
A salt production complex was built at Boekelo, just to
the west of Enschede.
The harvesting of a chemical
Striking it rich
To everyone’s consternation, however, no salt was found to
begin with. The first discovery did not occur until March 17,
1919, when salt was discovered in the ground near Usselo,
on the outskirts of Enschede, at a depth of 325 meters.
The first salt evaporator started operation on August 25 of
the same year. The brine that came out of the ground was
transported through a pipeline, 2,200 meters long, to the
Boekelo plant.
Diversification into salt derivatives
The Phoenicians (2500–1000 B.C.) are thought to have been the first people to harvest
and trade solid salt from the sea. They flooded coastal plains with seawater, left it to dry
until the water had evaporated, and then collected the salt.
In the 14th century, the city of Timbuktu in Mali, at the edge of the Sahara, was fabled
for its great wealth, accumulated by the trade in salt, from the mines in the north of the
country, as well as gold and slaves from the south. It is said that salt was worth its weight
in gold, and that when on a pilgrimage to Cairo, the Emperor of Mali gave away so many
gold gifts that the price of gold crashed. Timbuktu is still important as an entrepot for
rock-salt from Taoudenni.
Although about 50 quadrillion (50 x 10 15 ) tons of sodium chloride (common salt) are dissolved
in the world’s oceans, less than a third of the world’s salt is produced from seawater.
Most of it comes from rock salt mines deep beneath the earth’s surface. A huge rotorbladed
machine tunnels into the salt deposit and then automatic electro-hydraulic drilling
machines bore 14-meter deep holes into the tunnel ceiling. These holes are packed with
In 1926 a new production process was introduced. The brine
was no longer evaporated but vacuum dried instead.
The production of soda was also initiated.
In addition to producing cooking salt and de-icing salt, in
1931 the manufacture of hydrochloric acid, sodium hypochlorite,
liquid chlorine and sodium hydroxide was also started.
Salt is the precursor for all these chemicals. Production
in Boekelo ended in 1952, but prior to this, new salt and
chemicals plants had been built near Hengelo, just north
of Enschede, well situated alongside the Twents Canal,
a major waterway in the region for the transport of goods.
KNZ produced more than 200,000 tons of salt from 1939 to
1940. This quantity doubled within ten years, and the company
continued to expand.
The construction of a modern chlorine electrolysis plant
in Delfzijl (near Groningen) started in 1956 and the first
calcined (water-free) soda was manufactured the following
year. In 1959, salt production started here too. KNZ also participated
in companies in Stade and Ibbenbüren (Germany).
Merger with Ketjen
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK) was formed in 1961 when
KNZ merged with the Dutch sulfuric acid manufacturer
Ketjen. A major research center opened in Hengelo
in the same year. Three years later, the production of
pesticides started in the Botlek area of Rotterdam,
and construction of a salt plant started at Mariager in
northeast Denmark.
explosives which are then detonated, and the fragmented rock salt is carried by conveyor
belt up to the surface. Germany is one of the largest sources of mined salt in the world, and
one mine, at Borth in North Rhine-Westphalia, is estimated to have salt deposits exceeding
200,000 million tons.
Yet another method of extracting salt is to pump hot water into underground deposits,
causing the salt to dissolve, and then to pump the resulting brine to the surface. This
process has the advantage of enabling impurities to be left underground. When the water is
evaporated from the brine in large vacuum plants, the resulting salt is 99.9 percent pure.
Two further key industrial products are derived from sodium chloride (salt) – chlorine and
caustic soda. Chlorine is a basic manufacturing chemical and is used in over 50 percent
of all industrial chemical processes and in over 90 percent of pharmaceutical and crop
protection products. Caustic soda is used directly in the manufacture of pulp and paper,
aluminium, petroleum and natural gas refining and processing.

The spa at Bad Boekelo
69

70
Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie:
The Netherlands’ first large-scale salt manufacturer
The Akzo legacy
Dishwashers and icy roads
Compacted salt pellets for softening water were launched on
the market in 1967 under the name Broxo ® , in response to,
among other things, the growing number of dishwashers in
people’s homes. The company also helped people to keep
their feet on the ground thanks to Gladweg ® , a de-icing salt
for sidewalks and roads. At this time KZK was selling more
than two million tons of salt a year, making it the largest salt
producer in the world.
Merger with Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK) and Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon merged to create Koninklijke Zout-Organon NV
(KZO) in 1967. During the formation of Akzo in 1969, the position
of the salt business was significantly enhanced at the
last moment by the takeover of International Salt Company
in Clarks Summit (United States).
“He’s worth his salt”
Salt was being used to preserve meat and fish by 2000 B.C., enabling products to be traded
over greater distances. Salt was hard to obtain and became a valuable commodity, and
the trade was later taxed and controlled by the state. In 6th century B.C. the building of the
temple of Artemis in Ephesus was partly funded by a salt tax, and by the 3rd century B.C.
salt taxes were common in Egypt, Rome and China. Up until the 1900s, when new sources
of salt were found, the tax on salt was often raised to pay for wars. The Romans paid part
of their soldiers’ wages in salt, and the Latin word salarium is the root of the word “salary.”
So to be “worth your salt” means you are a good employee.
Salt is a bulk product. The profit margin is small, so every
extra cent per ton profit counts significantly towards the
overall result. It has therefore been necessary to work ever
more efficiently and with increasingly greater cost awareness
over the decades. Various reorganizations over the
years have resulted in redundancies in Hengelo, Delfzijl
and Botlek (Rotterdam) and, in the mid-1990s, the disposal
of the American International Salt Company. Similar
pressures led Akzo to rationalize its R&D activities, as a
result of which many people in the Hengelo research center
were transferred to Arnhem.
The Salt division nevertheless continued to develop under
the Akzo umbrella because the new organization designated
salt and its derivatives as core business. The Chemicals and
Salt divisions were eventually merged in 1992. AkzoNobel
remains one of the biggest salt producers in the world.
A debt to Alfred Nobel
Storing salt is a major problem. Salt attracts water, and the salt grains cake together to form
very hard lumps. Rock-hard salt piles several meters high regularly formed in the storage
facilities in Hengelo in days gone by. The problem was how to break up the salt so that
it could be used. The solution employed was an invention of Alfred Nobel’s – dynamite.
Holes were drilled in the salt pile, and dynamite charges were inserted and detonated.
Two people with explosives permits were specifically employed for this task. Later on, an
anti-caking agent was invented. This was added to the salt to ensure that it remained loose.

silicones
poly-
urethanes
ptfe
terra methyl-
lead
methyl-
cellulose
industrial
processes
pvdf
hcfc
monochloro-
methane
water
treatment
The chlorine tree. Chlorine is derived from
salt and has diverse applications. Although
made with the help of chlorine, about onethird
of finished products from this source are
chlorine-free
pvdc
pvc
ethylcellulose
diiso-
cyanates
poly-
carbonates
dichloro-
methane
trichloro-
methane
industrial
processes
vinyl
chloride
tetra ethyl
lead
hfc
perchloro-
ethylene
monochloro-
ethane
phosgene
tetrachloromethane
hcl
1,2-dichloro-
ethane (Edc)
elemental
chlorine
c2-derivatives
c1-derivatives
foods cosmetics
hdcf
1,1,1-trichloroethanetrichloroethylene
monochloro-
acetic acid
c3-derivatives
Salt
carboxymethyl
cellulose
trichloro-
acetic acid
flocculants
allylchloride
c4-derivatives
pharmaceuticals
epichlorohydrin
aromatic
derivatives
inorganic
derivatives
dichloro-
butene
aluminium
chloride
epoxy resins
glycerols
glycol
ethers
propylene
glycol
propylene
oxyde
chloroprene
chloro-
paraffins
dyestuffs
silicon tetrachloride
iron chloride
end use
intermediates
poly-
urethanes
polyols
polychloroPrene
linear slkyl benzene
health & crop
protection
aramide fibres
s-resins
sulfur
chlorides
titanium
tetrachloride
phosphorus
chlorides
silicon
dioxide
silicon
health & crop
protection
sodium hyperchloride
end use – no chlorine in product
intermediates – no chlorine in product
crop protection
titanium
dioxide

72
The Sternfeld brothers won a prize in 1906
for the excellence of their bread, which
was baked with Noury & Van der Lande’s
new “Excellent” brand of flour

The Akzo legacy
Noury & Van der Lande, later to become pioneers in peroxides and
part of AkzoNobel’s Polymer Chemicals business, began its life in the
milling business. In 1838, Jan Nourij and Gerrit van der Lande purchased
two mills on the Koerhuisbeek, on the outskirts of Deventer.
Their plan was to mill rapeseed and grain in order to produce linseed
oil and cattle feed. Their efforts prospered and they expanded considerably,
not least because of their use of ultra-modern steam-driven
rolling mills – a significant innovation at the time. By the end of the
19th century, Noury & Van der Lande also had an oil mill in Kleve,
Germany, and the market for flour had grown enormously. Each day,
no less than 67 tons of grain was being milled.
73
Overview
A surprise discovery
The power of peroxide
Paint pigments – and cake ingredients
From citric acid to pharmaceuticals
Post-War diversification
Merger with KZO
Safety first

74
Noury & Van der Lande:
Pioneers of peroxide
The Akzo legacy
From the food to the paint industry
The company of Noury & Van der Lande, as the enterprise
came to be called, started experimenting with the oil they produced,
upgrading it by blowing air through it. The oil could
then be used as a raw material for making lacquers. In 1907,
the factory in Kleve closed, and a new oil factory was built
on the Rhine in Emmerich. After a few years, this factory also
began to produce bleached linseed oil and oil to mix with
white lead pigment for the paint and lacquer industry.
During World War I, the Dutch government regulated food
supplies and distributed stocks of flour to the population. It
was a slack time for the firm, but they took the opportunity
to perfect their milling techniques, start up their own experimental
bakery, and set up a small laboratory.
A surprise discovery
The link between baking and chemical manufacture, which
was to prove pivotal in the company’s development, in fact
had its origins in an event which had occurred a little earlier,
during the 1900s. Jan van der Lande (Gerrit’s grandson,
who had assumed control of the company in 1888) had a
visit from a baker from a neighboring village, who begged
him for some more supplies of sour (i.e. fermented) flour.
Johannes Christian Lebuïnus van der Lande – to give him his
full name – was shocked. “Look,” he retorted, “if we supplied
you with sour flour, you should have sent it back!”
“That’s what my wife said,” replied the baker, taken aback.
“But I gradually used up the sour flour, mixing it with the rest
The mother of invention
of the flour. And guess what? Since I’ve been adding a bit of
sour flour to the dough, I’ve been getting such good bread
that my customers keep coming back for more.”
The power of peroxide
The canny customer didn’t receive his wished-for delivery
of sour flour, but it started Jan van der Lande thinking. It
appeared that aged, oxidized flour produced better results
when used for baking. Under the guidance of the British
chemist E.J. Sutherland, the company’s new laboratory
experimented with benzoyl peroxide to imitate the process
of oxidation. Sutherland and his researchers found that
flour treated with peroxide produced bread which was both
whiter and tastier than bread made by traditional methods.
Named Novadelox ® (derived from “Noury & Van der Lande
Oxgenium”) and patented worldwide during the 1920s, the
new bleaching agent marked the beginning of the manufacture
and application of organic peroxides. Subsidiary companies
across the globe began to sell the flour improver.
New types were discovered, and new factories were built in
Coswig (Germany) and Gillingham (England). In Roermond,
the only hydro-electric power station in the Netherlands
was taken over to make per-compounds using an electrochemical
process.
Paint pigments – and cake ingredients
After World War II ended, there was a shortage of everything. The only fuel available for firing
the lacquer boiler in Deventer was peat. When an analyst finally managed to lay his hands
on a decent thermometer, he could at last measure the temperature of the lacquer mixture.
“It’s too low,” he chided the operator. “The lacquer should be at 120 degrees and it’s only at
100 degrees.” The operator was very indignant. “Can’t be,” he replied. “There are 60 blocks
of peat burning under it, and each block is exactly two degrees.”
In 1930, Noury & Van der Lande closed the headquarters it
had been occupying in Deventer since 1878 and moved to
a modern new building in the same city. The following year
the company built one of the largest oil mills in Compiègne,
France. In Emmerich, meanwhile, the manufacture of paint
pigments such as white lead and titanium dioxide commenced.
Paint hardeners were added later. In 1937, the firm
began to grow fungi for making citric acid from sugar solution
for the cake and confectionery industry. The citric acid
factory remained in operation until 1976.
From citric acid to pharmaceuticals
Noury & Van der Lande’s experience with biological processes
in their citric acid factory led to a new field of activity:
pharmaceuticals. Wishing to expand this activity, the company
initially tried to take over Organon in Oss. When their
bid was unsuccessful, however, they set up their own pharmaceutical
subsidiary, called Nourypharma, in Deventer.
The company manufactured Nourical and Tonicum Noury ® ,
growth-promoting and strengthening products for children;
they were later also to manufacture vitamin B. Scabicidol
– a treatment for scabies in humans – proved a successful
product for the company during World War II.
Post-War diversification
On August 25, 1940, several Allied bombs were dropped
on the flour factory in Deventer, but fortunately caused only
minor damage. By the end of the war, the business was at a
virtual standstill due to fuel and raw material shortages. New
products were introduced into the company’s portfolio after

A horse-powered mill from the early 19th century.
Noury & Van der Lande’s first mills used horse power too
75

76
Noury & Van der Lande:
Pioneers of peroxide
The Akzo legacy
the liberation, however. These included weed killers, products
for preserving potatoes, and insecticides. Large quantities
of the latter were sent to Africa for locust control.
Peroxides now took on increasing significance because the
emerging plastics industry used them for the production of
synthetic materials. In 1962, the company built its own peroxide
plant in Italy. Noury & Van der Lande also helped with
the construction of plastics factories in Kazan (Russia).
Merger with KZO
In 1965, the company merged with Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon (KZO). Nourypharma was absorbed into Organon
and moved to Apeldoorn and Oss. The flour factory closed in
the same year, bringing more than 125 years of tradition
to an end.
When Akzo was created in 1969, Noury & Van der Lande
had 14 factories in Europe and was producing approximately
900 different products. The company became part of Akzo’s
Chemicals division; the sales and R&D organizations had
to conform completely to the Akzo model. The operation’s
product portfolio was gradually reduced.
Safety first
In 1974, a serious explosion occurred at the Deventer peroxide
plant, costing one unfortunate employee his life. This accident
resulted in more attention being paid to safety. Among other
actions taken, a safety laboratory was set up which would
later work for the whole of Akzo (and ultimately AkzoNobel).
R&D activities expanded significantly in the 1980s; ten
years later, the research center in Deventer became part of
Akzo Nobel Central Research.
Peroxide
A peroxide is a class of chemical compound in which two oxygen atoms are linked together
by a single covalent bond (OO). There are both organic and inorganic peroxides, which can
be used as bleaching and oxidizing agents, as initiators of polymerization reactions, and in
the preparation of other oxygen compounds.
Organic peroxides include peroxyacetic acid, which is used as an antimicrobial agent in
food and wine production, and dibenzoyl peroxide, which catalyses free radical reactions
in the production of polymers, is an active substance in creams for treating acne, and can
be used for bleaching flour, oils and fats. The oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids produces
peroxides. Organic peroxides tend to decompose easily to free radicals of the RO type, and
methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) is used in this way as a catalyst in making glass-reinforced
plastics. This also means that organic peroxides can accidentally start explosive
polymerization in materials with unsaturated chemical bonds. The radical HOO is known as
hydroperoxide radical, and is thought to be involved in combustion of hydrocarbons in air.
Peroxides and hydroperoxides are highly reactive materials and may be extremely shocksensitive
explosives.
Inorganic peroxides include hydrogen peroxide (HOOH or H 2 O 2 ), sodium peroxide, and
persulfates. The simplest stable peroxide is hydrogen peroxide, which tends to decompose
into water and oxygen. Hydrogen peroxide is a mild bleach sold at either 3 percent or 6 percent
concentration, and is commonly used as a disinfectant or to clean wounds. It is used
cosmetically to bleach hair, and the 6 percent concentration can bleach skin. Hydrogen peroxide
is also used industrially to bleach cotton and other fibers, and in the pulp and paper
industry. Concentrated hydrogen peroxide requires great care in handling and storing, and
can cause combustion if it comes into contact with paper or wood.

When the grain silos were filled to capacity,
excess grain would be stored in sacks

78
Kortman & Schulte’s operation in Delfshaven in 1900

The Akzo legacy
Not so very long ago, Kortman & Schulte was a household name in
the Netherlands, just like Peek & Cloppenburg ® (clothing) or Jansen &
Tilanus ® (underwear). It all started towards the end of the 19th century,
when Constant Kortman, the son of a Rotterdam merchant, met
the German chemist Herman Schulte. They became business partners
and in 1886 established a small chemicals and soda works on
Zwaanshals in Rotterdam.
79
Overview
Iodine extraction
From soda to soap powder
Liquid soap
Soap powder for washing machines
Enzyme-based detergents
Fit for the stage

80
Kortman & Schulte:
The first manufacturers of soda in the Netherlands
The Akzo legacy
Salt had not yet been discovered in the
Netherlands and the country therefore had
no indigenous soda manufacturing. Kortman
& Schulte imported sodium carbonate, dissolved
it, and let the solution crystallize.
Laborers used pickaxes to break up the
unrefined soda.
In 1888 the two men rented Groot Holland,
a historical building in the Achterhaven in
Delfshaven, on the edge of Rotterdam. It had
been built in 1672 by the Dutch East India
Company as a warehouse for maritime supplies.
In this building, where formerly ships
had been fitted out for their long voyage to
the Orient, Kortman & Schulte produced
various types of soda as well as a meat preservative
derived from sulfurous acid.
Iodine extraction
At the end of the 19th century, Schulte discovered
that the water used as ballast by
wooden ships bringing Chilean saltpeter
from South America to Rotterdam contained
iodine. The iodine leached out of the
saltpeter during the long voyage. The firm
chartered a barge and offered the captains
of these vessels the removal of their ballastwater
as a free service. A laborious industrial
process was then used to extract nitric acid
and iodine from the water. The iodine was
worth a lot of money, however. This lucrative
activity was to end with the passing of
the age of sail: steamships were much faster
than sailing ships, and so no iodine-rich
leachate formed in their hulls during long
sea voyages.
From soda to soap powder
Around this time, the manufacturing of soap
powder started, under brand names such as
Kroon voor de Was and Driehoek ® . (It has,
in fact, been suggested that Akzo based
its first logo on this Driehoek ® , the Dutch
word for triangle). In 1898, soft, highly viscous
soaps were launched for household
use, while the cosmetic Zilverzeep (silver
soap) was introduced. Whereas the firm had
originally derived its products from naturally
occurring raw materials such as linseed
oil, resin, tallow and bleached palm oil, it
began using its facilities to split oils into fatty
acids and glycerol. Access to these compounds
opened up a much bigger range of
potential applications.
Liquid soap
Soda – an innovative product
One of the products resulting from this
process was liquid soap, which was supplied
to shopkeepers in small drums. The retailer
used to apportion the amount a housewife
wanted onto a sheet of gray paper using a
large wooden spoon. Liquid soap was packaged
in cardboard pots from around 1930.
Sales remained at a modest level, but after
World War II – when luxury soap products
At the end of the 19th century, soda was practically unknown to Dutch housewives.
The product was not manufactured in the Netherlands. After Kortman & Schulte started
marketing it as a cleaning product, it was occasionally mistaken for sugar or salt. In 1892,
the firm’s representative in Zwolle wrote dryly to the company as follows: “While ducks
were being roasted for serving at a party, someone added soda instead of salt, which
caused something of a commotion.”
were not yet available – Kortman & Schulte’s
liquid Driehoek ® soap had a 20 percent
share of the Dutch market. The firm also
succeeded in purifying and decoloring glycerol,
which it supplied to factories making
tobacco products, cellophane and textiles.
Soap powder for washing machines
The first washing machines arrived in
Dutch homes in around 1950 and a special
semi-hard soap, Drietex, was produced for
them. The firm advertised jointly with textile
manufacturer AKU – another forerunner
of AkzoNobel – that Drietex was the best
product for washing AKU’s nylon.
Enzyme-based detergents
The first synthetic washing powders appeared
in the 1960s. Kortman & Schulte’s
management established contacts with a
Swiss firm which was making a detergent
based on enzymes. The Dutch company
entered into an exclusive agreement and in
1963 started manufacturing the detergent
itself. Rarely has a product been greeted
with such enthusiasm. Dutch housewives
took a real liking to Biotex ® . “Stains disappear
like snow on a summer’s day”
claimed an advertisement of the period.
The company enjoyed its heyday. Additional
premises were acquired in Overschie, on the
edge of Rotterdam, solely for the manufac-
ture of Biotex ® . But Kortman & Schulte had
also become an attractive takeover target.
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon acquired
the firm in 1965. Later, in 1969, through the
merger of Koninklijke Zout-Organon with
AKU, it became part of Akzo and was subsequently
divided up. Biotex ® and a number of
other soap brands were brought under detergent
manufacturer Dobbelman in Nijmegen,
bleach producer Loda in Breda and detergent
manufacturer Blumøller in Denmark. These
units were integrated into Akzo’s Consumer
Products division.
Fit for the stage
The fatty acid production operation became
part of Akzo’s Chemicals division. The only
operations that remained in the original
Delfshaven plant were fatty acid fractionation
and the manufacture of glycerol from
fats and palm oil. When the Chemicals
division starting making palm oil itself in
Malaysia, it was the end of the road for the
plant in Delfshaven. The operation shut
down for good in the mid-1990s. In 1999,
Kortman & Schulte’s history inspired the
Hollandia Theater Group to stage the play
Biotex. The drama tells the story of a factory
worker and it was staged on the site of
the former plant next to the historic building
in the Achterhaven. The former Dutch East
India Company warehouse is all that now
remains from this era.

A still from a television commercial from the 1980s for the popular
washing powder Biotex ®
81

82
Jacobus Cornelis Boldoot, a pharmacist with
an entrepreneurial flair

The Akzo legacy
In 1789, Jacobus Cornelis Boldoot inherited a house from his father
in Amsterdam’s Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. He started living on the top
floor of the property and opened a pharmacy on the ground floor. There
he made all manner of powders, salves and preparations, including an
alcohol-based medicine: Cologne water or Eau de Cologne. Created
in Cologne by Giovanni Maria Farina and first sold in that city in 1709,
Eau de Cologne was supposed to be effective against migraine and
other ailments.
83
Overview
A name on everyone’s lips
A monument to the past
Heavy losses during World War II
Post-war recovery and expansion

84
From its earliest days, Boldoot understood the value of brand
recognition. A Boldoot delivery van in the 1930s

Boldoot’s impressive shop in Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat
85

86
Boldoot:
The creation of a household name
The Akzo legacy
By the 19th century, this preparation was no
longer used as a medicine. It had turned out
not to be very therapeutic. Boldoot’s successors
therefore sold Eau de Cologne as
a toiletry. The scent also started being used
in soap in 1876. Over the course of time, the
company expanded its product range to
include toothpastes, cosmetic products and
wax polish.
A name on everyone’s lips
In 1900, Boldoot had 16 properties in
Amsterdam in use as manufacturing facilities,
collected together on Singel and
in Langestraat. The showroom was in
Nieuwendijk, where genteel ladies would
be driven to the door in their coaches
and the shop assistants would run in and
out to demonstrate their wares. In 1902,
the company built its own soap factory
in Haarlemmerweg. Boldoot had by then
become so much a part of the Dutch language
that the word was used for anything
that had to do with smells. In those days,
there were still very few sewers. The people
relieved themselves in barrels that were
collected from the houses once a week by
wagons from the city sanitation department.
Because of the smell emanating from these
vehicles, the population of Amsterdam ironically
referred to them as “Boldoot carts.”
Boldoot ® became so popular that imitations
started appearing which put the original
product in a bad light. After all, anyone can
make a lotion and call it Eau de Cologne. For
example, there was a company which distributed
its products with a label that was
almost identical to that of Boldoot ® . Even
smarter was the Rotterdam market trader
who collected empty Boldoot ® bottles and
refilled them with his own brew.
A monument to the past
During World War I, many Boldoot ® products
could no longer be supplied because of the
shortage of raw materials. Other products
appeared in wartime packaging because of
the paper shortage. Things improved after
the war, however. Branches were opened at
home and abroad. In 1919, Boldoot opened
a shop in Kalverstraat. It was a splendid
shop with a unique façade. That façade is
still intact today and is now a protected monument.
A Boldoot museum was also opened
An early adopter of new technologies
Boldoot was one of the very first companies to have a telephone. In 1881, five years after
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Boldoot was allocated the telephone
number 106 by the Nederlandse Bell Telefoonmaatschappij. Boldoot was also one of
the first companies to use motors for industrial production. In 1882, the firm acquired
a two-horsepower gas engine “for the setting in motion of vessels for the preparation
of French polish.”
to show the history of the company, the history
of cosmetics and the development of
the products.
Heavy losses during World War II
Boldoot suffered badly during the economic
depression between the two world wars. The
branches in France and the United Kingdom
were closed and the Brussels branch, which
had been stricken by fire, had to make drastic
cutbacks. In the Netherlands, the branches
in The Hague and Nijmegen were closed.
The Amsterdam premises were taken out
of operation except for Haarlemmerweg,
where both offices and manufacturing were
then concentrated.
The company suffered heavy losses during
World War II. On May 14, 1940, during the last
German bombing raid on Rotterdam, the
Boldoot shop in the Passage was hit. They
were unable to retrieve the company safe
from the rubble to force it open until August,
three months later. Fortunately, the current
account, the bills of exchange and the cash
box were found intact.
The company used up all its stocks and had
to cease production. Begging letters were
received pleading: “Please, just one more
bottle of Eau de Cologne for someone who is
seriously ill.” Sometimes, a doctor’s prescription
was enclosed as proof. During the last
two years of the war, the management even
made a prescription compulsory before a
flacon was dispatched.
Another notable wartime development
took place in 1943, when Allied bombers
flattened the Fokker aircraft factory in the
north of Amsterdam. The Germans promptly
moved Fokker to the Boldoot complex in
Haarlemmerweg, where the German army
had been stabling its horses in the garage.
Post-war recovery and expansion
After the war, Boldoot slowly regained its
position in the market. New products such
as lipsticks, aftershaves and deodorants
were introduced, as well as a new series
of perfumes called Fleurs de Hollande.
The familiar Eau de Cologne was, by
that stage, available both as a liquid, in
sticks and in paper handkerchiefs. All that
time, the company had remained a good
Catholic business. Important celebrations
– for example, a company anniversary –

Athough Eau de Cologne was the company’s main product for many years, over time Boldoot’s
product range expanded to include toothpastes, lipsticks and a variety of other toiletries such as
its Fleur de Hollande perfumes (images courtesy of the Dutch Perfume Bottle Museum)
87

88
Boldoot:
The creation of a household name
The Akzo legacy
always started with a solemn High Mass.
The management would appear in morning
coats and lead the prayers.
In 1961, there was a fire in the Haarlem-
merweg factory; it caused little significant
damage, however. In the same year,
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon took over
the company and later incorporated it into
the Consumer Products division of KZO
(Koninklijke Zout-Organon). When KZO
merged with AKU to create Akzo, this
became part of the division of the same
name – a pleasant and appetizing organization
with products ranging from peanuts
to toiletries and from soap powder to
industrial cleaners.
The range included products very familiar
to Dutch consumers, such as Biotex ® for
prewash, Dobbelman ® soap powder and
Driehoek ® detergent sachets. Other examples
included Roosvicee ® rosehip cordial,
Vapona ® fly killer, California ® -label soups
and home remedies such as Entosorbine ®
and Sinaspril ® . It was a fascinating series of
products, but hardly suitable for the international
chemical/pharmaceutical image that
Akzo wanted to project. Matters were further
complicated by the fact that Shell also held
shares in Akzo’s Consumer Products division,
meaning that Akzo had to share control
of the operation. The whole of this division
was therefore transferred to Douwe Egberts/
An Italian spring morning after rain
Eau de Cologne is a light perfume which contains between 2–5 percent essential oils
(usually a mixture of oils of lemon, orange, tangerine, bergamot, lime, grapefruit and neroli)
in a base of dilute ethanol (between 70–90 percent) and water. It can also contain oils of
lavender, rosemary, thyme, petitgrain (orange leaf), and jasmine.
The original “Eau de Cologne” (Kölnisch Wasser in German) is thought to have been a
drink called “Aqua Mirabilis”, a concoction of alcohol and mountain herbs sold by Gian Paolo
Feminis, an Italian from Santa Maria Maggiore, Valle Vigezzo, to cure all sorts of ailments. He
travelled across the Alps and settled in Cologne, where his business took off. Needing help,
he sent for a nephew, Giovanni Maria Farina (1685–1766), who later took over the business
and also altered and improved the recipe. Farina is said to have tried to recreate the odor of
an Italian spring morning after rain. Patented reputedly by the faculty of medicine in Cologne
in 1727, Eau de Cologne was used both as a fragrance and medicinally – as well as to treat
wounds, later becoming popular with Napoleon.
The original workshop was set up in 1709 at Obenmarspforten and both the shop and the
Eau de Cologne became known as “Farina – gegenüber Jülichs Platz” (opposite Jülichs
Platz) to indicate where to find the shop, and to distinguish the product from its many imitators.
Another well-known Eau de Cologne is “4711”, named after the shop at No. 4711,
Glockengasse in Cologne. In 1806, a great-grandnephew of Giovanni Maria Farina, Jean
Marie Joseph Farina, opened the Paris perfumery which is now Roger & Gallet, producing
the Eau de Cologne known as “Extra-Vieille”.
Eau de Cologne is now used as a generic term, and is interchangeable with “Eau de Toilette”,
which contains between 1–6 percent of essential perfume oils.
Sara Lee in 1987. Boldoot was taken over
by British American Cosmetics and its products
became part of the Yardley cosmetics
series. After that, there was a different owner
almost every other year, including Coty, one
of the world’s largest fragrance companies.
Recently, the brand has once again passed
into new hands.
Over the years, Eau de Cologne had to
fight increasingly hard against more refined
French and American perfumes. In the
1980s, Eau de Cologne was extolled as
a refreshing lotion for people who were
unable to take a shower or bath – for
example, women in the last stages of pregnancy.
It was also supposed to be good for
menopausal women. Sniffing it immediately
produced a feeling of well-being. Boldoot ®
was then disparagingly dismissed by young
people as an old ladies’ scent.
It is, however, still on the market. Both
Boldoot ® and “Odeklonje”, as the Dutch
call the perfume, have become immortal.
Everyone in the Netherlands has heard
of them and, as such, they are part of
Dutch culture.

Boldoot personal care products (top left), like many other well-known
Dutch consumer products shown here, eventually became part of
Akzo’s Consumer Products division. An important operation in its
time, this division was divested to Douwe Eberts/Sara Lee in 1987

90
Johan van Hasselt, who died in 1949 when an
experiment that he was conducting blew up

The Akzo legacy
Some time around 1860, Willem van Hasselt was working for a vinegarmaker
in the Dutch city of Rotterdam when, during a visit to a farm, he
happened to notice a bottle of Danish butter-coloring agent on the mantelpiece.
The farmer explained that the Danes manufactured butter- and
cheese-coloring agents as well as rennet. Van Hasselt realized that
there was considerable business potential for these products in the
Netherlands. Some time later (no records are available to help identify
the precise date), operating under his own name, he started producing
liquid rennet, powdered rennet, and butter- and cheese-coloring agents
in a steam-powered installation on Almondestraat in Rotterdam.
91
Overview
Relocation
Products in demand
Acquisition by Chefaro
Obstacles to growth
The end of the line

92
Van Hasselt:
A lesson in home-grown innovation
The Akzo legacy
Rennet was obtained by extracting it from the mucosa of the
fourth stomach of calves. The product was used by farmers
for making cheese, as well as by the wider dairy industry.
Coloring agents for dairy products were made using pigment
from annatto seeds. Before long, Van Hasselt’s products
were being exported all over the world and the company
was awarded a first prize and an honorable mention
at major agricultural exhibitions held in London in 1884 and
1886, respectively.
Relocation
The products were sold in the Netherlands by the company’s
own sales force and in foreign countries through its
agents. Van Hasselt soon outgrew its premises, and the
manufacturing facilities were moved to Schoterboschstraat,
although the laboratory and administrative office remained
at Almondestraat. This was certainly not an ideal situation,
but no further possibilities for expansion presented themselves
at the time. After World War I, the search for another
location for the firm began. Johan van Hasselt, the founder’s
son, bought a site on Drentsestraat in Amersfoort,
some distance to the east of Utrecht. The area was largely
undeveloped, so there was scope for expansion in the
future. It was here that the firm established its new base.
Products in demand
Major expansion did not occur until 1945. There was a
tremendous shortage of raw materials following World
War II, and all chemicals were in high demand in the
Netherlands. Van Hasselt developed one product after
Innovation targets: aiming high
another, including an udder cream, an algae preparation
used as a binder in foodstuffs, insecticides (under the brand
name Flyol), and organic peroxides for improving flour
(under the brand name Cefarox). This made the firm the
biggest competitor of Deventer-based Noury & Van der
Lande – which later would also become part of KZO and
subsequently Akzo.
Manufacture of a carbamate – from an amine and carbon
disulfide – was also begun after World War II. Further treatment
of the carbamate with salts or by oxidization rendered
a significant number of products ranging from agricultural
fungicides to additives for rubber manufacturing.
Acquisition by Chefaro
In 1949, managing director Van Hasselt fell victim to his love
of experimentation: an explosion during one of his tests
killed him. Van Hasselt’s penchant for expensive hobbies
meant that there was little money left in the business after
his death and the firm was taken over by the pharmaceutical
company Chefaro (Chemische Fabriek Rotterdam) in
the following year.
Obstacles to growth
Managing director Johan van Hasselt was an enthusiastic researcher. Something
was always boiling or evaporating in his laboratory. Once, when he was conducting an
experiment, he returned to the laboratory after a short absence but he could not find
the substance on which he had been working. Irritated, he asked the lab assistant:
“Where’s the mixture that was on that glass plate?” The assistant appeared to have
seen nothing. Van Hasselt became angrier and angrier. “If I say it was here, it was here!”
he shouted. The assistant, showing obvious embarrassment, piped up at last:
“Excuse me sir, but could it be the stuff that’s up there on the ceiling?”
In the years following World War II, the situation at the premises
in Drentsestraat became progressively more difficult
because residential buildings by now completely surrounded
the site, and environmental requirements were becoming
increasingly stringent. In order to grow, the firm needed to
relocate to new premises and invest in new technology.
Plans to do just this were thwarted by problems at Chefaro’s
Dordrecht site, however. The production of organic peroxides
was moved from there to sites in Deventer (in the east
of the Netherlands), Mons (Belgium) and Gillingham (UK),
and the trade unions pressed for new jobs to replace the old
ones. The manufacturing of rubber chemicals and fungicides
was therefore transferred from Amersfoort to Dordrecht near
Rotterdam. Later the production of rennet and chlorocalcium
was transferred to a site in Herkenbosch in Limburg, in the
south of the Netherlands.
The end of the line
The new parent company Chefaro flourished in the 1950s,
and in 1956 it took over the Industria paint factory in
Hilversum, to the north of Utrecht. Later, in 1965, Chefaro
merged with Amsterdam-based Ketjen. In 1966 there were
still approximately 70 people working at Van Hasselt. Van
Hasselt’s business activities in Amersfoort began to decline
at the end of the 1960s, however. The manufacture of
one product after another was terminated, the number of
employees fell, and staff hired in from employment agencies
were used as much as possible. In 1969, Van Hasselt
became part of Akzo’s Chemicals division and Chefaro part
of its Pharma division.
Things seemed to be looking up with the introduction of a
biological process for making rennet, but the major dairy
cooperatives opposed this development and the Amersfoort
site closed down for good in 1977. Most of the remaining
employees were transferred to the head office of Akzo’s
Chemicals division in Amersfoort, while the rubber chemicals
business became part of a joint venture – trading under
the name Flexsys – with Solutia.

Van Hasselt won major distinctions at agricultural exhibitions held
in London in 1884 and 1886
Filling bags with the rubber curing accelerator Tetramethylthiuram
Disulfide at a Van Hasselt facility in the 1970s

94
Teeuwis Duyvis, the founder of a brand that is still well known in
the Netherlands today

The Akzo legacy
The history of Duyvis in the Zaan region of North Holland goes back to
1806. This was the year when Teewis Duyvis inherited an oil mill from
his unmarried uncle and laid the foundations for what was eventually to
become a major consumer brand in the Netherlands.
95
Overview
A new focus: linseed oil
Declining sales – and the move into consumer markets
“Royal” status – and an IPO
Incorporation into Akzo
Acquisition by Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts
A top Dutch consumer brand

96
Duyvis:
From animal feed to party snacks
The Akzo legacy
Teewis Duyvis used his mill to press oil from
rapeseed and linseed. As well as producing
rapeseed and linseed oil, Duyvis also produced
oil cake, which became the mill’s
core business. Oil cake is the solid residue
obtained after oil is removed from various
types of oily seeds. It is valued for being rich
in minerals and protein, and is most commonly
used in animal feed.
Teewis’ grandson, Teewis Duyvis Janszoon,
took over the company in due course and
gave it the name that it was to carry for more
than 100 years: T. Duyvis Jansz. (short for
Janszoon, which means “son of John”). By
this time – the 1850s – the company already
had five oil mills and two hulling mills. In
1875, the company passed into the hands
of Ericus Gerardus Duyvis, one of T. Duyvis
Janszoon’s five sons. He decided to build a
steam-powered oil mill in Koog aan de Zaan.
Oil cake was still the company’s core business
at this point.
A new focus: linseed oil
In 1908, T. Duyvis Jansz. shifted focus from
oil cake to oil itself, and began exporting linseed
oil. Initially the company sold linseed
oil only in its crude form, but as from 1920 it
started refining the product in-house. In the
following year, the company incorporated
as n.v. Oliefabrieken T. Duyvis Jansz. and it
soon became a major producer of linseed
oil. There were even record years between
1920 and 1930, when Duyvis was responsible
for approximately 40 percent of the
total Dutch export of linseed oil.
Declining sales – and the move
into consumer markets
The Great Depression of the 1930s did not
leave Duyvis untouched. Sales of its core
product, linseed oil, declined and the company
was obliged to explore new markets.
Linseed oil – a versatile product
Linseed oil is derived from the dried ripe seeds of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum), from
which linen is also made. It can be a nutritional supplement, a paint binder and a wood
finish, and is a key ingredient in putty, in animal feeds, and in textile and leather production.
If cold-pressed, the oil is pale in color, almost without taste or odor, and is used nutritionally
as flax seed oil. But this oil oxidizes easily and becomes rancid unless refrigerated. It is very
rich in a type of fat called alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid which appears to help
prevent heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis.
When extracted by application of heat, pressure and solvents, however, the oil is darker,
has a bitter taste and an unpleasant odor. This is used as a drying oil in paints and varnish,
and is also used as a painting medium to make oil paint more fluid, transparent and glossy.
Linseed oil is an ingredient in linoleum, oilcloth, and inks. Heating the oil makes it polymerize
and oxidize, making it thicker and shortening the drying time. Boiled linseed oil is used as a
wood finish and does not coat the surface of wood like varnish, but penetrates the pores,
and dries out slowly, leaving a shiny surface that enhances the grain. When treated, the
wood is more resistant to denting, and scratches are easier to repair. Linseed oil has been
traditionally used as a finish for gun stocks, and is also used to season willow cricket bats.
It was this need to find new sales opportunities
for its output which prompted Duyvis
to start selling salad oil direct to consumers.
In 1932, Duyvis’ sauces were born with the
launch of a salad dressing named Salata ® .
This was the first step in what was to
become a defining move into branded consumer
food products.
The outbreak of World War II brought the
supply of the company’s most important
raw materials – linseed and ground nuts –
to a standstill. The oil mills lay idle as a result.
The import of these raw materials in the
Netherlands never really took off again after
the war, so Duyvis was forced to look for
other raw materials based on vegetable oils.
Branded products became increasingly popular
in the post-war era, prompting Duyvis
to finally opt for a future as a producer of
branded food products. The company therefore
terminated the production of oil cake and
started refining vegetable oils once more.
Emphasis was now placed on several oilbased
brand products, such as the Livorno ®
and Salata ® brand salad dressings.
Duyvis’ shift into consumer markets did not
lessen the importance of its activities as an
exporter. To be closer to one of its major consumer
markets, it set up a company called
Mayolande in France, which used the brand
name Bénénuts ® . At the same time the production
and refining of oil in the Netherlands
was declining in importance, because these
activities were increasingly being carried out
in the countries that grew the raw materials.
“Royal” status – and an IPO
Upon receiving its “Royal” designation in
1958, the full name of the company became
Koninklijke Fabrieken T. Duyvis Jz. n.v. In the
same year, Duyvis listed on the Dutch stock
exchange, intending to use the proceeds of
its public listing for expansion.

The Duyvis factory at Koog aan de Zaan in the 1970s
97

98
Duyvis:
From animal feed to party snacks
The Akzo legacy
Not a nut at all
The peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a pulse or legume, belongs to the
same botanical family, Fabaceae, as beans, peas and lentils, and
is also called a groundnut. “Pea” is the name given to the seeds of
plants in the same family, so a peanut is a kind of pea, not a nut.
Native to South and Central America, peanuts are thought to have
first been cultivated more than 7000 years ago. An annual which
grows 30 to 50 cm in height, the peanut is unusual because it bears
its fruit below ground. After fertilization, the flowers wither and form
into ovaries, which develop a new stem or “peg” with the peanut
embryo at the tip. This grows away from the plant and down into the
soil, where it turns horizontally before maturing.
Peanuts and peanut butter are high in protein, but can cause
allergic reactions.The oil has a mild flavor and burns at a relatively
high temperature. Peanuts are also called goober peas, pindas,
earthnuts, jack nuts and, when sold in their pods, monkey nuts.
Incorporation into Akzo
In 1961, Duyvis commenced the production
and marketing of packets of peanuts,
almonds, cashew nuts, mixed nuts,
and assorted nuts and raisins. Snacks
and mixes followed approximately seven
years later. During the course of 1969,
Duyvis became part of Akzo’s Consumer
Products division, having been previously
acquired by Koninklijke Zout-Organon in
1968. This marked the end of Duyvis as a
family business.
Acquisition by Sara Lee/
Douwe Egberts
In 1983, Duyvis was merged with Recter,
another company belonging to Akzo
Consumer Products. As a result, it lost its
Royal designation because it was no longer
an independent company. Divestment of
Akzo Consumer Products to Sara Lee/
Douwe Egberts was to follow in 1987. This
move gave Duyvis access to Douwe Egberts’
modern logistics systems and support in
the field of quality improvement and packaging.
In its new role, Duyvis also acted as a
producer and supplier for sister companies
abroad. At this time the company enjoyed
important market positions, especially in
France with Bénénuts ® , and in Belgium with
its Felix ® and Duyvis ® brands.
A top Dutch consumer brand
In 1991, a modern plant was built in
Zaandam, the same place where the Duyvis
family had started its business at the beginning
of the 19th century. ISO-9002 certification
was awarded two years later, attesting
that Duyvis met all present-day requirements
in the fields of research, quality, production
and packaging. The company celebrated its
bicentenary in 2006, firmly established as
the Netherlands’ best-known and biggest
producer of top quality peanuts, coated
nuts, luxury nuts, popcorn, snacks, and dry
mixes for sauces.
Duyvis appears in this book as a representative
of the many food brands which played
an important role in Akzo’s portfolio during
the 1960s and 1970s.

“If they are this big, this golden and shiny, and
so fresh and crunchy, they are Duyvis peanuts.”
Duyvis grew to become the Netherlands’
leading packaged nut brand
99

100
The founders of Organon. Seated from left to
right: Ernst Laqueur, Saal van Zwanenberg and
Jacques van Oss

The Akzo legacy
When, in the 19th century, the Zwanenberg family settled in Oss, in the
Dutch province of Brabant, they were already trading in livestock and
meat. In the course of time, countless new product lines were added to
the portfolio of Zwanenberg & Co. which had been founded in 1887 –
a coopery, a fat-melting company, a bacon and gut-salting operation,
a blood-drying house for making black pudding, a brush works using
hogs’ hair, a margarine works, a refinery for oils and fats, and plants for
making soap and canning food. A predecessor of Unilever, Margarine
Unie, was to take over the oil, fat and soap works in 1929. Much later, in
1970, Unilever acquired other food-related activities, which by then had
been combined in the foodstuffs division of the conglomerate Akzo – of
which Organon had become a part. But as the 20th century began, the
members of the large Zwanenberg family were still in charge of all
these activities.
101
Overview
Insulin – a gap in the market
Industrial manufacture of insulin
Hormonal products
A global expansion strategy
World War II – and many losses
Organic growth and mergers
The birth control pill and more products

102
Organon:
From meat products to innovative pharma ceuticals
The Akzo legacy
An extremely
difficult question
“It was at that time that I started to wonder whether all those glands
that were being sent to the destructor couldn’t be made usable
in some way, even if their use was strictly limited because they
contained no fat and had no nutritional value. I thought to myself
that the Almighty must have created them for some purpose, and I
started to search for the meaning of it all. Prior to this, I had hired
Dr Jacques van Oss as a consultant. He was an efficiency expert for
the City of Amsterdam and a teacher of chemistry and commodities
science, and he knew much more about machines and all sorts of
other things in a company like ours than I did. He’d written a book
about the history of commodities, and he was an authority on the
subject. That’s to say he knew a little bit about a great many things,
but he could always find anything out. So one day I presented him
with the problem. ‘Jacques,’ I said, ‘I’ve got an extremely difficult
question for you. Isn’t there something we could do with all those
glands that go to the destructor?’ He remembered hearing about
ovaries being dried in America. At that time I didn’t even know what
ovaries were. I said I thought it was wonderful that they were doing
this in America, but I didn’t want to start by copying them. I wanted
to find out if we could begin something new. I contacted people in
France and England, but nothing came of it. It was then Jacques
van Oss met Ernst Laqueur. Laqueur had just been appointed
Professor of Pharmacology in Amsterdam, and he was particularly
interested in the pancreas. This meeting with Laqueur was
immensely important. Without him, Organon would never have got
off the ground or become what it is today. He had a superb grasp of
endocrinology and great vision. The three of us had a series of talks
and finally we set up Organon.”
Saal van Zwanenberg, speaking on October 16, 1968
Insulin – a gap in the market
One of the Zwanenberg’s was called Salomon,
better known as Saal. He noticed that large
quantities of offal were regularly thrown away
in the company’s slaughterhouse because
they were deemed to have no proper use.
He viewed this physical wastage as a financial
loss, and set his mind to thinking how
the cast-off organs might be put to commercial
use. His speculations proved fruitful
in 1921 when it was discovered in Canada
that insulin could be obtained from the pancreases
of animals and that this substance
could be used to combat diabetes.
Industrial manufacture of insulin
Together with a small group of scientists, Saal
established Organon in 1923. It commenced
producing insulin with five employees. At
first, the start-up did not go at all well. The
effects of insulin had been clinically proven,
but isolating the substance from pig pancreases
proved a different matter entirely.
Almost a kilo of porcine pancreases was
required to produce several tenths of a gram
of insulin. Eventually, it was discovered that
the pancreases of newborn calves contained
far more insulin than those of mature
pigs. Saal ceased processing pig offal from
Zwanenberg & Co.’s own slaughterhouse
and started importing the frozen pancreases
of Argentinean cattle. This new approach
led to Organon’s first successes in the commercial
production of insulin. The number
of products – most of them by-products of
insulin production – increased rapidly. In the
course of time, the company began manufacturing
for the chemical, household, cosmetic
and pharmaceutical industries, with
the accent on insulin and hormone-based
pharmaceuticals.
Hormonal products
Organon’s research activities expanded, and
it was discovered how fertility-enhancing
products involving estrogen hormones
could be made from the ovaries of mares.
For the production of estrogens, Organon
later switched to other sources, such as
the urine of pregnant women and, from
1930 onwards, also to the urine of mares
in foal. This marked the start of a series of
hormonal and other products, among them
Pernaemon ® to fight anemia. Some products
were discovered by chance – for instance, a
residue from the pancreas which, in combination
with sawdust, revealed itself as a
highly effective agent for staining leather. It
was called Leeropaan ® .
During its early years in particular, Organon’s
creativity knew no bounds. All the worthless
offal generated by Zwanenberg & Co.’s
slaughterhouse was regarded as potentially
useful raw material. In 1924, coated tablets
for the treatment of menopausal complaints
were made from the ovaries of animals.
Called Ovarnon ® in the Netherlands, this
product was launched in Germany under the
name of Ovowop ® . Advertisements of the
day joyously announced: “Female beauty
soon returns with Ovowop ® .”
A global expansion strategy
Initially, Ernst Laqueur headed Organon’s
R&D operation but later, in 1926, he introduced
his successor, the young Austrian
physician Marius Tausk, to Saal. Tausk’s
passion for endocrinology was matched
by his flair for business, and he was to
have a decisive influence on Organon’s
development.
Saal van Zwanenberg, on the other hand,
took care of the sales side. Showing commendable
effrontery, Saal one day paid a
visit to Bayer, the German pharmaceutical
giant, to discuss the sale of insulin powder.

Packaging insulin in 1936
103

104
Organon:
From meat products to innovative pharma ceuticals
The Akzo legacy
The Germans laughed at the “amateur”
from the Netherlands – only to find out to
their horror that Saal had soon after their
meeting established Organon’s own sales
organization for Germany. Saal repeated
the model around the world, and by the late
1930s, Organon’s products were sold in
almost 40 countries – even though sales in
some did not exceed a couple of hundred
Dutch guilders a year.
World War II – and many losses
The company met with hard times during
World War II, as the majority of the management
was Jewish. According to Nazi race
laws, Marius Tausk – in charge of research
and development – was half Jewish, and
was therefore left alone. The majority, however,
including Saal van Zwanenberg, had to
flee the Netherlands, and a number of the
Early insulin production
Zwanenberg family died in Nazi concentration
camps. Saal van Zwanenberg and
his family succeeded in fleeing to Britain,
where Organon had a subsidiary. By this
stage, the site in Oss, in the Netherlands,
was being run by the Germans and it had to
manufacture products to supply the German
market. Food was scarce in the Netherlands
during the final years of the war. Fortunately,
Organon’s neighbor was a meat works, and
sometimes something edible was to be had
there. This allowed most employees to survive
the war, although a number of them,
mostly Jews, met their deaths.
After World War II, Organon increasingly
went down the chemical route for its products,
manufacturing preparations by means
of synthesis instead of extraction from
animal material. However, the company
was still using the urine of pregnant mares
to produce the female estrogen hormones
Hans van Kaathoven, one of the original team who produced insulin at Oss, recollected
later in life how he had come to join Organon: “With a few years of army service behind me,
when I was demobilized in 1918 I found a nice little position as a night watchman at N.V.
Zwanenberg. Perhaps I’d still be leading that night life now if a strange gentleman hadn’t set
up in a small corner of our laboratory. That corner, separated by a wooden partition, didn’t
have a name, but in fact it was the room where our company was born. If your buddy gave
you a leg-up, you could see the whole ‘company’ through a couple of panes of glass.
“There were several pounds of meat lying on a wooden table. On the ground, between a
set of bottles and some test tubes, there was a briefcase. You could say that the table was
the raw materials stockroom, and the briefcase was the firm’s administrative system –
at least the part of it that the boss didn’t have in his inside pocket.”
The strange gentleman was manager Walther Riebensahm. Together with a team of four
employees, he was responsible for Organon’s first insulin output. It was a primitive operation
in those days. The pancreases came from the slaughterhouse in 45 lb baskets and were
ground up. One man could process about 65 lb a day. The alcohol needed for the extraction
of the insulin (32 gallons for every 225 lb) came in carboys, so that the production department
was often concealed behind a wall of bottles.
oestradiol and oestrone. Investigations into
the male hormone testosterone led to the
development of muscle-building anabolic
steroids in the 1950s, which were to account
for 32 percent of sales by 1963.
Organic growth and mergers
In 1947 Organon and Zwanenberg & Co.
merged to form Zwanenberg-Organon. Its
royal designation followed in 1953, creating
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon (KZO).
The 1960s witnessed strong organic growth
and mergers with other companies. By 1963,
Organon was selling its products in more
than 90 countries, either through subsidiaries
or agents. But with the cyclical nature
of the meat sector and the high costs of its
own pharmaceutical R&D activities, KZO
felt very vulnerable. To avoid the prospect
of being taken over, it was keen to base its
activities on products that were less susceptible
to price fluctuation and high costs.
Within a short period of time, therefore, KZO
took over a number of smaller companies.
These included consumer goods companies
such as Loda, Echafa, and Glimfabriek,
which produced cleaning products and
detergents. Closer to home were acquisitions
of meat works and foodstuff companies
such as Anton Hunink, California
Soups and the Fina works, as was the purchase
of the animal healthcare company
Intervet. Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon
also made two large takeovers, acquiring
Noury & Van der Lande (chemical products)
and Kortman & Schulte (washing powders).
The buying spree resulted in rather an odd
bunch of companies, and KZO dubbed itself
“A procession of dwarfs”, after a book by
Dutch author Simon Carmiggelt, which had
been published around that time.
Organon under the Occupation
“As far as the Dutch directors were concerned, it went without saying that Organon had to
remain a financially sound company. We owed it to the shareholders who were abroad, but
above all we owed it to the employees and to the people for whom medication like insulin,
liver extracts and some of the vitamins were vital. As far as possible we tried to stop these
products from being sent to Germany. The Dutch State Drugs Agency was on our side and
repeatedly refused to issue export licenses.”
Marius Tausk, writing in his book Organon – The story of an unusual pharmaceutical
enterprise (1978)

The Organon pilot plant in 1942
105

106
Organon:
From meat products to innovative pharma ceuticals
The Akzo legacy
In 1967, Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon merged with
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen, which by that time included Chefaro
(Chemishe Fabriek Rotterdam), primarily a producer of nonprescription
drugs, notably Chefarine ® , the Dutch version of
asprin. That is how Koninklijke Zout-Organon (a new KZO)
came into being – definitely no longer a dwarf and busily
working on further expansion. KZO took over, among other
companies, Hoesch Chemie (a German chemicals manufacturer),
Duyvis (a Dutch snack producer), Edet (a Dutch
producer of paper for household use), Lesonal (a German
paint manufacturer) and Wilco (a canned food company).
KZO’s acquisition drive resulted in separate divisions for
Salt Chemicals, Chemicals, Coatings, Pharmaceutical products,
Food and Household products – the precursors of
what was soon to become Akzo.
Following the creation of Akzo from the merger in 1969 of
KZO with AKU, several Organon subsidiaries were spun off
to form independent businesses within Akzo’s new Pharma
division. Organon’s veterinary activities were incorporated
in Intervet International, which was quickly established in
1969. In 1971 Diosynth, which had been set up by Organon
in 1955 to make bulk pharmaceutical ingredients, not only
for Organon, but also for third-party pharmaceutical companies,
was launched as a completely independent business. A
year later Chefaro was spun off to focus entirely on non-prescription
medications and Organon Teknika was established
to market diagnostic and other preparations and equipment
intended primarily for hospitals and laboratories.
The birth control pill and more products
Organon was not the first company looking to produce a
female oral contraceptive, but it was one of the first to successfully
introduce a birth control pill – a product which was
to have a transformational effect on society in the final third
of the 20th century. Organon’s Lyndiol ® oral contraceptive
had a difficult time when it was launched in 1962. There was
considerable debate between proponents and opponents of
the drug, both outside and inside the company – Organon’s
headquarters are in the predominantly Catholic Dutch province
of North Brabant, and many of the workers found it
hard to reconcile their conscience with producing the pill.
Resistance in the packaging department was so great that
initially, packaging the product had to be contracted out.
Nevertheless, Lyndiol ® proved to be a huge success in
Western Europe.
Lyndiol ® was followed in 1981 by the highly successful
Marvelon ® , the first “third generation”, low-dose contraceptive
pill containing a progestonic hormone developed
by Organon. Marvelon ® became the world’s most commonly
prescribed oral contraceptive. Other important hormone-based
products brought to market by Organon in the
second half of the 20th century included the fertility hormone
Humegon ® (1963), which was obtained from the urine
of post-menopausal women; Andriol ® (1978), the replacement
medication used to treat men with a testosterone
deficit; and Livial ® (1988), a synthetic hormone used in hormone
replacement therapy for women during and following
menopause. Meanwhile, significant steps in the treatment of
the symptoms of depression were taken with the launch of
Tolvon ® in 1974.
Building on such successes, in the early 1980s Organon
started to pursue biotechnological approaches to drug discovery,
based on recombinant DNA technology. It delivered
its first tangible results some 10 years later – Puregon ® , the
recombinant Follicle Stimulating Hormone used in treating
infertility. (Puregon’s predecessor, Humegon ® was still being
produced from the urine of menopausal women.) Introduced
in the Netherlands in 1996, Puregon was within ten years to
play a part in the birth of a staggering one million babies.
Today it still plays an important role in in vitro fertilization
treatments and is Organon’s biggest selling product.
Sales grew throughout the 1990s, but Organon faced a
major shock in 1995 when several national health authorities
questioned the safety of third-generation oral contraceptives
following studies implying that such “pills” were associated
with a higher risk of deep vein thrombosis than earlier generation
pills. Subsequent epidemiological studies did not
confirm any difference in risk of venous thromboembolism.
Nevertheless, much damage had been done.
Subsequent product introductions included Puregon ®
(1996); Implanon ® (1998), a three-year-acting contraceptive
implant; Cerazette ® (1999), an estrogen-free oral contraceptive;
Orgalutran ® (2000), a new fertility drug; and NuvaRing ®
(2002), the first and only once-a-month contraceptive ring.
All these products continue to support the company’s longstanding
and commanding position in gynecology and fertility.
Meanwhile, significant steps in the treatment of the
symptoms of depression were taken with the launch of
the dual-action antidepressant Remeron ® in 1994. Initially
a potential blockbuster product which drove impressive
growth, nearly a decade later it rapidly lost market share
when an unfavorable court ruling on one of its patents in the
United States opened the door for generic competition.
Shortly after the turn of the century, efforts to sharpen the
focus of Akzo Nobel’s human pharma portfolio led to the
sale of its Chefaro business unit and the diagnostics activities
of Organon Teknika; the few non-diagnostic activities
remaining reverted back to Organon. Under pressure from
adverse market conditions, in 2003 Organon embarked on a
new strategy to reduce costs, return to growth and reshape
the business for the future. Four core therapeutic fields –
gynecology, fertility, anesthesia and neuroscience – and a
new strategy were defined. In 2004 Organon and Diosynth
were merged to strengthen Organon’s biotechnology platform.
The proof that these efforts were bearing fruit was
delivered in February 2006, when Organon reported earnings
(EBITDA) of c541 million for 2005. At the same time,
Akzo Nobel announced its intention to separate its pharma
business – Organon, Intervet and Nobilon – from the company.
A new holding company, Organon BioSciences, was
set up in October 2006 in preparation for an intended IPO
in 2007. Before that came to fruition, in early March 2007
Akzo Nobel received and accepted an offer from Schering-
Plough for the purchase of Organon BioSciences, which
was effected in November 2007.

The dual action antidepressant Remeron ® was launched in 1994.
Sales increased steadily to peak in 2002 at more than e700 million
Organon’s first oral contraceptive Lyndiol ® was launched in 1962.
It encountered strong initial resistance – not least from the traditionally
Catholic workforce of Oss itself

108
Wim Hendrix, whose Laboratoria Nobilis was
to grow to become Intervet

The Akzo legacy
Intervet is one of the youngest companies to figure in the history
of AkzoNobel. It was founded in late 1949 as Laboratoria Nobilis by
a forward-thinking manufacturer of animal feed based in Boxmeer
(between Nijmegen and Venlo in the Netherlands). The founder’s
name was Wim Hendrix, and his plan was to develop vaccines to
combat poultry diseases. The entrepreneurial logic of Wim’s thinking
was simple but brilliant: a sick chicken doesn’t eat; a healthy one does…
109
Overview
The road to Akzo Nobel
Expansion in the key U.S. market
A top-three player
An ongoing innovation agenda
Acquisition by Schering-Plough

110
Intervet:
A tale of healthy growth
The Akzo legacy
In those days, fowl pox was relatively widespread, and so
this disease was the first object of Wim’s attention. He contacted
the veterinary faculty of the University of Utrecht and
asked Professor Jac Jansen for help with his investigations
into the condition. Jansen advised Hendrix to employ one
of his assistants, the veterinarian J.H.M. Richter. The professor’s
advice was to prove very sound, for within a year,
Hendrix’ new employee developed the first Nobilis inoculum
for fowl pox, Ovo-Diphterin ® . In the following decade,
Laboratoria Nobilis introduced almost one new product a
year. Developed exclusively for use in poultry, these vaccines
offered protection against a range of conditions, including
Newcastle disease, coccidiosis and infectious bronchitis.
The road to Akzo Nobel
By 1961, Laboratoria Nobilis had become a success outside
the Netherlands, exporting its proprietary vaccines
to Belgium and Germany. A series of mergers then transformed
Wim Hendrix’ original company into a global organization.
First, Laboratoria Nobilis was acquired in 1961 by
KZO (Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon), the parent company
of Organon. Then in 1964, KZO acquired a company
selling antibiotics against mastitis. In the following year, KZO
bought both Vemie of Germany and the veterinary division
of Aspro-Nicholas in France, which traded under the name
Intervet. In 1967 and 1969, KZO underwent two successive
mergers – with Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK) and Algemene
Kunstzijde Unie (AKU), respectively – to ultimately create
Akzo. At this point, all animal health activities of the former
KZO were brought together into one company, now known
as Intervet International bv. (Akzo became Akzo Nobel following
its merger with the Swedish chemical giant Nobel
Industries in 1994). Although Wim Hendrix’ original name
Nobilis no longer features in the company name, it lives on
as a brand name for a range of Intervet poultry vaccines.
Expansion in the key U.S. market
In the late 1970s, Intervet set out to become a major player
in the field of animal health. Employing by that stage approximately
600 people worldwide, Intervet had already acquired,
among other companies, Poultry Biologicals in the UK (in
1971) and Láboratorios Saltor in Spain (in 1973). To move up
to the top tier of global players, however, Intervet needed a
presence in the United States – a country which accounts
for one-third of the global market for veterinary vaccines. The
company therefore set out to find a suitable acquisition in the
United States and in 1980 added Inter-Continental Biologics
in Millsboro (Delaware). Inter-Continental Biologics soon
changed its name to Intervet Inc., shipping its first product
with the new company name – a vaccine for Marek’s disease
– in March 1982. Intervet Inc. took some time to establish
itself as a major presence in the U.S. market, but its influence
grew over the ensuing years, taking its total number of
individual poultry vaccines to 17.
A top-three player
Intervet’s global acquisition drive continued in the meantime,
and the company bought a part of Gist-Brocades
(Netherlands) in 1988, Norbio (Norway) in 1993, Ausvac
(Australia) in 1998 and Gellini (Italy) in 1999. In the same
year as acquiring Gellini, Intervet achieved its decisive strategic
breakthrough with the acquisition of German-based
Hoechst Roussel Vet, as well as Bayer’s U.S. veterinary
biologicals operation. This bold move doubled Intervet’s
sales, taking the company from 10th largest to that of thirdlargest
veterinary company in the world. A successful integration
process followed these acquisitions. New research
facilities were opened or acquired, and office and manufacturing
facilities added, providing a strong platform for future
international growth.
Intervet’s U.S. activities were further consolidated in May
2003, when the company opened a new life science
center in DeSoto, Kansas. This site now serves as a major
research facility for livestock vaccines and as a production
facility for swine and cattle vaccines. It is Intervet’s largest
distribution center and a center of excellence for the
clinical development of livestock and equine pharmaceuticals
in the United States.
An ongoing innovation agenda
Throughout its history, Intervet always maintained its focus
on innovation, assembling a portfolio which included a
number of unique products, as well as many breakthroughs
in technological applications and disease coverage. In 1984,
Intervet was the first veterinary company to develop a vaccine
based on recombinant DNA technology to fight the E. coli
bacteria, which causes diarrhea in piglets and calves, followed
by the first monoclonal parenteral product in the 1990s.
In 1997, the company registered another first with a patented
marker vaccine against classical swine fever which
allowed a vaccine virus to be distinguished from a field virus
by means of a diagnostic test. Intervet’s range of marker
vaccines against major livestock diseases expanded to
include vaccines against foot and mouth disease, classical
swine fever, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and the
Intervet Porcilis ® AD Begonia vaccine against Aujeszky’s
disease. At the time this book went to press, this vaccine
had sold more than 500 million doses worldwide. Intervet
became a pioneer in biotechnology, which by 2005 provided
approximately 45 percent of its turnover. Following
its strategy of expanding its presence in foot and mouth
disease, Intervet acquired Bayer’s FMD vaccine factory in
Cologne, Germany, in 2006.
The previous year, Intervet had acquired the New Zealand
animal healthcare company AgVax. In 2006 the company
also completed the first phase of an ambitious expansion
program in its original home of Boxmeer, the Netherlands,
with the opening of a new tissue culture facility.
Acquisition by Schering-Plough
From the days of its foundation by the forward-thinking
Wim Hendrix in 1949, Intervet developed from a business
focused initially on poultry vaccines into one of the world’s
three largest animal health companies. By 2007 Intervet’s
range spanned almost every major therapeutic area and
included products for use in all the main food-producing and
companion animal species.
Akzo Nobel divested Intervet, together with Organon and
Nobilon, to Schering-Plough in November 2007 in order
to focus on its Coatings and Chemicals portfolios. At the
time of the divestment, Intervet employed more than 5,300
people and had operations in more than 50 countries and a
distribution network covering more than 100 countries.

Elly Verbruggen operating one of the first
freeze-driers (1964)
Intervet has developed from a business focus ed initially on poultry
vaccines into one of the world’s three largest animal health companies

112
Armour’s origins lie in the Chicago Stock Yards, the hub which in the
late 19th century linked the cattle ranching of the American mid-west
with the growing population of the eastern seaboard

The Akzo legacy
AkzoNobel’s very earliest roots in the United States go back to the
18th century. Samuel Courtauld III, the founder of the British textiles giant
Courtaulds (acquired by Akzo Nobel in 1998), was born in New York in
1793 into a family of expatriate French Huguenots who alternately tested
their entrepreneurial fortunes in Great Britain and the United States.
The American arm of Courtaulds was to significantly outgrow its
British parent in terms of both size and profitability during the first four
decades of the 20th century, until it was divested at the behest of the
U.S. Government in 1941. (See separate chapter on Courtaulds.)
AkzoNobel has other important predecessor companies in the United
States, however, most notably the chemical companies Armour and
Stauffer (acquired in 1970 and 1987, respectively).
113
Overview
A need for new product applications
The fractionation of fatty acids
Expansion abroad
A short ride with Greyhound
The creation of Akzona
Akzo America, Inc.
Armour joins Henkel
Acquisition of Stauffer Chemical Co.
Akzo Chemicals Inc.
The creation of Akzo Nobel – and a new Surface Chemistry business
Reorganization and expansion
Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry LLC
Back to Chicago

114
Armour and Stauffer:
From Chicago to Stenungsund and back
The Akzo legacy
A need for new product applications
Armour & Co. was founded in Chicago,
Illinois, by Philip Danforth Armour in 1867.
The Chicago Stock Yards were the hub
from which meat products originating in the
Midwest were packed and transported via
the new railroad system to the burgeoning
populations of the eastern seaboard. Philip
D. Armour’s initial operations were exclusively
in the meat trade, and focused on
the smoking, pickling and rendering of
pork. An important by-product of the meat
trade of that period was tallow – animal fat
used for a variety of purposes including the
manufacture of candles. Thomas Edison’s
invention in 1879 of a practical light bulb for
domestic use severely reduced the market
for tallow candles, however, and firms such
as Armour & Co. were forced to look for
new applications for the by-products of their
core processes.
Armour moved into soap manufacture,
building a soap works in 1896 to produce
a laundry soap by the name of Armour’s
Family Soap. This was followed by a number
of soap products – Big Ben, Sail Hammer
and White Flyer – for heavy-duty household
jobs. In the 1900s, Amour & Co. diversified
into fine toilet soaps, and by 1927 its range in
this field included no less than 60 brands.
The fractionation of fatty acids
The by-products of meat rendering have
other applications, however – in the fields
of pharmaceuticals, lubricants, adhesives
and leather, for instance – and in the 1920s
Armour & Co. established a central research
laboratory at the Chicago Stock Yards. It
was here that “the father of the oleochemical
industry,” Ralph H. Potts (1900-1981),
developed the first commercial process for
the fractionation of fatty acids, which made
possible the use of fatty acids in chemical
processes. While continuing soap manu-
facture, Armour & Co. diversified again, this
time into the production of nitrogen derivatives
of fatty acids, achieving production
volumes of 2 million pounds of nitriles per
day by 1942. In 1939, the first commercial
long-chain fatty amine was used for the
improvement of potash, which has applications
in the manufacture of glass and soap,
and is also used as a fertilizer.
During the 1940s, Armour expanded its
focus once more, adding secondary amines
and quarternary ammonium salts (for fabric
softening) to its product range. Armour built
the world’s first commercial fatty amine plant
in McCook, Illinois, in 1949, along with a new
research laboratory. Meanwhile, the company
successfully launched its innovative
Dial Deodorant Soap in 1948.
Expansion abroad
The 1950s saw Armour expanding abroad.
Canada was the company’s first target, with
the establishment of a sales office in Toronto
and a new production facility in Saskatoon.
In 1959, Armour entered into a joint venture
with Dan Hess in Britain to fractionate
fatty acids and prepare nitrogen derivatives;
nine years later, in 1968, Armour acquired
the entire operation. A new, modern soap
facility opened in Montgomery, Illinois, in
1964. Armour also entered into a joint venture
with Lion Fat and Oil in Japan in the late
1960s. It was during this decade that the
company’s name was changed to Armour-
Dial Company – a name which was to be
superseded in turn by Armour-Dial, Inc.
A short ride with Greyhound
Kessler, a specialty ester manufacturer
based in Philadelphia, was acquired in 1962.
This acquisition added polyethylene glycol
esters and isopropyl myristate, among
other products, to Armour’s product range,
and remained part of the company until its
divestment to Stepan Co. in 1982. In 1969 –
during the heyday of conglomerate creation
on both sides of the Atlantic – Armour was
acquired by Greyhound, North America’s
largest intercity bus company. The following
year, however, Amour’s chemical operations
were spun off to Akzona.
The creation of Akzona
Akzona was a child of Akzo, itself created
just one year before by the merger
of the Dutch textile company AKU and
the Dutch salt company KZO. A contraction
of Akzo, North America, Akzona was the
holding company for Akzo’s North American
fibers, salt, chemicals, cable and pharmaceutical
companies. The creation of Akzona
was meant to establish an American replica
of the European Akzo. Shortly afterwards,
in 1973, a new manufacturing facility was
opened in Morris, Illinois – the world’s largest
plant at that time for the production of fatty
alkyl nitrogen derivatives.
Akzo America, Inc.
In 1982, Akzo – which until that point had
held just 55 percent of the shares in Akzona
– acquired the remaining, publicly held, stock,
and the holding company Akzona became a
wholly owned subsidiary of Akzo. This was
an important step in Akzo’s development
into a global organization. Until that juncture,
Akzo’s divisions had had to co-operate
with Akzona’s subsidiaries. Now they were
able to include Akzona’s activities directly
into their own worldwide plans. Two years
later, the chemicals operation was renamed
Akzo Chemie America, Armak Chemicals,
to be renamed Akzo Chemicals Inc. shortly
thereafter. Meanwhile the holding company’s
name was changed to Akzo America,
Inc. The country division, Akzona, was dismantled
and the American companies were
transferred to Akzo’s worldwide product
divisions. Akzona’s exclusively American
activities were divested at the same time. In
1985 American Enka was sold to BASF on
account of the lack of synergy between the
American fibers activities and those of the rest
of the Enka group.
Armour joins Henkel
The soap operation of the original Armour
& Co., which had been renamed The Dial
Corporation in 1986, was acquired by the
German consumer goods group Henkel in
2004 – joining the former Nobel Industries
consumer goods company Barnängen,
which had entered the Henkel fold in 1992.
Acquisition of Stauffer Chemical Co.
It was in 1987 that Akzo America Inc. acquired
the specialty chemicals division of Stauffer
Chemical Co. – the biggest acquisition that
Akzo had made in its history to that date.
Stauffer had been founded in San Francisco
in 1885 by John Stauffer Sr. (1861 - 1940).
John Stauffer Sr. was born Johann Gustav
Stauffer in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 1861.
He had received a good technical education
and spoke five languages when he came
to San Francisco as a young man of 20 to
sell heavy chemicals for the Solvay Company
of Belgium. He made friends easily and had
the gift of attracting to him men who would
work the same long hours he did – and
with the same enthusiasm and dedication.
Personally thrifty, he never begrudged
money spent on others, and stories of his
private charities are legion. In business,
he believed in plowing back money into the
firm and in 50-50 partnerships. “No man
worth his salt wants to be on the wrong
end of a 51-49 partnership,” was one of
his maxims. John Stauffer Sr.’s company
extracted chemicals from the brackish waters
and mineral deposits on the shores of the
San Francisco Bay. Established originally

The Clarks Summit site of the International Salt Company in 1980.
Salt was a key driver of growth for Akzo in the 1980s and early 1990s
115

116
Armour and Stauffer:
From Chicago to Stenungsund and back
The Akzo legacy
as a partnership between John and Joseph
Mayer, a native of Hamburg, the company
became a corporation in 1895. For 50 years
Stauffer’s indomitable figure, invariably clad
in a rumpled black suit, a black derby on
his head and a cheroot clenched between
his teeth, was a familiar part of the San
Francisco business scene. He served as
secretary of Stauffer Chemicals from 1895
until 1935 and died in San Francisco in
1940. His only son, John Stauffer Jr., was
with the company for 49 years, during which
time Stauffer Chemicals grew dramatically.
Its initial operations had been in commodity
chemicals (including sulfur, soda ash,
nitric acid, sulfuric acid, muriatic acid and
boric acid), but the company expanded
its activities through numerous acquisitions
and joint ventures and gradually
developed into an international specialty
chemicals company.
In 1954, Hans Stauffer – the nephew of
John Stauffer Sr. – was elected president of
Stauffer Chemical. The same year the company
moved its headquarters to New York
City, where it listed on the stock exchange.
Stauffer Chemical remained headquartered
in New York City until it relocated
to Westport, Connecticut, in 1974. During
the same year, the company made its first
sales to the People’s Republic of China.
Two years later, and with manufacturing
and sales operations all over the world,
Stauffer Chemical’s sales passed the
$1 billion mark.
At the time of its acquisition by Akzo
America in 1987, Stauffer Chemical Co.
produced chemicals for a wide range of
end-use markets, including agriculture,
building, construction, consumer goods,
food systems, furnishings, laundry and
dry-cleaning, petroleum products and
refining, packaging and containers, transportation,
textiles and water treatment.
The sales of Stauffer Chemicals Co.’s
specialty chemicals division doubled the
sales of Akzo Chemie America, the division
of Akzo to which the newly acquired
firm was assigned. John Stauffer Jr., who
had overseen the company’s growth
from its humble origins to international
prominence, became a member of the
Board of Trustees at Stanford University
(Palo Alto, California), the University of
Southern California and Whittier College
(California). The Stauffer chemistry buildings
of Stanford’s campus are named
in his honor.
Akzo Chemicals Inc.
Approximately a year after the acquisition
of Stauffer, Akzo Chemie America was
reorganized into eight operating groups
based on market requirements. Coincidentally
its name was changed to Akzo
Chemicals Inc. This reorganization allowed
the company’s various chemical products
with a common marketing logic to be sold
via a single marketing division. The nitrogen
chemicals business, formerly operating
under the Armak umbrella, was divided
into new marketing groups: Detergents
and Personal Care, Fine and Functional
Amines, and Asphalt (Highway) Chemicals.
Akzo no longer operated as individual
companies based on geography, but as a
worldwide organization.
In 1991, Akzo Chemicals was again
restructured. The former Armak nitrogen
products were now marketed under the
Detergent and Surfactants group, with
subgroups Detergent and Personal Care,
Petroleum, Fine and Functional Amines and
Asphalt Chemicals. The McCook research
laboratory was closed, and all North
American research operations were combined
at the former Stauffer facility at
Dobbs Ferry, New York. The plant in Sarnia,
Ontario was also closed in 1991 and its
former operations transferred to other
North American plants.
The creation of Akzo Nobel – and a
new Surface Chemistry business
In 1994, Akzo merged with Nobel
Industries, a Stockholm-based chemical
company with diverse markets in amines,
paint and building chemicals, coatings and
paper chemicals. Many of the non-coatings
businesses were grouped together
to form a new business unit, Surface
Chemistry, which, like the bleaching
chemicals business (Eka), became part of
the Chemicals business of the new Akzo
Nobel. The headquarters of the new unit
was established in Stenungsund, Sweden.
Various sub-business units were formed
to operate on a global basis – Cleaning
and Care, Industrial Surfactants, Paint and
Building Additives and Fatty Acids, and
various niche businesses.
Reorganization and expansion
In 1996 Akzo Nobel’s Surface Chemistry
business unit reorganized to better direct
its marketing efforts on a geographic basis.
New sub-business units were formed:
Cationic Applications (Europe), Surfactants
America, Fatty Acids, Paint & Building
Additives, and Specialty Surfactant Applications.
The new Surfactants America subbusiness
unit took over responsibility for
South America and the Itupeva, Brazil, plant.
In 1998 Akcros Chemicals, headquartered
in the UK and a joint venture between
Akzo Nobel and Harcross Chemicals,
became a wholly owned subsidiary. During
1999, the Akcros surfactant line was
integrated into the Surface Chemistry
business.
Continued expansion into Asian markets
occurred with the opening of an office
in Singapore in 1997 to coordinate area
marketing and secure future production.
Surfactants America assumed responsibility
for these activities.
Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry LLC
In July 2002 – following discussions of
more than 18 months – Akzo Nobel Surface
Chemistry and Crompton Corporation of
North America reached an agreement on
the acquisition of Crompton’s Industrial
Specialties business. The acquisition significantly
strengthened the business unit’s
position. A descendant of Witco (founded in
1920 in Chicago as the Wishnick-Tumpeer
Chemical Company), Industrial Specialties
was the number one independent supplier
of oil-field surfactants. The acquisition added
plants in Houston and Fort Worth, Texas, to
Surface Chemistry’s portfolio.
Back to Chicago
In 2005, as part of the Chemicals group’s
strategic renewal process, the Surface
Chemistry business was restructured to
focus exclusively on surfactants, bringing
with it a change in its name to Surfactants. Its
headquarters was moved from Stenungsund
back to Chicago – the city in which Armour
had originally been founded.
Following Akzo Nobel’s acquisition of ICI
in January 2008, the business focus was
broadened with several of ICI’s activities.
To reflect this new expansion in scope,
the name of the unit was changed back to
Surface Chemistry.

Enka’s fibers plant in Lowland, Tennessee, during the 1960s
117

118
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget, p. 133
Vintervinken (Stockholm)
Bofors, p. 137
Bofors
Stockholms Superfosfat, p. 143
Nacka (Stockholm)
Månsbo
Trollhättan
Ljungaverk
Alby
Porjus
Eka, p. 149
Bengtsfors
Bohus
Sadolin, p. 157
Copenhagen
Nordsjö, p. 165
Malmö
Sege (Malmö)
Casco, p. 173
Nacka (Stockholm)
Kristinehamn
Barnängan, p. 179
Stockholm
Alvik (Stockholm)
Ekerö
Liljeholmen (Stockholm)
Stockvik
Berol, p. 185
Södertälje
Domsjö
Örnskoldsvik
Mölndal (Gothenburg)
Nol
Stenungsund
Crown Berger, p. 193
London (Berger)
Darwen (Crown)
Morecambe
marks the place on the map where the company
in question (see the left-hand column) was
founded.
Locations named in a chapter are listed on the
left under the name of the relevant company. The
first location named is the place where the company
was founded; all other locations are listed
alphabetically.
If locations cannot be distinguished from one
another because they are too close together, a
place already shown on the map or one that is
central to those locations is given in parenthesis.
Norway
Denmark
4
2
Bengtsfors
Bofors
Gothenburg
5
Copenhagen
Sweden
6
Sundsvall
Uppsala
8
Malmö
Germany
Umeå
Stockholm
7
Södertälje 3
9
Luleå
1
Finland
United Kingdom
10
London

119

120
Stockholms Superfosfat’s Gäddviken Nacka
plant in Stockholm in the early days

The Nobel legacy
Nobel Industries was created in 1984, when the armaments maker
Bofors acquired the chemical company KemaNobel. Swedish in origin,
both Bofors and KemaNobel had historic ties to Alfred Nobel, the great
19th century inventor who was the first to discover a way to detonate the
explosive liquid nitroglycerin.
121
Overview
The ascendance of Stockholms Superfosfat
From Fosfatbolaget through KemaNord to KemaNobel
Bofors
The creation of Nobel Industries
Financial crisis
Merger with Akzo

122
Nobel Industries
The Nobel legacy
After making the pivotal invention of the blasting cap in 1863,
Nobel founded a company called Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget
the following year and began traveling extensively to set up
nitroglycerin plants in Europe and America. His typical practice
was to exchange his patent rights for a share in these
new businesses, and as a result a network of companies
bearing the Nobel name quickly developed. Problems with
the transport and storage of nitroglycerin caused several
deadly accidents over the ensuing few years, until 1867,
when Nobel developed the explosive he named dynamite.
With the invention of this stable form of nitroglycerine,
Nobel’s businesses rapidly expanded and he soon garnered
one of Europe’s largest fortunes through the substantial
dividends generated by his plants in the United States,
Britain, Norway, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Austria-Hungary
and elsewhere.
The ascendance of Stockholms Superfosfat
Alfred Nobel died in 1895. His first company, Nitroglycerin
Aktiebolaget, continued in the explosives business. In 1918,
Stockholms Superfosfat AB acquired a majority shareholding
in this company. In 1977, it eventually acquired the
remaining shares in the company, which by then was called
Nitro Nobel.
During the 1950s the Wallenberg banking and industrial
empire acquired a significant owner-interest in the chemicals
company Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks by means of
the Swedish mining and forestry products company Stora
Kopparberg. This led to a radical restructuring of production
at Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks. The manufacture of
nitrogen lime was terminated in 1963, and the focus during
the 1960s was directed to petroleum as a raw material.
Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks became one of the major
stakeholders in a petrochemicals complex which was built
up around Stenungsund, on the west coast of Sweden. Net
sales of the company grew by approximately 20 percent
each year during the 1960s and 1970s, and the number
of employees rose from approximately 2,000 to more than
7,000 during this period.
From Fosfatbolaget through KemaNord to
KemaNobel
The name of Stockholms Superfosfat AB was changed in
1964 to Fosfatbolaget AB, and again in 1970 to KemaNord
AB. Operations were broadened during the period after World
War II, including the acquisition of Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik
(1947), Casco (1964), Stockholms Benmjölsfabrik (1966),
Barnängen (1973), part of Nitro Nobel (1977) and Nordsjö
(1982). The company’s name was changed again in 1978
following the acquisition of the rest of Nitro Nobel, this
time to KemaNobel.
Bofors
Bofors, the other major company involved in the formation of
Nobel Industries, traced its lineage back to 1646, when it was
established as a hammer forge near Karlskoga, Sweden. By
1894, when Alfred Nobel bought it, Bofors had become a
munitions manufacturer. The company became well known
for its anti-aircraft weapon, the L/70 40 mm gun, first sold
in 1936. This gun was instrumental to the defense of Britain
in World War II and enjoyed strong sales in NATO countries
after the war. Because Sweden is a neutral country,
Bofors’ weapons followed Swedish specifications that they
be primarily defensive, and exports were limited by complex
government policies.
Government contracts for armaments made up most of
Bofors’ profits, but the company had interests in other areas
as well. These included a chemicals and plastics division
called Bofors Nobel. A chemical engineering operation called
Nobel Chematur also produced steel tools and truck axles,
as well as diesel engines. In 1976, the company decided to
focus exclusively on armaments and chemicals.
The creation of
Nobel Industries
Bofors acquired KemaNobel in order to strengthen its own
chemicals operations. The Swedish stock market was at a
low ebb during the 1970s, but financier Erik Penser optimistically
gambled on a brighter future. The market took a
sudden upward swing after a devaluation of the Swedish
krona in 1982, and Penser steadily invested his profits in
Bofors until he ultimately controlled 40 percent of the company.
He then set his sights on KemaNobel, the chemicals
company controlled by the Wallenberg family. After offering
an above-market price for a majority share in KemaNobel,
he combined it with Bofors and named the new entity Nobel
Industries. The new company had sales of $1 billion.
Nobel Industries expanded rapidly, making many acqui-
sitions in the fields of industrial paints, chemicals, adhesives,
electronics and consumer goods. When Erik Penser
formed Nobel Industries in 1984, armaments sold by Bofors
accounted for 34 percent of the new company’s total sales,
as well as 39 percent of its operating profits. Three years
later, 80 percent of the company’s sales and 43 percent of
its profits came from paints, adhesives, explosives, plastics,
chemicals, and pulp and paper products.
During this period, Nobel Industries was rocked by the Bofors
scandal, which arose from an armaments deal with India.
Suspicions extended to the highest echelons of Swedish
and Indian politics, but the company was later cleared
of all accusations.
Financial crisis
Nobel Industries continued to expand its other operations,
making major acquisitions in the fields of paper
and bleaching chemicals (Eka AB 1986), ethylene amines
(Berol AB 1988), paints and adhesives (the Danish Sadolin
& Holmblad A/S 1987 and the British Crown Berger Ltd.
1990) and consumer goods. In 1986, the civilian explosives
activities of Nitro Nobel AB, a part of the former KemaNobel,
were divested.
By 1991, however, the debt resulting from these acquisitions
threatened to swamp Nobel Industries. Moreover,
Nobel Industries had offered an unlimited guarantee to the
creditors of a financial service company, Gamlestaden,
which was also owned by Erik Penser. When Gamlestaden
failed in the summer of 1991, Nobel Industries could not
cover its guarantee. On the verge of financial collapse,
Nobel Industries was – somewhat controversially – taken
over by the Swedish bank Nordbanken. Penser lost his
entire 67 percent holding in Nobel, while trading in Nobel
Industries shares was suspended for four days. With
Nordbanken as its major shareholder, Nobel Industries
recovered, but it lost almost $1 billion. Prompted by the
scandals of previous years, the company’s decision to sell
its defense activities brought some relief from the burden
of this debt. The sale of its entire consumer goods division
to the German chemical group Henkel followed in 1992.
Paint, adhesives and chemicals became the main activities
of Nobel Industries.

Nobel Industries
The Nobel legacy
Merger with Akzo
Restructuring subsequently led to ownership being transferred
to the state-owned Securum, who then sold the
shares to Akzo in 1994. The merger was the largest in
Europe that year and created one of the ten biggest chemical
companies in the world. The company’s name was
changed to Akzo Nobel after the integration of Nobel’s
operations into Akzo.
During its final year of independence, Nobel Industries
generated net sales of about SEK 23 billion and employed
approximately 20,000 people.
123

124
Alfred Nobel as a young man in 1853.
Alfred was a mature, unusually intelligent
youth, but he was also a dreamer and an
introvert who preferred to be by himself

The Nobel legacy
The themes of invention, entrepreneurship and industrialism run
through all the chapters of the AkzoNobel story, and many of its constituent
companies have been founded by remarkable men. More than
a century since his death, it is still Alfred Nobel, however, who towers
above them all – not simply because of the Nobel Foundation, which he
established through a provision in his will, but more essentially because
of his own talents, creativity and personal achievements.
125
Overview
Success in Russia – and poverty again
The incessant traveler
The inventor
The entrepreneur
The industrialist
A lonely death
Alfred Nobel’s will
The Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Prize

126
Alfred Nobel:
Inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist
The Nobel legacy
Alfred Nobel was born in 1833, the son of Immanuel Nobel,
a self-taught master builder from Gävle. Immanuel was possessed
of great drive and initiative, and he also became a
manufacturer and inventor. Unfortunately in 1837, when
Alfred was just four years old, he went bankrupt and was
obliged to flee abroad to escape his creditors. Alfred and his
brothers were brought up by their mother in Stockholm for
several years, living in abject poverty and permanent insecurity,
until Immanuel – who had started a foundry and engineering
workshop in St. Petersburg – was sufficiently welloff
to be able to reunite his family under one roof in Russia.
Success in Russia – and poverty again
Nobel and his brothers were taught at home by private
tutors. Following a two-year study tour which included a visit
to New York, Alfred commenced work – like his brothers
– in his father’s company, Fonderies & Ateliers Mécaniques
Nobel & Fils. The company grew into a large engineering
works which increasingly focused on producing weaponry,
and by the mid-1850s it employed more than a thousand
people. Specializing in underwater mines, Immanuel Nobel’s
company became a major supplier to the Russian army
during the Crimean War, but it went bankrupt when the war
ended and orders for armaments dried up.
The incessant traveler
Nobel himself returned to Sweden in 1863, at the age of
30. He soon moved to Hamburg – which became the hub
of his activities for ten years – and then to Paris, the intellectual
and cultural capital of 19th century Europe, where,
as he noted, “even the mongrel in the street has an air of
civilization.” It was from Paris that Alfred Nobel built up his
multinational empire. He devised numerous inventions and
set up various businesses that served both civil and military
purposes, as engineers blasted their way through mountains
to create the great railway networks of the late 19th century
and countries built up massively equipped modern armies.
After his competitors for contracts from the French Army had
managed to cast doubts on his loyalty, he moved in 1891
from Paris to San Remo in Italy. In the winter of 1893-94,
three years before his death, Alfred Nobel bought the
Bofors company in Värmland in the west of central Sweden
and moved into the director’s manor. “Things will get lively
in Bofors as soon as we get real results from current inno-
vations,” he wrote soon afterwards. “It would be nice to
see old Sweden competing in armaments with Germany
and Great Britain.” Nobel died in 1896, however, worn out
by incessant work and travel – immensely rich but also a
lonely man, unmarried and estranged from his family.
The inventor
“If I have 300 ideas in a year and just one turns out to work,
I am satisfied,” Alfred once wrote. During the course of his
life he was, in fact, to have no fewer than 355 patent applications
granted. His most important inventions were all based
on nitroglycerin – a viscous, highly explosive liquid which
had been discovered in 1847 by the Italian Ascanio Sobrero
(1812-1888). Nobel’s great contribution lay in developing
methods of making it usable in practice. His main inventions
were the blasting cap (later known as the detonator) (1863),
dynamite (1867), blasting gelatine (1875) and the smokeless
gunpowder ballistite (1887).
Nobel began his experiments with nitroglycerin in 1862, with
the aim of developing a detonator which was safe to handle,
but still allowed full use of all the inherent explosive effect
of the liquid. He achieved this objective in 1864, with the
creation of a percussion cap consisting of mercury fulminate
in a small copper sleeve containing in itself a clamped fuse:
it became the standard detonator.
During the 1860s a series of serious accidents involving
nitroglycerin attracted enormous publicity – for example,
Nobel’s own factory at Krümmel was destroyed by an
explosion. Nobel experimented with admixtures of various
porous substances to absorb the nitroglycerin and make it
safer to handle – coal dust, sawdust, cement and brick dust.
Eventually he tried out a mixture of 75 percent nitroglycerin
and 25 percent kieselguhr, a clayey mineral, which could be
pressed into cartridges and wrapped in paper tubes. And so
dynamite was born.
A quarter of dynamite’s composition was inert, however, and
so Nobel set about finding a new compound which could be
mixed with nitroglycerin and also be involved in the explosion.
After considerable experimentation, he found this in the
form of nitrocellulose, created by adding collodion cotton (gun
cotton) dissolved in ether alcohol to nitroglycerin. Combined
with pure nitroglycerin, this wholly original blasting gelatine
was initially marketed as Extradynamit.
Ballistite, the fourth of Nobel’s major inventions, was a
smokeless gunpowder made of roughly equal parts of
nitroglycerin and gun cotton with the addition of 10 percent
camphor. The two major substances – each highly explosive
– created a new kind of gunpowder which was not highly
explosive, but which on ignition burned with near-mathematical
precision in concentric layers. Nobel’s contemporaries
regarded his invention, which replaced black gunpowder, as
utterly remarkable.
Nobel had little time for orders and titles, but he did value
scientific recognition of his work. He was elected a member
of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences in 1884 and
was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of
Uppsala in 1893.
The entrepreneur
Alfred Nobel began his career as an entrepreneur by trying
to make nitroglycerin a commercial product. The first manufacture
of his “blasting oil” took place in a shed in Stockholm
where Nobel’s destitute father and family were lodging. While
being used for this purpose in 1864, the shed blew up, killing
Alfred’s younger brother Emil and four other people.
For all its tragedy, this accident – to which the press of the
day devoted considerable attention – was a more convincing
demonstration of the explosive power of Nobel’s blasting oil
than all his test explosions for potential clients. The orders
suddenly flooded in, and only a month later, the Swedish State
Railways started using “Nobel’s patent blasting oil” to excavate
a new tunnel. In the same month, October 1864, Nobel
joined forces with the wealthy Stockholm investor Johan
Wilhelm Smitt to found his first company, Nitroglycerin AB, to
manufacture and market the new product. A year later he set
up Alfred Nobel and Co. in Germany for the same purpose,
again using funds from local sponsors. Nobel was to repeat
this successful formula in many countries around the world
– finding local backers with funds and influence, building a
plant in a secluded spot, obtaining the necessary licenses,
avoiding the use of banks and lawyers, and keeping his own
financial investment to a minimum. His entrepreneurship was
enhanced by the showmanship with which he demonstrated
the properties of his new products. Nobel was always careful
to invite the press to his demonstrations, at which he displayed
the safe handling properties of dynamite by throwing
boxes of it from cliff tops before detonating it to create massive
explosions in solid rock.
Nobel’s attempts to penetrate the U.S. market were less
successful, but he set up factories in Great Britain (1871),

Alfred Nobel’s laboratory in San Remo, Italy. He also had his own
laboratory at Björkborn in Bofors, Sweden

128
Alfred Nobel:
Inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist
The Nobel legacy
Spain (1871), Italy (1873) and Switzerland (1873). Despite
his enormous energy, Nobel was, however, a cautious
businessman who was always at pains to avoid personal
liability for the activities of his various companies and whose
own investment was usually limited to the provision of his
patents. With his father’s two bankruptcies always at
the back of his mind, he invested the massive fortune he
acquired in low-risk securities; the significant exception
to this pattern was the investment he made in his
brothers’ struggling oil company in Russia – an investment
that he was to regret deeply.
The industrialist
Alfred Nobel founded his international industrial empire
during the years 1865 -1876, between the ages of 32 and
40. By 1873 he was a partner in 16 dynamite factories in
14 countries. Many of them were in keen competition, not
only with other manufacturers, but also with other Nobel
companies. Alfred therefore consolidated them into two
holding companies: the Nobel Dynamite Trust Co., which
was formed for the British and German companies in
1886, and Société Central de Dynamite, created for the
companies in Switzerland, Italy, France and Spain in 1887.
Thus the first truly multinational companies in history – companies
owning or controlling manufacturing facilities outside
the country in which they have their head office – are
associated with Nobel.
Nobel traveled and corresponded tirelessly to set up
and maintain this empire, which included plants in
Ardeer, Turin, Paulilles, Vienna, Hamburg and Stockholm.
He spent several hours a day at his desk, and would write on
average 20 to 30 letters a day, expressing himself with equal
facility in Swedish, Russian, German, French and English.
When traveling by train, he wrote with a portable copying
machine on his lap.
Despite his success, Alfred was a shy man. Intensive work
and travel did not leave much time for a private life. At the age
of 43 he was feeling like an old man. At this time he advertised
in a newspaper “Wealthy, highly-educated elderly gentleman
seeks lady of mature age, versed in languages, as secretary
and supervisor of household.” The most qualified applicant
turned out to be an Austrian woman, Countess Bertha
Kinsky. Nobel was attracted to her and may well indeed have
fallen in love with her, but Bertha decided to return to Austria
to marry Count Arthur von Suttner after working for Nobel
for only a short time. There followed a long and unhappy love
affair with Sophie Hess – an uneducated Austrian flowerseller
23 years his junior whom he met in a flower shop in
Baden Bei Wien shortly after the departure of Bertha
Kinsky. Alfred’s attempts to encourage Sophie to educate
herself and better her social standing proved fruitless,
leading to much frustration on his part, while Sophie
herself resented her role as a kept mistress who was always
being urged to change her nature. Their affair came to a
definitive end in 1891.
A lonely death
Alfred Nobel’s young employee Ragnar Sohlmann, who
was probably the person who knew him best, wrote of the
great industrialist: “He was hardly ever a democrat. He had
much goodwill for, and considerate interest in, the workers
in his factories, but there was never time for any personal
contact. He was a very generous master to his servants,
but he was a stickler for etiquette, and personal closeness
was inconceivable, even when, ill and suffering, he felt the
lack of it.” Nobel in fact suffered from depression as well
as migraine for much of his life. Explaining his choice to
continue working as a businessman in later life rather than
retiring to devote himself to the science which he regarded
as his true calling, he wrote: “You get into a certain sphere
of activity and if you then have a trace of that distorted
quality known as a sense of duty, you toil until you drop.”
On December 10, 1896, what Nobel had most feared
happened – he died alone in Italy, in the company of only a few
paid servants.
Alfred Nobel’s will
The Björkborn Manor was Alfred Nobel’s home during his
period at Bofors. After his death, it came to be regarded as
his final permanent domicile. This was decided after a French
court had ruled – against the wishes of many of Nobel’s relatives
– that he had not been resident in Paris at the time of
his death. The court ruling was remarkable in that it was
based on a very old legal text which stated that the domicile
of a farmer was the location at which he stabled his horses.
And it was at Björkborn that all three of Nobel’s Russian
carriage horses had been stabled at the time of his death.
The decision of the French court was of critical significance
for the judicial processing of Alfred Nobel’s will. He left one
million Swedish crowns to be distributed among his relatives.
The remainder of the complete fortune – with the exception
of three villas at various locations in Europe – went, as Nobel
had desired, to create a fund which became the basis of
the Nobel Prize – the largest single donation ever to have
been made, amounting to more than SEK 31 million. Many
people believe that the French court would hardly have
approved the will and its donations in the way that Karlskoga
District Court did.
The Nobel donation met with extremely mixed reactions.
It was commonly thought that he had behaved in an “un-
Swedish” manner by giving the donation such a clear international
perspective. With hindsight, everyone today realizes
that Alfred Nobel, on the contrary, created unprecedented
goodwill for Sweden through his donation.
The Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation, established in 1900, is a private
institution based on provisions in Alfred Nobel’s will. The
Foundation manages the assets made available through the
will for the award of Nobel Prizes. It represents the Nobel
Institutions externally and administers informational activities
and arrangements surrounding the presentation of
Nobel Prizes. The Foundation also administers the Nobel
Symposium Program.
The Nobel Prize
Every year since 1901, Nobel Prizes have been awarded for
achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine,
literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an international
award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm,
Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of
Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists
of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award.

Alfred Nobel:
Inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist
The Nobel legacy
Some surprising facts
about Nobel laureates
Up until 2007, 777 individuals and 20 organizations had been awarded the Nobel Prize.
Some Nobel laureates and organizations have received the prize more than once
34 Nobel laureates to date have been women; the remaining 743 were men.
To date, the youngest Nobel laureate is Lawrence Bragg, who was just 25 years old
when he received together with his father the Nobel Prize for Physics 1915.
The oldest Nobel laureate to date is Leonid Hurwicz, who was 90 years old when he
was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Economics.
Two Nobel laureates have declined their Nobel Prize. Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964
Nobel Prize for Literature, declined because he had consistently declined all official honors.
Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with U.S. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords. Le Doc Tho said that he was not
in a position to accept the Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.
Four Nobel laureates have been forced by authorities to decline a Nobel Prize.
Adolf Hitler forbade three German Nobel laureates, Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and
Gerhard Domagk, from accepting their Prizes. All of them could later receive the Nobel Prize
Diploma and Medal, but not the prize money. Boris Pasternak, the 1958 Nobel laureate for
Literature, initially accepted but was later coerced by the authorities of the Soviet Union,
his native country, to decline.
The work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been honored by a
Nobel Peace Prize three times. The founder of the ICRC, Henry Dunant, was additionally
awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
Linus Pauling is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes:
the 1954 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize.
Alfred Nobel’s last will
and testament
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the
capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on
which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding
year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided
into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who
shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one
part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement;
one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the
domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the
field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person
who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the
abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace
congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish
Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical work by the Caroline Institute in
Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm, and that for champions of
peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my
express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the
nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether
he be a Scandinavian or not.
Paris, 27 November, 1895
Alfred Bernhard Nobel
129

130
The opening page of Alfred Nobel’s will.
This document revoked his previous wills of
1889 and 1893 and created the basis for the
Nobel Foundation and the Nobel Prizes.
Nobel had an aversion to lawyers and rarely
made use of them when drafting legal documents.
The vague wording of his will was to
lead to protracted disagreements regarding
its provisions in the wake of his death

Alfred Nobel in 1885. He allowed him self to be
photographed only with great reluctance
131

132
Nitro Nobel’s offices in the Aspudden area of
Stockholm during the 1960s

The Nobel legacy
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget was originally founded by Alfred Nobel at
Vinterviken, just outside Stockholm, in 1864. Alfred’s innovative applications
for the newly discovered substance nitroglycerin accelerated
the advance of the great age of industrial construction. The rapid completion
of railways, tunnels, canals, ports and other major building
projects was made possible by the safe handling properties and massive
blasting power of this explosive, which was many times more powerful
than gunpowder.
133
Overview
Disasters and innovations
The creation of KemaNobel

134
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget:
Nitro Nobel, an explosive history
The Nobel legacy
Nobel had established laboratories for
quality control, experimentation and development
work at his larger industrial works.
He was based outside Sweden from the
end of the 1860s, initially in Krümmel near
Hamburg, then in Ardeer, Scotland, and
subsequently for many years in Paris. Nobel
had well-equipped laboratories and qualified
staff at his disposal at all of these locations.
During the early 1880s, Nobel began
employing handpicked specialists – physicists,
chemists and engineers – at his
laboratories around Europe to work on the
ideas and hunches that he had been playing
around with in his mind for years. Continually,
new ideas would occur to him. Countless
memos – many of them several pages long,
and written on the letterheaded stationery
of some of Europe’s leading hotels – have
been preserved in which Nobel made notes
on current projects in his laboratories. At the
peak of these activities, in the 1890s, Alfred
Nobel’s laboratories employed around 75 to
100 scientists.
Disasters and innovations
Starting with the manufacture of nitroglycerin,
Nobel’s first company – Nitroglycerin
Aktiebolaget – went on to produce dynamite,
blasting gelatine and smokeless gunpowder
during his lifetime. It also suffered several
major explosions – in 1868, 1874, 1893 and
1906 – which claimed a total of 33 lives.
Besides serving the growing engineering
and construction sectors, Nitroglycerin
Aktiebolaget’s products were used to
produce ammunition used by both the
military and hunters. Innovations continued
after the death of Nobel, most notably the
launch of borenit, a form of dynamite rendered
more stable at low temperatures
by the addition of nitroglycol (1927), an
improved and less moisture-sensitive form
of nitrolit (1934), and securit, a new nitroglycerin-free
explosive (1957).
Early in 1894, Nobel had reached an
agreement with Kjellberg & Söner to
acquire Bofors. He had found the perfect
place for his ballistic experiments with
new kinds of gunpowder and ammunition.
Shortly thereafter, weapons technicians in
the Swedish military expressed their wish
that Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget’s production
of gunpowder (Nobelkrut) be moved from
Vinterviken to Bofors, in order to facilitate
continuous product testing. In 1898, two
years after Alfred Nobel’s death, this idea
was carried out. A new company named
AB Bofors Nobelkrut was founded by
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget, AB Bofors and
Alfred Nobel’s estate.
In 1915, Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget purchased
Gyttorps Sprängämnes AB, its
toughest competitor in the Swedish explosives
industry. This made it possible to
gradually move the increasingly crowded
Vinterviken factories to Gyttorp, a village
in central Sweden. In the summer of 1921,
dynamite production at Vinterviken ceased,
although for many years the buildings were
used as warehouses.
On November 13, 1918 – two days after
the Armistice had been signed – a letter
arrived at the head office of Nitroglycerin
Aktiebolaget from Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks AB stating that “as you are probably
aware, the undersigned company
has acquired the majority of the shares in
Nitroglycerin AB.” Rumors about a takeover
had already been flying in December 1917.
At the time, Stockholms Superfosfat officially
denied these claims, but they were probably
already large shareholders and continued to
purchase shares. On November 28, 1918,
there was an extra shareholders meeting,
requested by Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks AB, and a new board was appointed
for Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget.
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget continued to
grow. World War II presented both difficulties,
in the way of scarcity of raw materials,
but also opportunities. In 1940, the Swedish
government invested in a new factory run by
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget for the production
of blasting caps and explosive charges.
Nitrolit, a form of dynamite requiring less of
the scarce raw materials glycerin and glycerol,
was developed and became a success
both in the civilian and military markets.
Sales of nitrolit grew from 538 tons in 1939
to 6,737 tons in 1943.
In 1965, Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget changed
its name to Nitro Nobel AB, based on the
generally used shortened name Nitro and
the surname of founder Alfred Nobel.
The creation of KemaNobel
From 1973 to 1977 KemaNord (the new
name of Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks
since 1970) increased its holding in Nitro
Nobel. The main attraction was the international
scope of Nitro Nobel’s business,
while the management also saw potential
for synergy in the merging of the chemicals
operations of the two companies.
By 1977, Nitro Nobel had been fully integrated
into KemaNord.
To mark the creation of the new company
– as well as reflecting the increased diversity
and internationalization of activities compared
with those associated with the original
names – the company name was changed
to KemaNobel. When the merged group’s
new name was announced in 1978, the following
advertisement was published:
‘KemaNord and Nitro Nobel have merged.
Sweden’s now largest chemicals group has
changed its name to KemaNobel. The group
will now be even more competitive internationally.
KemaNobel will have a turnover of
over SEK 2.5 billion, 7,000 employees, and
production facilities in some 10 countries.
KemaNobel. The name represents a whole
group of companies that manufacture every-
thing from consumer goods to explosives,
chemicals and plastics.
WE BELIEVE IN OUR FUTURE
Alfred Nobel’s first company was founded
in 1864. That was Nitro Nobel. The chemist
Oscar Carlson and newspaper magnate Lars
Johan Hierta founded KemaNord in 1871.
Both companies have demonstrated their
vitality for more than one hundred years.
As KemaNobel, we are continuing our traditions
and know-how with the world as our
market. We believe in our future.’

A range of explosives produced by
Nitro Nobel AB. One of Alfred Nobel’s great
achievements was to make the handling and
transportation of explosives considerably safer
than it had been in the early 19th century
135

136
The Bofors Cannon Works in the mid-1890s

The Nobel legacy
The name Bofors is inextricably linked with the legendary Bofors ® gun
of World War II. The company’s traditions stem from much further back,
however, as does the history of armaments manufacture in Sweden.
137
Overview
Bofors steel
The first Bofors cannon
The combination of metallurgical, engineering and chemical expertise
Focus on weaponry – and innovation
The Bofors ® 40 mm gun
The Bofors scandal and divestment by Nobel Industries
The Björkborn Foundation

138
Bofors:
From a rural iron forge to a legendary weapon
The Nobel legacy
The origins of Bofors can be traced back to
a foundry in the Swedish countryside where
forests, mountains and water courses created
the ideal conditions for working iron
ore. On November 24, 1646, Paul Hossman
was granted a royal license for two foundry
hammers on the Bo River (now known as
the Tims River). He named the iron foundry
he built there Bofors (based on the Swedish
name of the river, Bo forsen, “fors” meaning
a fast-flowing river). The foundry’s link with
artillery was only to develop in the late 19th
century, however, by which time Bofors
had become one of the largest iron works
in Sweden.
The manufacture of cannon in Sweden
began in the first half of the 17th century and
drew on the country’s extensive expertise
in the handling of iron ore. Sweden soon
became one of Europe’s top exporters of
cannon, capitalizing on the continuous wars
between the superpowers of the period, as
well as on the need of merchant vessels for
defense against attack by pirates.
AB Bofors Nobelkrut
Bofors steel
By the late 19th century, the Swedish weapons
industry – which had been based on the
use of pig iron – was struggling to keep up
with the demand for more technologically
advanced weapons and, therefore, the more
advanced materials needed to make them.
Its end appeared to have come when the
Swedish government purchased several field
artillery pieces from the German manufacturer
Krupp in 1879. Just as this news was
being published, however, news also spread
that the Bofors iron mill in Värmland had successfully
produced a dense and cavity-free
molded steel of the same quality as the forged
cannon steel used by Krupp, the renowned
armaments manufacturer of the day.
The new steel supplied by Bofors, made
according to the so-called Martin process,
was a sensation, endowing the material with
a completely new homogeneity and strength.
Bofors’ new Martin furnace was commissioned
in 1878 and it rapidly turned out
AB Bofors Nobelkrut manufactured explosives for both military and industrial purposes.
Industrial explosives, which were used for blasting through rocks in major engineering
projects such as railway construction, included Bofors Dynamite and Nobel Dynamite.
The company also manufactured Nobelite, a wholly plastic explosive, and Boforsite,
a safety explosive. Key components in these products included nitrocellulose and
nitroglycerin powder, which the Bofors Nobel Explosives Company manufactured for
its own use. Another innovation of the company was flameless powder, for military use
by night – the lack of a flame made it much harder to locate the source of the firing.
more than 200 rear-loading cannon – the
first Swedish cannon to be made of steel. In
1882, Bofors set up its own full-scale plant for
the manufacture of cannon, thus making the
move from steel-making to armaments manufacture.
Setting up a cannon plant was much
more complex than running a steel mill, but
Bofors had an exclusive agreement to supply
the Swedish government, and could produce
cannon that were at least as good as those
made by Krupp but at much lower cost.
The first Bofors cannon
The first order for a cannon from the new
plant was placed by the Swedish navy on
November 20, 1883. This was the initial step
on Bofors’ path to becoming one of the
most notable weapons manufacturers in the
modern world.
Alfred Nobel played a critical role in the company’s
development. He acquired Bofors in
1894 and owned it until his death. Bofors
possessed expertise in metallurgy and
mechanical engineering, while Nobel brought
with him not only much-needed capital, but
also unique chemical and technical skills,
coupled with a vision for the future of armaments
manufacture. An international entrepreneur,
Nobel was never infected by the
intense nationalism that led to a worldwide
wave of re-armament during this period,
but he did have a lifelong fascination for the
technical problems of weaponry. This does
not appear to have been at odds with his
desire for peace. Alfred Nobel wanted to
create weapons that were so effective that
they made war a practical impossibility.
The combination of metallurgical,
engineering and chemical expertise
Arent Silfversparre and Carl Danielsson
played a key role in improving the early
Bofors cannon, making the barrel lighter
and stronger, the firing mechanism faster,
and the complete piece easier to maneuver.
Silfversparre’s most significant innovation

Rolling gunpowder at Bofors at the time when Alfred Nobel turned the
factory into the most important arms manufacturer in Sweden

140
Bofors:
From a rural iron forge to a legendary weapon
The Nobel legacy
was the ogival locking screw. This idea was revolutionary
for its time, and solved the problem of achieving effective
sealing of the rear part of the gun. It was also at this time that
Bofors produced the first artillery piece in which the recoil
was fully absorbed by the carriage.
Many of the ideas that saw the light of day during the
Silfversparre-Danielsson epoch undoubtedly bear the hallmark
of Alfred Nobel. It was, for example, Nobel’s idea that
a gunpowder mill should be established in association with
the artillery industry. This allowed the artillery designer and
the gunpowder manufacturer to develop complete systems
based on metallurgical, engineering and chemical expertise.
The results of this collaboration soon became apparent.
Focus on weaponry – and innovation
All weapons manufacture involves the interplay between
an action and a reaction. For Bofors, this meant the battle
between artillery and armored plate. In 1911, the company
won a contract to deliver both arms and armor for
the Swedish F-boats (a class of submarines). This created
a dilemma, however, for test-firing Bofors artillery against
Bofors armor could never be fully successful. Either the
projectile was so effective that it ruptured the armor, or the
armor was so strong that it resisted the projectile. Both scenarios
occurred and it was not long before Bofors concentrated
on the development of weapons alone.
World War I opened up many significant new markets
for Bofors, only to trigger a crisis once peace came and
demand for new weaponry dried up. But the company was
undeterred. The development of aerial warfare stimulated
the design of new artillery systems that could meet the
threat from the air. Effective battles against armored vehicles
required armor-piercing shells. And warfare was becoming
ever more mobile, which made it necessary to motorize the
artillery pieces themselves. The expertise of the designers,
metallurgists and other specialists was tested to its limits.
The Bofors ® 40 mm gun
Between the world wars, the driving force for Bofors’ revolutionary
designs was Victor Hammar, who, together with
Emanuel Jansson, created the Bofors ® 40mm mobile antiaircraft
gun – the first automatic artillery piece with continuous
loading. The Bofors ® 40mm gun was one of the most
remarkable pieces in the history of weaponry, an archetype
comparable to the Mauser ® rifle, the Colt ® revolver and the
Browning ® machine-gun. The result of 30,000 hours of
design work, it could fire up to 150 rounds per minute, an
incredible rate at that time, and became one of the weapons
that helped determined the outcome of World War II.
The Bofors ® gun was highly mobile. It could be transported
by road at high speed and maneuvered readily in rougher
terrain. The time from transport to firing was shorter than
that of any other piece, as was the time for the exchange
of overheated barrels. The ammunition was also superior
in terms of its effect and reliability. Hundreds of thousands
of the Bofors ® 40 mm gun were manufactured. When the
Bofors factory itself could not meet demand, the gun was
manufactured under license in the purchasing country
– mainly the United States and Great Britain.
The Bofors ® 40 mm gun delivered invaluable service to the
Allied forces in the Mediterranean, in France, and during
fiercely waged battles in the Pacific, where its task was
to provide cover for American naval and invasion forces.
One of its most significant applications was in Britain, where
it played a major role in the successful defense against
German air raids during the Blitz. These night-time aerial
attacks took place over a period of nearly two months, with
several hundred bombers each night dropping their loads
onto London. The Bofors ® gun was also very successful
against ground targets, being praised during the invasion of
Normandy for its rapid fire and accuracy.
In the decades after the World War II, Bofors progressed
from manufacturing artillery pieces to making integrated
defense systems. Transistorization and laser technology
facilitated the development of breakthrough target-seeking
missiles that offered ever greater flexibility and accuracy to
both naval and field artillery. Key innovations included the
Bofors ® turretless tank, a remote-controlled system for
ammunition loading in naval guns, and the Super Lepus ®
– an illumination flare which made it possible for fighter pilots
to discover, identify and attack a target at night as easily as
if it were daylight.
The Bofors scandal and divestment
by Nobel Industries
In 1986, Bofors entered into a contract to provide $1.3 billion
worth of 155 mm howitzers to India. Scandal surrounded
this deal, however. Sweden’s Prime Minister, Olof Palme,
had personally lobbied Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
on behalf of Bofors, and when news leaked out of questionable
payments to Indian middlemen to cement the
agreement, Gandhi’s integrity became suspect. Bofors
admitted to making payments of $60 million to unspecified
agents, but the company claimed this money was
“windup costs” paid to its own Indian representatives.
Suspicions that Gandhi, or people close to him, had profited
from the Bofors contract dogged him in his re-election
bid, which he lost in 1989. The managing director of
Bofors, Martin Ardbo, also lost his job in connection with the
Indian contract and allegations that Bofors was involved in
smuggling arms to Iran. In 1991, three years prior to joining
forces with Akzo, Nobel Industries divested Bofors. Today,
the company forms part of BAE Systems. Its core competencies
include intelligent munitions, artillery systems,
naval gun mounts, combat vehicle weapon stations and
mine-clearing systems.
The Björkborn Foundation
AkzoNobel still plays a role today in keeping the memory
of Alfred Nobel alive. When Nobel Industries sold Bofors in
1991, the management wanted to protect the historic values
of the company. The director’s manor, where Alfred Nobel
lived, and its park in Karlskoga were isolated and placed
in a protected foundation called the Björkborn Foundation.
As one of the founding companies, Akzo Nobel AB, the
Swedish legal entity of AkzoNobel, is still represented on
the Foundation’s board and contributes to the running of the
museum at Björkborn Manor. Visitors to Björkborn can go
back in time and imagine what it was like when Alfred Nobel
spent his summers there. They can also see the laboratory
where Nobel continued conducting experiments until his
death in 1896.

Some of the workers at Bofors at the time
Alfred Nobel acquired the company. Nobel’s
huge investment in the Swedish arms industry
was of great importance to the local population
A Bofors ® field gun in action in 1940
141

142
Oscar Carlson (1844–1916), the founder of
Stockholms Superfosfat and the creator of
Sweden’s domestic chemicals industry

The Nobel legacy
Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks AB was founded in 1871 by Oscar
Carlson, who was managing director from that year until 1916. The company
was set up using capital from, among others, Lars Johan Hierta
– the Swedish liberal publicist, publisher and politician who founded
the newspaper Aftonbladet. Created, as its name suggests, to produce
the fertilizer Superphosphate, Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks was
to become not only a major industrial player in its own right, but also
the precursor of many important companies currently in AkzoNobel’s
Swedish arm.
143
Overview
A growing population – and a growing need for food
A dominating force
Nitrate fertilizers and saltpeter
Years of growth and the end of superphosphate production
Svedopren – Sweden’s own synthetic rubber
A new direction: petrochemicals
From Fosfatbolaget through KemaNobel to Nobel Industries
Focus on paint, adhesives and chemicals

144
Stockholms Superfosfat:
A chemical precursor of many Nobel businesses
The Nobel legacy
A growing population – and a growing need for food
Oscar Carlson’s new enterprise was a direct response to
societal developments of his day. The industrial revolution
had brought with it a major expansion of Sweden’s
population, triggering the need for more effective agri-
culture and thus for artificial fertilizers. Superphosphate
was an important early artificial fertilizer. It also found
application in the manufacture of the heads of safety
matches – another important innovation of the age.
Carlson purchased a site at Gäddviken in Nacka (Stockholm)
and oversaw the construction of a factory for the manufacture
of superphosphate and sulfuric acid. The first
factory, which employed 40 people, was a simple wooden
building which was built on the site of a pitch distillery.
It was destroyed by fire in 1889, to be replaced by a
new brick factory. Carlson’s superphosphate factory was
the first of its kind in Sweden. The company continued to
expand, and new factory premises for the manufacture
of chlorates, calcium carbide (a source of acetylene,
for lighting) and nitrogen lime (another artificial fertilizer)
were constructed, with associated hydroelectric power
stations at several locations, including Månsbo (close to
Avesta) in the 1890s and Trollhättan, and Ljungaverk in the
Medelpad region in 1910–1912.
A dominating force
The official opening of the power station and chemical factories
at the Ljunga plant on September 24, 1912, marked the
start of an important epoch, not only for the plant and its surrounding
area, but also for the Swedish chemical industry as
a whole. With its factories, research laboratories, development
laboratories, and central library, the superphosphate
company was to become famous for chemists and industrial
engineers in Sweden and abroad. A property census
from 1930 gives an impression of what a dominating force
Stockholms Superfosfat was during this era. In addition
to the actual factory and its offices on the Ljungaverk site,
the census lists a manager’s residence, eight supervisors’
houses, two foremen’s houses, 55 workers’ houses, a clinic,
a workers’ canteen, a washing and baking house, a milk
store, a theater, a police office, a morgue, and a pigsty.
Nitrate fertilizers and saltpeter
The Stockholms Superfosfat Library
of Science and Technology
Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks possessed a significant library of science and technology,
housed initially at its Månsbo plant and transferred to Ljungaverk in 1925 when
the Månsbo plant was sold (two railway trucks were required to remove all the volumes to
Ljungaverk). The library continued to expand, and a large patents section was added.
In the 1960s, it was Sweden’s largest private library of technical literature, including more
It was not only phosphorus that Swedish soils needed.
Nitrogen was also in demand. Two Norwegians, Birkeland
and Eyde, were first to develop a commercial process for
extracting and binding nitrogen from the air. They showed
that nitrogen oxides are formed when air is led between
the electrodes of an electric arc. Nitric acid is formed when
nitrogen oxides are absorbed in water. The nitric acid then
constitutes the starting point for the manufacture of several
nitrogenous fertilizers, known as nitrate fertilizers. Nitric
acid was manufactured by the Norwegian method at the
Ljungaverk site from 1913 onwards.
Another method of using nitrogen from the air is to pass it
over carbide at high temperature. The product obtained is
known as nitrogen lime, which is also a nitrogenous fertilizer.
The manufacture of carbide and nitrogen lime began when
the factory in Ljungaverk was built.
A more efficient process for manufacturing nitric acid soon
became available. Fritz Haber, later awarded the Nobel Prize
in 1918, discovered a method of producing ammonia from
nitrogen in the air and hydrogen, using high pressure and
a catalyst. The method was improved by various scientists,
and in 1928 the company purchased the right to use this
method and introduced it at Ljungaverk.
Another major product from Ljungaverk was Ljunga Saltpeter,
which is a mixture of ammonium nitrate and ground limestone.
Ljunga Saltpeter became a recognized product for
Sweden’s farmers – even today the word “Ljunga” remains
for many of them a synonym for artificial fertilizer.
Years of growth and the end of
superphosphate production
Demand for products from Stockholms Superfosfat
Fabriks AB grew during World War I due to the collapse
of kerosene and saltpeter imports. The Swedish government
was encouraging industry to grow, the cost of capital
was low, and credit was readily available from the banks.
Under the management of Birger Carlson, who took over as
general manager in 1917 following the death of Oscar
Carlson, Stockholms Superfosfat embarked upon a very
expansive growth strategy. This involved, among other
steps, the establishment of a factory for metallic natrium in
Porjus – in the far north of Sweden – and the acquisition of
a carbide and lime nitrogen plant in Alby, not far from
Stockholm. Among the more notable events of this
period was the acquisition of the majority of the shares
in Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget. On November 13, 1918
– two days after the Armistice brought World War I to an
end – a letter arrived at the head office of Nitroglycerin
Aktiebolaget stating that, “as you are probably aware, the
than 10,000 bound volumes and approximately 20,000 periodicals of various types.
Today, only a small portion remains, but even so, it is still one of the largest private technical
libraries in Sweden. The shelves today retain many of the volumes that were moved to
Ljungaverk from Månsbo and consist mainly of German literature from around the turn of
the 20th century, bound in beautiful leather and graced by the exclusive Månsbo ex libris.

Stockholms Superfosfat:
A chemical precursor of many Nobel businesses
The Nobel legacy
undersigned company has acquired the majority of the shares
in Nitroglycerin AB.” Rumors to this effect had in fact been circulating
as early as December 1917. At the time, Stockholms
Superfosfat officially denied these claims, but they were probably
already a major shareholder and continued to purchase
shares. On November 28, 1918, an extraordinary shareholders’
meeting took place at the request of Stockholms
Superfosfat Fabriks AB and a new board was appointed for
Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget.
However, as a direct consequence of the resumption of
imports after the war, the company experienced an
acute economic crisis which necessitated a restructuring of
operations. Manufacture of superphosphate was stopped
in 1929, although the company retained its name – as well as
its ability to create alternative products.
Svedopren – Sweden’s own synthetic rubber
The trade barriers to which Sweden, as a neutral power,
was subject during World War II caused shortages of many
goods. One of these was natural rubber. DuPont in the
United States had published a method for the production of
synthetic rubber, with the scientific name polychloroprene.
This came to be popularly known as Neoprene. Scientists in
the Soviet Union, meanwhile, were working on an equivalent
product, known as Sovpren.
The industrial committee set up by the Swedish government
had the task of ensuring Sweden’s supply of industrial
products during the war. The committee consulted
Uppsala University, where 1926 Nobel Prize winner Theodor
(“The”) Svedberg was professor of physical chemistry.
He was charged with the task of developing a process
for the manufacture of a synthetic rubber which used
Swedish raw materials. Laboratory experiments were conducted
at the department, which led to manufacture on a
pilot scale. Once the pilot studies were complete, it was
the turn of Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks AB to step in.
Acetylene from carbide was one of the key ingredients,
and by midsummer in 1944 the manufacture of Svedopren
was ready to start at Ljungaverk.
The manufacture of melamine and carbamide-based
plastics also commenced during the 1940s. These products
were used to make laminated products and plywood
glue. Production of basic plastics (PVC) based on calcium
carbide began in 1945, and was to continue until 1988.
In the 1950s, the company went on to develop the synthetic
fiber polyacrylic nitrile, which was marketed for a number
of years under the name Tacryl. Other important products
of the second half of the 20th century included chlorate
(1960), phenol and urea resins, fatty amines, and Expancel ®
(a foam polymer, launched in 1980). The production of
fertilizers was discontinued in 1972.
A new direction: petrochemicals
During the 1950s, the Wallenberg industrial empire, through
its company Stora Kopparberg, acquired a significant
owner-interest in Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks AB. This
led to a radical restructuring of production. The manufacture
of nitrogen lime was terminated in 1963, and the
company’s focus during the 1960s was directed to
petroleum as a raw material. The company became one
of the major stakeholders in the petrochemicals complex
which was built up around Stenungsund. Net sales grew
during the 1960s and 1970s by approximately 20 percent
year on year, with the number of employees growing from
around 2,000 to more than 7,000 during the same period.
From Fosfatbolaget through KemaNobel to
Nobel Industries
The company grew through a series of acquisitions in the
post-war era, including those of Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik
(1947), Casco (1964), Stockholms Benmjölsfabrik (1966),
Barnängen (1970) and Nitro Nobel (1977) and Nordsjö (1982).
The name of the company was changed in 1964 to
Fosfatbolaget AB, and again in 1970 to KemaNord AB.
Following the complete acquisition of Nitro Nobel in
1977, the company’s name was changed again, in 1978,
to KemaNobel.
The crisis in the petrochemicals market in the late 1970s
and early 1980s, however, led to a significant drop in profits
and a decrease in the stock market value of KemaNobel.
The Wallenberg empire sold its shares in KemaNobel
to financier Erik Penser in the autumn of 1984, and
Penser absorbed the company into the newly formed
Nobel Industries AB, which was created in 1984 through
the acquisition of KemaNobel by what was at the
time Bofors AB. KemaNobel had about 7,200 employees
at takeover and manufactured, among other operations,
PVC plastic and bleaching agents (KemaNobel itself),
civil explosives (Nitro Nobel), glue and paint (Casco,
Nordsjö), consumer goods (Barnängen, Sterisol, and other
companies) and specialty chemicals (KenoGard).
Erik Penser had become principal owner of AB Bofors and
KemaNobel AB using complex and creative shareholder
constructions. These were financed by high-risk loans and
were centered on the holding company Yggdrasil AB, with
the investment companies Carnegie and Asken acting as
conduits. Nobel Industries expanded in subsequent years
through the acquisition of companies such as Eka Nobel
AB in 1986, the Danish paint and coatings group Sadolin
& Holmblad A/S in 1987, Berol Kemi AB in 1988, and the
British paint company Crown Berger Ltd. in 1990.
Focus on paint, adhesives and chemicals
Nitro Nobel AB, which had been a part of the original
KemaNobel, was sold in 1986. Following the sale of Bofors
AB in 1991 and the sale of the consumer goods division
Nobel Consumer Goods AB in 1992, the main products of
Nobel Industries became paint, adhesives and chemicals for
use in the cellulose and paper industry.
Erik Penser lost control of Nobel Industries during the financial
crisis of the early 1990s, and the company became
– somewhat controversially – the property of Nordbanken.
Restructuring subsequently led to ownership being transferred
to the state-owned Securum bank, which sold the
shares in 1994 to Akzo. The company name was changed to
Akzo Nobel N.V. after the merging of Nobel’s operations with
those of Akzo. During its final year of independence, Nobel
Industries employed approximately 20,000 people and its
net sales amounted to approximately SEK 23 billion.
145

146
Stockholms Superfosfat’s site at Månsbo,
Sweden, in 1895

Fosfatbolaget produced melamine under
the brand name Mepal. One of the more highprofile
uses of Mepal was for Scandinavian
Airlines’ in-flight dinner service
147

148
Rudolf Lilljeqvist (1855–1930), a civil engineer
who became a pioneer of electrochemistry

The Nobel legacy
Eka – or Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget, to give the company its original
name – was the brainchild of the civil engineer Rudolf Lilljeqvist. Having
worked abroad as a bridge constructor in London and Paris, Lilljeqvist
returned to his native Sweden in his forties with the aim of setting up a
profitable company which would afford him an independent position in
life. It may seem strange to reflect that a pioneering company in electrochemistry
should have been created by a civil engineer, but Rudolf
Lilljeqvist was a visionary. A century before the successful completion of
the Channel Tunnel linking England and France, he proposed building an
“underwater bridge” between Sweden and Denmark at a cost of SEK 12
million. The idea was turned down; Lilljeqvist simply reacted by redirecting
his attention to a different entrepreneurial field, that of electrochemistry.
149
Overview
From experimentation to venture capital
Teething troubles
Moving to Bohus
Innovation in the 1970s
The environmental impact of chlorine
Hydrogen peroxide: a substitute for chlorine in the bleaching process
Increasing market orientation
New bleaching technologies: Lignox ® and ECF
Compozil ® – A revolutionary paper chemicals system
Compozil ® succeeds in the marketplace
Eka today

150
Eka:
A world leader in electrochemistry
The Nobel legacy
Eka’s first female trainee
“Now there has been a female trainee in the workshop. As far as
we know, this is the first time a woman dressed in overalls has
worked in our electric workshop. We asked her what it felt like to
be the only woman among so many male colleagues. She felt that
it had worked very well. No complication whatsoever had occurred
– and how could it, as they were all gentlemen, she commented.”
EKA staff magazine, 1965
From experimentation to
venture capital
At the end of the 19th century, Sweden
was importing large quantities of chloride
of lime, which was used for bleaching and
disinfection. Lilljeqvist decided to manufacture
the product in Sweden. He acquired an
option on the purchase of a waterfall near
Bengtsfors, in the west of Sweden, to generate
hydro-power for a chlor-alkali plant,
and – in collaboration with G.E. Cassell,
an assistant lecturer in Electrochemistry
at Stockholm University – embarked on a
series of experiments into the production
of chloride of lime. Cassell issued a certificate
to the effect that the experiments,
conducted in a Stockholm basement, had
been satisfactory – and Lilljeqvist went off
in search of the SEK 300,000 that he calculated
was necessary to set up an electrochemical
company.
Lilljeqvist was advised to contact the entrepreneurial
inventor-industrialist Alfred Nobel
for funding. Nobel was greatly impressed by
his new acquaintance (whom he was later to
nominate as co-executor of his will) and provided
SEK 100,000 for the venture, on the
proviso that the remainder be found elsewhere.
The money was duly raised and on
August 9, 1895, the Articles of Association
for Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget were approved
by the Swedish government.
Teething troubles
Enlisting the British engineer William Glover
to provide chemical engineering expertise,
Lilljeqvist set up a factory with 24 electrolysis
vessels – which promptly exploded on
being commissioned. “In an inexplicable and
so far unfathomed way,” wrote the Board
of Directors in their annual report for 1897,
“ignition took place of the mixture of chlorine
gas and hydrogen gas which existed in the
cells and the pipes, with the result that the
lids covering the anode chambers as well
as live metal hoops and straps were more
or less destroyed. This damage is not, however,
of any major importance. On the other
hand, all the glazed clay pipes, which form
the outer supply mains to the chlorine chambers,
were shattered.” Undeterred, Lilljeqvist
pressed on. Despite many teething troubles,
the company was by 1899 able to produce
150 tons of lye and 110 tons of chloride of
lime. The products attracted positive attention
in view of their unusually high levels
of purity.
Dividends were first paid to shareholders
in 1902. The company branched out
into the production of potassium hydroxide
and caustic soda (1905) and soft soap
(1910) – although the latter product under-
cut the soap manufacturers who were
Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget’s customers,
forcing the company to abandon production.
Moving to Bohus
Because of high freight and reloading
costs and the poor energy supply at the
Bengtsfors plant, operations were closed
in 1924. A new company trading under the
same name, Elektrokemiska Aktiebolaget
(abbreviated as EKA) – commenced operations
on a site at Bohus, 17 km north of
Gothenburg, which it took over from the
recently bankrupt Kvävebolaget. Despite
the new Bohus plant, profits remained slim
and the company still had a long way to go
before it generated significant stable returns.
Dividend payments were suspended during
this phase of consolidation, recommencing
only in 1934. (Rudolf Lilljeqvist, however, did
spend his latter years in retirement abroad,
thus achieving his original aim of an independent
existence. Tragically, he disappeared
during a visit to the power station at
Bengtsfors in 1930. It was assumed he had
fallen and drowned when making observations
along the rapidly flowing stream.)

The melting of chemically pure alkali at
Bengtsfors at the beginning of the 20th century

152
Eka:
A world leader in electrochemistry
The Nobel legacy
EKA expanded its product range during the 1930s to
include hydrogen peroxide (1935), liquid chlorine (1936),
sodium perborate (1936), metasilicate (1937) and carbon
disulphide (1939). Following World War II – when large
quantities of chloride of lime were produced as an emergency
measure for decontaminating mustard gas in the
event of a state of war – a new hydrogen peroxide plant
was built (in 1948), a new ammonia plant (in 1956) and a
new headquarters (in 1960).
Innovation in the 1970s
By 1972, the company was turning over SEK 80 million a
year. This was to rise to more than SEK 5 billion by 1994
– and was almost entirely attributable to chlor-alkali production.
In the intervening years, the pulp and paper industry
had expanded greatly, generating huge demand for chlorine
and lye, whilst increased demand for machine washing
agents created a growing market for another of the company’s
products, metasilicates. And a new President,
J.G. Montgomery, had revitalized a company which
had brought few innovations to market in recent times.
Montgomery made staff cuts, brought in new, young engineers,
and unleashed an innovation drive based on identifying
and helping to solve customer’s problems. “Especially
the new engineers in white coats caused irritation, and we
involved ourselves with an information campaign aimed at
informing the staff that the engineers were needed in order
for us to have an opportunity to develop,” Montgomery later
commented. “But the campaign went into the waste paper
basket, as the engineers became accepted before the information
material was ready.”
The environmental impact of chlorine
Chlorine, meanwhile, was becoming a problem for the
company because of its negative environmental impact –
the poisonous heavy metal mercury was being used in
chlorine manufacture. Large discharges of mercury into the
river Göta Älv were uncovered in the 1960s, and even the
building of a new “mercury-proof” factory in 1970 failed to
alleviate the problem. Under intense pressure from local residents,
the Water Board and the Swedish National Franchise
Board for Environmental Protection, EKA was forced to
undertake an intensive program of environmental measures
from 1972 to 1976. The company needed to supple-
ment chlorine manufacture with new, less environmentally
harmful products.
Hydrogen peroxide: a substitute for chlorine in
the bleaching process
In the early days of pulp manufacture, the bleaching agent
commonly used was chlorine. Concerns about the environmental
impact of chlorine bleach, however, led to the search
for less environmentally harmful substitutes, culminating in
the complete elimination of chlorine for pulp bleaching in
Sweden by 1994.
EKA was fortunate to already have an environmentally sound
alternative bleaching agent in the form of hydrogen peroxide.
When the company started production of hydrogen
peroxide by electrolysis in the mid-1930s, it was primarily to
supply the Swedish textile industry with a bleaching agent.
During World War II, the Swedish Defense Forces started to
take an interest in hydrogen peroxide, which was used at
the time as a propellant for torpedoes. Civil applications for
the compound also increased, and the period up to 1962
saw the construction of four new factories, all based on the
electrolytic method. Although it invested in plant, EKA did
not, however, have a proprietary manufacturing process for
hydrogen peroxide, but licensed it in instead.
Increasing market orientation
In the early 1970s, the pulp industry started to take an
interest in hydrogen peroxide as an environmentally less
harmful bleaching agent. During this same period, EKA
changed from being a company with a production-oriented
focus to one with a market-oriented focus. A drive began
to market hydrogen peroxide for the bleaching of mechanical
pulps. At the beginning of the 1980s, hydrogen peroxide
also started being used for bleaching chemical pulp.
Demand for the product grew, as ever stricter regulations
governing environmentally hazardous emissions paved the
way for a significant expansion of this less harmful alternative
to chlorine.
At the same time, EKA had acquired the expertise necessary
to support its pulp mill customers and make an
active contribution in the form of tests and trial runs in
their mills. The company invested heavily in the production
of hydrogen peroxide and eventually developed its own
manufacturing process.
New bleaching technologies: Lignox ® and ECF
To improve the bleaching process for chemical pulp and
reduce its environmental impact, later the company developed,
in partnership with Aspa Mill, a new bleaching technology.
Known as the Lignox ® method, the technology, based
on the use of hydrogen peroxide and chelating agents, made
it possible to eliminate emissions of chlorine pollutants from
the bleaching process – a significant breakthrough. Moreover,
it soon became evident that bleaching with an elemental chlorine-free
process, ECF, using chlorine dioxide, was the best
practice in terms of quality, cost and environmental considerations.
This process formed the basis for the company’s
expansion during the 1990s. Today, nearly all pulp mills in the
world use oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide
and have abandoned bleaching with chlorine gas. The result
is environmentally compatible pulps with high brightness and
no toxic chlorinated pollutants in the wastewater.
The largest use of hydrogen peroxide today is in the bleaching
of mechanical and chemical pulp and recycled paper. It is also
used in chlorine dioxide generation, for surface treatment in
the metal industry, for cleaning of wastewater, for disinfection,
and in textile bleaching.
Compozil ® – A revolutionary paper
chemicals system
Another breakthrough product for the company was
Compozil ® . Throughout the 1970s, Eka carried out extensive
R&D work in very diverse fields. An R&D team conducted
research into silica on the hypothesis that it might act as a
strengthener in some situations. The team discovered that
the amount of plastic that has to be added to wallpaper can
be reduced if a small quantity of silica is also added. Other
laboratory tests involving silica were made on textiles, car
mats and various types of paper.
The year 1979 brought with it two events of note. One was
a simplification of the company name from Elektrokemiska
Aktiebolaget to Eka AB, making use of what had previously
been the abbreviation of the company’s name. The other
was a breakthrough of immense significance, such that it
laid the foundations for the creation of a paper chemicals
division within the company. Eka’s researchers discovered
that the combination of cation starch and silicon produced
surface chemical effects that resulted in a fixed bonding of
paper fibers and that these fibers could therefore be used

Workers employed by EKA at Bohus in 1928. Some came from Kväveindustri,
while others relocated with the company from Bengtsfors

154
Eka:
A world leader in electrochemistry
The Nobel legacy
to bond fillers such as chalk and clay. A revolutionary new
paper chemicals system had been created. It was given
the name Compozil ® .
Titanium dioxide was commonly used as a filler in the production
of paper fiber. However, titanium dioxide leached
into the wastewater system, creating pollution. When Eka
experts added Compozil ® to the mix, it ensured excellent
adhesion, and the levels of titanium dioxide in the wastewater
fell substantially.
The action of Compozil ® also increased retention, meaning
that when fibers and filler were bound together, they stayed
in the paper on the paper-making machine, rather than being
drained away with the water when that was removed. This
cut wastage of both paper fibers and filler. At the same time,
the new product also improved the dewatering process,
reducing the energy required to dry the paper. The use of
Compozil ® improved the cost-effectiveness of production,
while at the same time delivering stronger paper.
Compozil ® succeeds in the marketplace
Production of Compozil ® started in 1980, but the market
initially viewed Eka’s innovation with some skepticism. It was
not until 1989 that the new product achieved a real breakthrough
on the European market, with success in the U.S.
market coming three years later.
The launch of Compozil ® also required the provision of sophisticated
technical support on the part of Eka, because the use
of the product had to be customized to suit widely differing
paper machines. Compozil ® ’s original strength was in the area
of wood-free paper and cardboard grades based on chemical
pulp. Over time, however, the Compozil ® system was further
developed for use with wood-containing and recycled fiberbased
paper products.
By 1994, the Compozil ® system was being used at 168
mills worldwide, which between them produced around
12 million tons of paper a year. Of these, 61 percent was
fine paper, 19 percent cardboard and 15 percent liner.
Eka was acquired by Nobel Industries in 1986, which
was in turn acquired by Akzo in 1994. Eka thus became a
business unit of Akzo Nobel, and Compozil ® gained the
opportunity to enter many more new markets via its new
parent company.
Eka today
Eka Chemicals today is AkzoNobel’s Pulp & Paper
Chemicals business unit. It is the world’s leading producer
of bleaching chemicals used in the manufacture of paper
pulp. Eka also supplies process chemicals and performance
chemicals that improve the properties of paper, as
well as systems and integrated services for the pulp and
paper industry, in all pulp- and paper-making regions in
the world. Besides pulp and paper activities, Eka also produces
specialty chemicals used in areas such as water
treatment, electronics and separation products for the
pharmaceutical industry.

EKA’s electrolysis hall at Bohus for the
production of hydrogen peroxide in the 1950s
155

156
Manual preparation of pigments for making into paint. The mechanization
of such processes in the 19th century facilitated far-reaching changes in
many areas of industrial paint manufacture

The Nobel legacy
“Take two lots of Brazilian spoon, half a lot of white lead and half
a lot of alum. Mix these together, place enough wood on top for the
material to become hidden, and allow to stand out for three days.
Mix and stir three or four times a day, then sew a dress from it and add a
glazing mixture…”
157
Overview
Domestic cultivation of dyestuff plants
The switch to oil seed and the move into paints
G.A. Sadolin: An artist and entrepreneur
Independent production of raw materials
Quick-drying paints and modern industrialization
Post-war expansion
The BT Kemi scandal
Incorporation into Akzo Nobel

158
Sadolin:
The union of paint and enamel
The Nobel legacy
This recipe for textile-dye manufacture dates from the
middle of the 17th century. Such methods were still in
use during the Rococo period more than 100 years later,
in 1777, the Danish dyer Jacob Holmblad was granted
Royal Privilege and built a new dye house on Sølvgade
in Copenhagen. Before setting up on his own, Jacob had
been head of the dye works at the military clothing factory
known as “Guldhuset.” In those days, the majority of
the population still wore undyed clothes in grayish tones.
For those whose status justified colored garments, dyes
were extracted from madder and woad, stinging nettle,
cat’s claw, equisetum, ox eye, plumeless sawwort, birch
leaf and berberis bark, along with certain animal-based
products. Simple mineral products and acids were
also used, especially urine. The dying process used at that
time was essentially the same as during the Middle Ages.
Domestic cultivation of dyestuff plants
Although domestic cultivation of madder and woad (the
starting materials for madder red and indigo blue dyes,
respectively) had not been successful in Denmark, Jacob
Holmblad saw it as the key to developing his dyeing business.
Assisted by his son Lauritz, he therefore imported
mother plants and began to cultivate madder and woad.
A drying house and a horse mill were also constructed for
grinding. By the time of Jacob’s death in 1806, the Holmblad
company was producing 3,000 pounds of madder and
150 pounds of woad annually. In a single year, they had
planted no fewer than 500,000 plants. The English assault
on Copenhagen in 1807 disrupted this production of
dyestuff plants and caused substantial losses to the
Holmblad company but, nonetheless, cultivation continued
for several years thereafter.
This marked the beginning of industrialized dyestuff manufacture
in Denmark. The production of paints, however,
was still very much the business of individual painters, who
mixed their own colors on a flagstone or, when available,
in a funnel-shaped hand mill. The range of pigments for
oil-ground colors was severely limited, comprising chiefly
white lead, red lead, cinnabar, French blue, and natural
earthen colors such as red and yellow ochre and chalk.
Plant-based pigments were also used to achieve certain
colors. Painters, moreover, produced their own varnish and
siccative (drying agent) by cooking linseed oil together with
red lead and brownstone. This process of cottage manu-
facture was to be made redundant by the industrialization
of paint manufacture, which became firmly established by
the middle of the 19th century.
The switch to oil seed and the move into paints
Despite initial successes, a combination of factors eventually
rendered the cultivation of dyestuff plants in Denmark economically
unviable. Lauritz Holmblad therefore immersed
himself in the growing and milling of oil seed, which became
the basis for a new range of oil-based colors launched in
1819. Denmark’s first real paint factory had been established.
Although initially skeptical, Danish painters found
the factory-produced colors better than the results of their
own unsophisticated methods, and the Holmblad company
flourished. A chalk-boiling factory was constructed in 1834
and a varnish-boiling factory in 1836 as the company’s
product range expanded. In 1861, P.L. Holmblad, the last of
the Holmblad dynasty, built Denmark’s first enamel manufacturing
plant. Manufacture of all product lines was to be
consolidated in Holmbladsgade, Copenhagen, approximately
40 years later.
G.A. Sadolin: An artist and entrepreneur
Meanwhile in 1907, the young Gunnar A. Sadolin founded
Sadolins Farver, a company specializing in artists’ paints and
printing inks. Originally a painter, Sadolin was interested in the
industrial manufacture of improved colors for artists. Inspired
by the Danish industrial leader Alexander Foss – who campaigned
for Denmark’s industry to compete against foreign
companies and make itself independent of foreign imports
and expertise – Gunnar and his brother, Knud Sadolin,
merged their new company with the Holmblad company in
1912 and set in motion a process of large-scale renewal of
what was henceforth known as Sadolin & Holmblad. This
union of Denmark’s paint and enamel industries was to
prove a source of enormous strength in years to come.
Independent production of raw materials
Sadolin & Holmblad broke away from the old Holmblad
traditions early on so that they could produce raw materials
and semi-finished products themselves. This strategy
proved highly significant. As early as 1923, the company
undertook fabrication, not only of mineral colors, but also of
synthetically produced organic pigments or color lacquers
for the company’s steadily increasing production of colored
printing inks. When this branch of the company’s activity
– after numerous expansions – split off as its own company
(“Kemisk Værk Koge A/S”) in 1935, Scandinavia got its first
true coloring agent factory – in the face of much criticism
from observers who thought it impossible to establish such
an industry in direct competition with the raw materials
industry of the large industrial countries of the day.
Quick-drying paints and modern industrialization
The company’s sales increased steadily despite World War I
and its difficult aftermath, and new products were added
to the Sadolin & Holmblad range: rust protection coatings,
marine paint, finished oil paints, precipitated mineral colors
and colored enamel, nitrocellulose enamel and dry paint.
Increasing industrialization placed very strenuous and specialized
demands on the products made by a number of
industries at the time. It was necessary, for example, to have
many entirely new types of enamel that could dry rapidly
enough for enameling to take place without creating a bottleneck
during the production cycle. Indeed, industrial massproduction
would have been impossible without modern
quick-drying industrial paints. Sadolin & Holmblad set up a
central research laboratory in 1931 and made various acquisitions
during the ensuing decade. The significant growth of
the 1930s was interrupted, however, by the advent of World
War II, which almost put a stop to the company’s exports.
Post-war expansion
Soon after the end of the war, however, Sadolin &
Holmblad’s export business was reactivated, and its
staff traveled all over the world. The company expanded
through the inauguration of its first production plant in
Stockholm, Sweden, in 1946; operations were also set up
in Norway and Switzerland in the same year. Explosive
growth took place both geographically and in areas of
specialization. An international division was established in
1956, and manufacturing rocketed – especially in France,
Finland, Turkey, and Cyprus. Around this time, Sadolin &
Holmblad merged with Lars Foss Kemi A/S in Fredensborg
and entered the markets in the East, United States and
Africa, becoming the world’s second largest exporter of

The Sadolin & Holmblad management team outside the company’s head
office in Holmbladsgade, Copenhagen, during the 1920s
159

160
Sadolin:
The union of paint and enamel
The Nobel legacy
paint. Besides the oil-ground colors, stains and clear
varnishes generally used by painters, the company’s
product portfolio by now included special rust protection
coatings, anti-fouling paints, baking varnishes, car
varnishes, printing inks, newspaper inks, offsetprinting
colors, litho-inks, copperplate inks, insulating
varnishes, ceramic glazes, metal foil enamels, tube
varnishes, yacht varnishes, furniture varnishes, leather
enamels, specialty varnishes for breweries, wallpaper
paints, hat varnishes, toy paints, tin varnishes and oven
varnishes. Growth also occurred via a series of mergers
and acquisitions in the post-war years. A divisional
structure was established in 1974, organizing the Group
companies into divisions according to product
types, with a Group management and with central
development laboratories for both paints and printing
inks in Denmark. The creation of a chain of independent
paint shops trading under the name of Sadolin Farveland ®
followed in 1975.
The BT Kemi Scandal
A dark chapter in the organization’s history occurred the
following year, however, when Sadolin & Holmblad became
known as the ultimate parent of a company responsible
for the worst environmental disaster to have occurred in
Enamel – an ancient technology
with modern applications
the Nordic region in those times: the BT Kemi Scandal.
The heavy polluting BT Kemi factory in Teckomatorp,
Sweden, was decommissioned in 1977 and dismantled
entirely in 1979. It took the Swedish Government a full
25 years, however, to rectify the harmful effects of the
toxic pollutants that had been dumped by the company.
These events led to the establishment of the concept of
“environmental crime,” first in public debate and then
later in legislation. The BT Kemi scandal is viewed as a
“focusing event” which placed the relationship between
environmental pollution, responsibility, legislation and penal
sanctions firmly on the political agenda. Several commissions
of inquiry were established as a consequence, and
in 1981 the Environmental Protection Act was revised
and environmental crimes included in the Swedish penal
code. Sadolin & Holmblad responded to these terrible
events by becoming the first Danish company to establish
a corporate environmental department and a corporate
environmental policy.
Incorporation into Akzo Nobel
Enamel is a vitreous substance (a mixture of silica derived from quartz or sand, soda
or potash and lead, chemically identical to glass) which is applied as a paste and fused
to metal, ceramic or glass objects by baking it at very high temperatures (up to 1,000
degrees Celsius). This technique gives a durable, chemically resistant and glazed finish,
and cannot burn.
Enamel’s resistant properties have made it suitable for use in many industries where great
durability is required. For example, stoves and cooking pots are enamelled, as are cast-iron
bathtubs and industrial processing equipment such as tanks used in chemical reactors.
The finish can be transparent or opaque after firing. Some commercial oil-based paints
that dry with a shiny, glasslike finish are sometimes called enamel.
In 1984, Sadolin ® Wholesale Center (now Nordsjö ® Farver)
was established in cooperation with some of Denmark’s
biggest paint wholesalers. Three years later, the Swedish
conglomerate Nobel Industries acquired Sadolin & Holmblad,
providing the company with an even wider range of source
materials, technologies and markets on which to draw.
Incorporation into the newly formed Akzo Nobel followed in
1994. Sadolin ® lives on today, as strong as ever, as one of
AkzoNobel’s decorative coatings brands.
Blue and green glazed or enameled ceramic and pottery objects are known from Crete as
early as the 13th century B.C. as well as from Egypt, the Middle East and China. Enameling
was later used in Celtic jewelry and Byzantine and medieval art. First made in the 6th century,
“cloisonné” involves first overlaying the object with cell-like metal structures, which
are then filled with different colored enamels and fired. It was used particularly to create
plaques for altarpieces and reliquaries with images of saints. In the 17th century, enamel
portrait miniatures, such as those made by Jean Petitot, became popular at the courts
of Charles I of England and Louis XIV of France. Other famous pieces include the eggs
made of precious metals and decorated with enamel and gemstones created by Peter Carl
Fabergé and his assistants in Russia between 1885 and 1917.

With production facilities situated in the centre of Copenhagen,
Sadolin & Holmblad had to take safety very seriously. A photograph of
the company fire brigade from around the mid-20th century
161

162
Awareness of the Sadolin & Holmblad brand was built through innovative advertising campaigns.
Their cinema commercials − this still is taken from one − predated the age of television commercials
and are still well known in Denmark

Sadolin & Holmblad were always early adopters of new technologies.
This photograph from the mid-20th century shows a production facility
which was highly advanced for the day

164
Founded in 1903, Nordström & Sjögren experienced rapid growth. Taken outside the administrative
office and warehouse at Södra Förstadsgatan, Malmö, in 1922, this photograph features co-founder
Albin Sjögren (in the hat) and Anders Leo (top right), who was years later awarded a medal for
fifty years of service to the firm

The Nobel legacy
Like many companies of its day, the paint company Nordsjö took its
name from its founders – Axel Nordström and Albin Sjögren. The two
friends, who had been envisaging a joint business venture for some time,
set up shop together in Malmö, Sweden, in March 1903. In the splendid,
newly built Valhallahuset on the corner between Gustav Adolfs Torg and
Södra Tullgatan, the store of Nordström & Sjögren presented itself as
Malmö’s most progressive supplier of paints and chemicals.
165
Overview
Ready-mixed paints
Rollable, paintable, sprayable
Color production system
Acquisition by Bayer
The road to Nobel Industries
Incorporation into Akzo Nobel
Environmental awareness

166
Nordsjö:
Technology leader in environmentally-friendly paints
The Nobel legacy
The newly founded business got off to a
brisk start, quickly gaining the favor of
decorators and hardware store owners
alike. The order books were soon bulging,
and by 1907 it became necessary to invest
650 kronor in a horse so as to keep pace
with the stream of deliveries. In the following
year, Nordström & Sjögren relocated
their office and warehouse to Södra
Förstadsgatan 9; the store itself followed
a few years later. A further store was also
opened at Amiralsgatan 15.
Ready-mixed paints
The driver of the company’s growth was
their offering of ready-mixed paints. In
those days, it was still normal for professional
decorators to mix their own paints,
using colored pigments in a base of linseed
oil. Now it became possible to buy
ready-mixed paints from Nordström &
Sjögren. This saved the decorators time
and also guaranteed consistency of color
and quality.
Nordström & Sjögren continued to grow
despite World War I and the economic
crisis of the 1920s, and its network
of branches expanded. Axel Nordström
passed away in 1929 and the company
became a limited company shortly after-
wards, with Albin Sjögren as managing di-
rector. Paint manufacture continued to burgeon,
and in 1933 operations moved to
new premises in the stables and barracks
left vacant after the disbanding of Sweden’s
Hussar Regiment.
Rollable, paintable, sprayable
The year 1937 marked a watershed in
Nordsjö’s development. This was the year in
which the binding agent Bindol ® was introduced,
which allowed paint to be rolled,
painted and sprayed. Nordsjö Bindol ® became
a well-known concept during the 1940s,
and manufacture under license started in
many countries following the World War II.
In 1947, a 40,000 square meter site was
purchased at Sege, just to the northeast
Quick-Drying High Solid (QDHS)
technology
A sales success in recent years has been Nordsjö Tinova ® VX, which is a unique product for
the painting of exterior wood surfaces. Thanks to its patented binding agent – developed by
Akzo Nobel – it does not require any primer.
Nordsjö Tinova ® VX uses water-borne, high-solid technology in place of solvent-borne
technology and has a uniquely high solids content (65 percent). The technology uses
virtually no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and therefore complies with stringent new
VOC regulations introduced by the European Union in 2004. In addition, Tinova ® VX’s high
solids content means that only two coats are required for complete coverage instead of
the usual three. Furthermore, the product’s distinctive small molecular structure allows the
paint to penetrate deeply into the wood, thereby vastly improving its waterproofing properties.
Tinova ® VX combines protection with high durability – important characteristics for the
demanding Scandinavian climate.
of Malmö, and new premises were erected
there for Nordsjö’s ever-growing paint
manufacturing operations. By this stage
the company was being led by the sons
of the founders, Olle Nordström and
Sven Sjögren.
The company employed more than 100
people by the middle of the 20th century,
and major investment was carried out in the
Nordic countries with the establishment of
subsidiaries. As the factory at Sege was “out
in the sticks”, transport was organized every
morning and evening for the employees
between their homes in Värnhemstorget
and their workplace. Up until 1956 – when
a bus was acquired – they traveled on the
back of a lorry.
Color production system
In the early 1960s, Nordsjö introduced
Tintorama ® , a color production system for
paint. It became an immediate success.
A uniform base paint had small shots of
variously colored additional pigment paste
added to it that gave the paint its final color
after mixing. Tintorama ® meant that paint
retailers could dramatically reduce their
amount of stock, which lifted their profits.
Acquisition
by Bayer
Nordsjö underwent major expansion during
the 1960s. A program in Sweden for the
large-scale production of reasonably-priced
housing (Miljonprogrammet) generated
huge demand for paint. The number of
major paint manufacturers in Sweden at
the time was relatively small. The German
chemicals group Bayer AG purchased 80
percent of the shares in Nordsjö in 1969,
acquiring the outstanding shares five years
later. Several other acquisitions took place
under Bayer’s ownership, and manufactur-
ing operations in Sege expanded. Signi-
ficant resources were invested in research
and development, and new laboratories
were built. By the end of the 1960s, the com-
pany employed more than 400 people.

The Valhallahuset in Malmö, where Nordström & Sjögren opened
an exclusive paint shop in March 1903
167

168
The interior of Nordström & Sjögren’s paint shop in Malmö, 1905

From its very beginnings, Nordsjö was successful, not only at manufacturing paint but also at
distributing it to people who wanted it. Every night, consignments of freshly made paint were
delivered by lorry from the Nordsjö factory to divisional offices and dealers throughout Sweden
169

170
Nordsjö:
Technology leader in environmentally-friendly paints
The Nobel legacy
The road to Nobel Industries
Nordsjö changed hands again in 1982: Bayer divested its
complete holding in the company to Casco AB, which was
part of the KemaNobel group. The following years saw
major organizational change, in association with large-scale
restructuring throughout the wider paint sector. The main
player in the sector was Nobel Industries, which had collected
several of Europe’s leading paint manufacturers under
one umbrella.
Incorporation into Akzo Nobel
Nobel, with Erik Penser at its head, was hit by a financial
crisis in 1990, and Nordbanken came in as owner. In 1994
the Dutch conglomerate Akzo purchased all the shares in
Nobel Industries, and Nordsjö subsequently became part of
Akzo Nobel, one of the world’s leading paint companies.
Operations at Sege have continued to expand under
Akzo Nobel’s management. The company was given its current
name, Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings AB, in 1999,
but the paints themselves continue to be sold under the
trademarks Nordsjö ® , Nordsjö ® -Sadolin ® and Cuprinol ® .
Akzo Nobel Industrial Coatings AB is also located in Sege.
This company has its origins in the industrial coatings
sector, which was formed as early as 1957. Today it manufactures
paints and finishes for the wood finishing industry.
Environmental awareness
Care for the environment has always been high on Nordsjö’s
agenda. The installation of a purification plant for process
water and an incinerator for solvents resulted in a 90 percent
reduction in the 1990 levels of emissions of both process
water and organic solvents. In 1996, Nordsjö was the first
European manufacturer to be granted the right to use the
EU Flower, an environmental label, and in 1997 it was the
first Swedish paint manufacturer granted the right to use the
symbol of the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association.
At Sege today, paint is manufactured for professional use,
for the DIY market, and for the wood finishing industry.
The factory is the largest paint production plant in the
Nordic region, producing 57 million liters in 2005, of
which just over 50 percent was exported. Approximately
560 people are employed at Sege, while a further 140
employees work for the wholly-owned subsidiary Nordsjö Idé
& Design stores, which has branches throughout Sweden.

The Nordsjö staff canteen on the Malmö site around 1960

172
Bengt Hedström testing adhesives in Nacka, Stockholm

The Nobel legacy
The foundation of Casco starts with a journey. Lars Amundsen –
a descendant of the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen – spent
some time in Argentina in the 1920s. Here, he encountered casein glue,
a natural adhesive derived from dried milk curds, animal hides and
bones, and lime. Casein is effective at both cold and hot temperatures,
making it suitable for use in many different situations. Moreover, casein’s
drying time can be controlled, making it ideal for gluing large wooden
structures such as beams, floorings and panels, as well as various kinds
of laminate.
173
Overview
The importing of a process – and a name
A popular name with craftsmen and consumers
From solvent-based to water-based adhesives
Combined adhesive and machine systems
Casco moves into paints

174
Casco:
A journey of technical exploration
The Nobel legacy
The importing of a process – and a name
Lars Amundsen was quick to spot the adhesive’s economic
potential. On his way back home to Sweden from
Argentina, he visited the United States in order to deepen
his understanding of how casein might be applied as an
adhesive in the growing Swedish plywood and woodworking
industries. In 1928, with financial support from the
legendary industrialist and financier Marcus Wallenberg
and others, he founded Casco AB in Stockholm. “Casco”
was coined as an abbreviation of “Casein Company of
America”, Casco AB having been granted the rights to produce
casein for the Nordic area. Production commenced
in 1929, and in the same year the Casco logo was born.
(Casco in the United States was acquired by Borden, which
introduced Casco Glue as its first non-food consumer
product in 1932.)
Continuing the trend of introducing technologies into the
Nordic region that had their industrial origins in the United
States, in 1930 Casco purchased the licensing rights for
soy adhesive from the Seattle-based J.F. Laucks company.
Production of many different types of adhesives and
binders followed during the 1930s, with two products being
particularly significant. In 1934, LR-lim was introduced, a
casein/rubber-latex combination for bonding sheet steel
to wood, while 1938 saw the launch of Casco’s first floor
adhesive for linoleum, a product derived from rye flour.
These innovations were followed in 1940 by the development
of Mattcement, an adhesive based on wood resin
dissolved in alcohol, which was similarly deployed for the
gluing of linoleum floors.
In its early years, Casco AB focused on supplying the needs
of the plywood and woodworking industries. Increasingly,
An unusual application for casein
Casco was a small company before World War II. Lars Amundsen was convinced that
war was coming, so before hostilities broke out he bought as much casein as he could
possibly store in Nacka. The casein became worth its weight in gold – and not only as an
adhesive. With rat droppings and other tidbits removed, it was sold at a good mark-up
and used for brushing pastry.
however, the company branched out to also supply professional
craftsmen and consumers. In 1943, Casco launched
RX ® glue, an adhesive for the office and home. The product
had been created by Martin Bjurvald, known by the nickname
“Dr. RX.” Bjurvald had originally developed the
adhesive during World War II as a way of preventing the
fragmentation of window glass. Sold in a characteristic triangular
gray bottle, RX ® glue is still a popular consumer
product in Sweden today.
A popular name with craftsmen and consumers
Casco founded a Norwegian subsidiary, NorCasco, in 1935;
the Danish subsidiary Kemi-Casco followed in 1946. Casco
continued to serve the needs of the woodworking industries,
of craftsmen in the house construction and renovation
sectors, and of home-owners, developing many innovative
new products, such as the weather-resistant Casconol ®
(a phenol resin adhesive for the warm-pressing of plywood,
1947), the resinol resin adhesive Cascosinol ® (also 1947), a
film adhesive for gluing metal to wood (1949) and a latexbased
adhesive for gluing heavy textiles (Textillim ® , 1952). In
1953, Cascol ® wood glue was launched – an adhesive based
on polyvinyl acetate for use in the furniture and woodworking
industries and sold ever since in the same distinctive orange
bottle. Cascol ® remains a market-leading product in many
countries and is still the Casco ® product best known to most
craftsmen and DIY consumers in the Nordic countries.
In 1959, Casco moved into neoprene-based contact ad-
hesives. Derived from synthetic rubbers, these adhesives
were used for gluing flooring and for other materials. This
new development was executed in the United Kingdom in
collaboration with Dunlop.
From solvent-based to water-based adhesives
Three years later, Casco began moving operations from its
home in Nacka, Stockholm, to Kristinehamn in west central
Sweden. The relocation was completed in 1964, and production
continues on the same site to this day. In that same year,
Casco was acquired by Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks AB,
founded in 1871 for the purpose of manufacturing superphosphate
at Gäddviken in Nacka. Stockholms Superfosfat
was to be renamed Fosfatbolaget and later KemaNord. The
change of ownership in no way inhibited Casco’s innovative
drive, and in the following years it either produced or
licensed in hot-melt adhesives, neoprene mastic adhesives,
acrylic dispersion-type prolonged tack adhesives, epoxy
adhesives, cyanoacrylate adhesives, phenol resin glues,
polyurethane adhesives and resorcinol adhesives. The
product technology of water-based products was developed
and applied in various fields.
Combined adhesive and machine systems
Unsurprisingly, considering the travels of Lars Amundsen
that had led to the company’s creation, Casco expanded
considerably in the era following World War II, developing
extensive activities in the Americas and Asia, as well as
in Europe. A Finnish subsidiary, Oy Casco, was founded
in 1970, and this decade also saw major expansion in the
French market. The 1970s also witnessed Casco’s move into
a new technological field: the development of adhesive systems
in combination with the development of machines for
wood gluing. Led by the service technician Ewert Perciwall,
this initiative was implemented in close collaboration with a
number of Casco’s market-leading customers. The com-

The Casco factory in Nacka, Stockholm, in 1950

176
Casco:
A journey of technical exploration
The Nobel legacy
Expancel ® microspheres represent an important and highly
successful Casco innovation. First launched in the early 1980s,
Expancel ® microspheres are small spherical plastic particles consisting
of a polymer shell containing a gas. When the gas inside
the shell is heated, its pressure increases and the thermoplastic
shell softens, resulting in a dramatic increase in the volume of the
microspheres. When fully expanded, the volume of the microspheres
increases by a factor of over 40.
The Expancel ® product range includes both unexpanded and
expanded microspheres. Unexpanded microspheres are used
as blowing agents – i.e. mixed with a base material and then
expanded during the manufacturing process. They are employed,
for instance, to create printing inks which swell up to produce a
three-dimensional effect on wallpaper, to improve bulk and conserve
fibers in paper and paperboard, and to create extremely
light non-woven materials. Expanded microspheres are used to
achieve low weight in plastic products and to reduce the weight
and improve the application characteristics of paint and putty.
Expancel was a Casco Adhesives company until 2006, when it
became part of Akzo Nobel’s pulp and paper chemicals business,
Eka Chemicals.
bination of glue application machinery,
new adhesives and new gluing methods
made it possible to improve wood adhesive
technology in several respects, making for
shorter hardening times, automated adhesive
handling, and exact dosing of adhesive
and hardener – all of which reduced waste
and increased productivity.
In 1978, KemaNord changed its name to
KemaNobel and Ove Mattsson was appointed
Vice President of Casco. Mattsson
was to oversee Casco’s increasing move
into paints and other coatings via a series
of acquisitions in the late 1970s and early
1980s, with Nordjsö being acquired in 1982.
In the same year, the successful launch
of the floor adhesive Cascoflex ® created
the basis for the market-leading position
that Casco still enjoys in the Nordic floor
contracting segment.
Casco moves into paints
KemaNobel was acquired by Bofors in
1984, and the company changed its name
to Nobel Industries i Sverige AB the following
year. The trend of expansion via acquisition
continued for Casco itself, which in 1987
acquired Sadolin & Holmblad, one of the
Nordic region’s largest manufacturers of
paints and adhesives. The acquisition of the
paint company Crown Berger in the United
Kingdom, and of the adhesive company
Schönox in Germany, followed two years
later, further strengthening Casco’s new
focus on paints and growth in adhesives as
well as constituting a big step into the floorleveling
compound market.
By 1992, and having followed its expansion
in France with expansion into the German
market, Casco Nobel – as the company
was now known – was split into three business
units, one focused on adhesives
for the woodworking and furniture industries,
another on paints and adhesives for
craftsmen and consumers, and a third on
industrial coatings. Ove Mattsson became
the head of Nobel Industries and was later to
become the head of Akzo Nobel’s Coatings
group following Akzo’s acquisition of Nobel
Industries in 1994.
Casco-branded products are today part
of the company’s Industrial Activities business,
serving the woodworking and furniture
trades, as well as DIY users and professional
craftsmen in the building sector.

A Casco calendar girl, November 1965.
While retaining its original logo showing
two draught horses pulling in opposite
directions, Casco made full use of changing
styles to illustrate the adhesive properties
of its products
177

178
Liljeholmen candles

The Nobel legacy
Founded as Barnängens Tekniska Fabrik in 1868, Barnängen owed its
genesis to the failure of another company, one which had been established
by entrepreneur J.F. Ögren. Ögren had developed an innovative
“writing and copying ink” and set up his own company to market the
invention. The firm eventually ran into economic difficulties, however.
At this point, a wholesaler named Johan Wilhelm Holmström took
control of the failing enterprise, bringing in new capital and enabling a
new firm to be established. This intervention was the basis of what would
later become Barnängen.
179
Overview
The move into fine soaps
Barnängen adopts the bear symbol – literally
Creative marketing
Structural expansion
Educating people in beauty care
Acquisition by Henkel

180
Barnängen:
Victorian paternalism and personal care products
The Nobel legacy
In 1868, Barnängen’s production facilities were relocated to
a building in Stockholm known as “Tottieska Malmgården”,
which can still be seen today at the Stockholm openair
museum of folk life in Skansen. The new factory was
given the name “Barnängens Tekniska Fabrik”. It mainly
manufactured ink, shoe polish and – like Boldoot, another
AkzoNobel company from years gone by – Eau de Cologne,
which was sold in highly elegant packaging.
The move into fine soaps
A large market for soap was developing, and Barnängen
commenced the manufacture of soap in 1873. It also manufactured
other consumer products including, for example,
vanilla sugar, baking powder and tooth powder. The company’s
range of soaps was rapidly expanded, and by 1888,
Barnängen was producing no fewer than 88 different
types. One of these became particularly well-known – the
“Savon de l’Exposition”, which was specially designed to
be launched at the Stockholm Exhibition of 1897.
All goods were manufactured by hand. Tooth powder was
made from shells that were purchased by the sack-load,
to be powdered in mortars and then sieved. The ink was
drawn off by hand into bottles, usually by women. Soap
was made in double-walled boilers, which were heated
over open fires.
Johan Wilhelm Holmström combined a feeling for future
economic realities with a philanthropic and patriarchal view
of his responsibilities. He was a modern employer by the
standards of the period. Barnängen’s personnel received
free medicines and medical care as early as 1870, and a
holiday entitlement of four days a year was introduced at
the start of the 20th century.
Barnängen adopts the bear symbol – literally
Besides his commercial interests, Holmström was also
deeply fascinated by nature and animals. This led to
Barnängen adopting the symbol of the bear – embodying
strength – as its trademark. The adoption was quite literal.
A specially built cage on the factory site equipped with both
bathroom and bedroom housed the animal, and the bear
was registered as Barnängen’s factory mark at The Swedish
Patent and Registration Office.
Sales increased dramatically under the leadership of
Holmström. The range of goods expanded and subsidi-
aries were formed outside Sweden. A factory was founded
in St. Petersburg in 1880 to produce mainly ink. Barnängen
had been active on the Danish and Norwegian markets
since 1870, and factories were eventually founded in these
countries too.
Creative marketing
The range of goods and their marketing was varied with
considerable imagination, and Barnängen soaps were
given the most elegant packaging. Picturesque figures in
soap – of bathing children, angels, fruits and the like – were
brought onto the market in the 1920s. Celebrity comic actor
and dialect specialist Åke Söderblom also stood model for
Barnängen soaps, as did “Koling”, a figure from children’s
literature created by the writer and artist Albert Engström.
The market for ink was considerable: Barnängen’s product
was improved and its offering widened. The round bottles
in which the ink had hitherto been sold were exchanged
in 1919 for square bottles with attractive labels. By 1919,
sales had doubled.
Another important product which was to become extremely
well known was the mouthwash Vademecum, which was
introduced in 1897. The first bottle of Vademecum was
sold in Lannes Speceriaffär in Stockholm, while outside
of Stockholm it was the Lejonet pharmacy in Malmö
that registered the first sale. Vademecum is still on the
market today.
Structural expansion
In 1929 Barnängen became the core of a new company
called Aktiebolaget Kema. This company was created on the
initiative of Robert Ljunglöf, Dr Harald Nordensen and N.E.
Westerdahl, who decided to rationalize the technical aspects
of production as well as the sales processes. They acquired
all the shares in Barnängen and went on to buy several other
Gothenburg-based companies, including Eneroth & Co.,
Fabriken Tomten and Vignäron. The Lars Montén company
in Stockholm was also acquired together with Liljeholmens
Stearinfabriks AB.
A year later Barnängens Tekniska Fabriks AB moved to Lars
Montén’s spacious and modern industrial site in the Alvik
area of Stockholm. The candle-making part of Lars Montén’s
business was incorporated in Liljeholmen. Step by step, the
Alvik site was expanded as the company’s activities were
increasingly centralized, with production, marketing and
research being relocated there from Gothenburg. In 1937
the companies were formally joined together under one
management as Kemabolagen (“the Kema companies”).
Kemabolagen went on to acquire Sterisol AB, a disinfectants
company, from Bofors Nobelkrut the following year.
Forskningslaboratoriet LKB – a joint research and development
laboratory belonging to Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik, AB
Kema and AB Stockholms bryggerier – was established in
1942 under the leadership of Nobel Prize winner Theodor
Svedberg. The ensuing three decades were characterized
by heavy investment in research, product development
and marketing.
Henrik Gahns AB, a company in Uppsala that had competed
with Barnängen with virtually the same range of hygiene
products, was acquired in 1964. Henrik Gahns had approximately
700 articles when it was taken over, while Barnängen
had some 600. The modern requirement for portfolio
rationalization meant that numerous product lines were
withdrawn from the market, to the great disappointment of
many consumers.
Educating people in beauty care
An interesting and well-known component of Barnängen’s
activities was the “Shantung School”, which opened in
1950. It was initially intended to offer further education
to people working in the beauty products sector, but
increasing interest among consumers for the products led
it to expand its offering to include education in beauty treatments
that could be done in the home. A new Shantung
School was opened in Alvik in 1962 to train women of all
ages in modern beauty care. There were also courses for
specific professional groups, such as air hostesses and
fashion models, while education in cosmetic science was
given under the guidance of the Swedish National Board
of Education.
During the 1960s, Barnängen enjoyed a significant cooperation
with Stockholms Superfosfat and its subsidiaries
regarding distribution and sales both in Sweden and
abroad. Stockholms Superfosfat initially bought a minority
interest in the company, going on to take complete control
of the company after acquiring of the majority of the
shareholding between 1970 and 1973. It was acquisition by
Stockholms Superfosfat that eventually brought Barnängen
into Nobel Industries and subsequently Akzo Nobel.

Finishing lipsticks produced by Barnängen A selection of Barnängen personal care products

182
Barnängen:
Victorian paternalism and personal care products
The Nobel legacy
A new factory at Ekerö, not far to the west of Stockholm,
was opened on 22 February 1983 by the King and Queen
of Sweden. Soap manufacture moved there in 1989, the
last operation to do so, and Barnängen’s activities at Alvik
came to an end.
Acquisition by Henkel
In 1992 Nobel Industries was owned by Nordbanken and
was just starting to recover from the Gamlestaden financial
crisis. The company was in severe need of liquid capital to
strengthen its balance sheet and decided to sell its consumer
products division. The business was highly valued
by the market and was organizationally separate from the
chemicals and coatings activities. The consumer products
division was therefore divested to the German consumer
goods company Henkel in January 1992, and the company’s
name was changed to Henkel Barnängen AB. Just like
Barnängen, Henkel is a company with a fine tradition. It was
founded in Germany in 1876 by Fritz Henkel, and remains
a family-owned company to this day. With its incorporation
into the Henkel sphere, Barnängen became a member of
an international group with the financial and organizational
resources required to carry on the activities that Barnängen
has pursued so successfully since its foundation in 1868.

Training in modern beauty care at the
Shantung School in the 1960s
183

184
Magnus Bernström (middle) and Lars Olsson (right) photographed
outside their workshop in Södertälje not long after the company’s
foundation. On the left is Egon Johansson, their first employee

The Nobel legacy
Berol’s foundation was a direct response to a consumer need – fishing
lines that did not break when an angler had a really large salmon on the
hook. At the time of the company’s foundation in 1937, anglers used
cotton fishing lines, which deteriorated through the action of sunlight and
water and frequently broke. A keen angler by the name of Bernström
felt that he lost too many fish this way, so he decided that he would
create a more durable line. Bernström was a businessman and knew
little of chemistry. But he was friends with a pharmacist named Olsson.
Bernström challenged his friend to use his knowledge of chemistry to
create an impregnation agent which would make fishing lines stronger.
Olsson produced several variants of just such an agent, which were
given evocative names such as Blue Ribbon, Green River, Black River
and Rock River. The two friends took the starting letters of their surnames
to provide a name for the limited company which they set up to
market the new products, and AB Berol-Produkter was registered at the
Swedish Patent and Registration Office on April 12, 1937.
185
Overview
Protection from moisture
Product diversification
Acquisition by MoDo
The need for new products
A new source for ethylene
Consolidation within MoDoKemi
The creation of Berol Kemi

186
Berol:
From consumer products to process ingredients
The Nobel legacy
Surfactants
The word surfactant derives from “surface active agent”. Also
known as “tensides”, they lower surface tension of the medium
in which they are dissolved. Each surfactant molecule has a hydro-
philic (water-loving) head and a hydrophobic (water-hating) tail that
both repels water and attaches itself to oil and grease, making
them useful in the removal and suspension of dirt. Widely used
in domestic and industrial cleaning processes, their application
depends on the specific type of electrical charge in the molecule.
Protection from moisture
Production of the impregnation agent commenced
in a building for small businesses in
the town of Södertälje, in central Sweden.
Berol then expanded into boot impregnation,
offering one set of products for the uppers and
another for the soles. Impregnation agents
for leather jackets and sheepskin fleece followed.
The company’s central proposition
had become “Impregnation: protection from
moisture” – or hydrophobization, to use the
scientific term.
Product diversification
The company had six employees by 1942.
Sweden’s capacity to import and export
goods was effectively suspended during
World War II, presenting considerable
opportunities for anyone who could manufacture
something from raw materials that
were available within the country. Berol
began supplying the Swedish armed forces
with “protection-from-moisture” products,
as well as an anti-mosquito agent with the
brand name “Nomosquito”. The factory in
Södertälje rapidly became too cramped,
and Berol moved to Mölndal, just to the
south of Gothenburg, shortly after the end
of the war. In addition to producing hydrophobization
agents, Berol diversified at this
time into the manufacture of weaving glue,
emulsifiers, mercerizering agents, dye fixatives
and non-ionic, surface-active products
for washing powders.
Acquisition by MoDo
Sweden’s isolation during World War II and
the resulting shortages of vital chemical
products led Sweden’s chemicals manufacturers
to conduct a thorough review of
the resources available to them. A company
called Mo och Domsjö AB (MoDo) –
whose origins were in forestry and cellulose
processing – had been applying for some
time for a license to manufacture alcohol
(ethylene glycol) from waste products from
its paper mill in Örnsköldsvik. The license
was eventually granted in 1940. The ethanol
thus produced created the foundations for an
extensive alcohol-based chemical industry,
and Domsjö-based MoDo started producing
ethylene glycol (for radiator fluid), acetic
acid and butanol. Berol, meanwhile, chiefly
supplied the textiles industry, and MoDo saw
the potential advantages of combining the
two companies’ technological resources,
while at the same time gaining access
to Berol’s extensive distribution network.
MoDo therefore acquired AB Berol-Produkter
in 1945, although it did not change the
company name.
The need for new products
Ethylene oxide rapidly became Berol’s dominant
raw material. Skilled researchers and a
proactive and energetic company management
developed many special products for the
viscose and cellulose pulp industries, to which
MoDo was a leading supplier. At the same
time, however, with the end of World War II,
the import of products from abroad became
possible once more, and Berol’s product
range needed radical improvement in order to
remain competitive.
A plant for the manufacture of nonylphenol
came online at the start of the 1950s. This
product, and the related dinonylphenol produced
in the same factory, rapidly became
important raw materials, from which surfactants
(later to be known as “tensides”)
could be manufactured using ethylene
oxide. Berol also produced ethylene dichloride,
spinning bath agents for the viscose
industry, asphalt fixatives and dye fixatives.
The amount of alcohol used in Domsjö as
a starting material for conversion into other
chemical products increased rapidly. The
company’s own production was insufficient

Swedish premier Olof Palme visits the Berol
plant in Stenungsund in November 1970

188
An amine plant in Stenungsund in 1977.
In Berol’s own words, “a champion site”

King Gustav VI Adolf inaugurates the works in Stengungsund on June 16,
1964, accompanied by representatives of Mo och Domsjö
189

190
Berol:
From consumer products to process ingredients
The Nobel legacy
for its growing needs, and even supplies from
other Swedish manufacturers could not make
up the shortfall. It was necessary to import
large amounts from various sources. As a
result of state subsidies, some were able to
offer particularly attractive prices, and much
alcohol was sourced in the form of Cuban
molasses or red wine that was surplus to
demand in France.
A new source for ethylene
Meanwhile, a new source of ethylene was
appearing. The cracking of various hydrocarbon
fractions at oil refineries allowed
ethylene to be produced cheaply in very
large quantities. In the long run, alcohol was
not able to compete as a starting material
for ethylene.
In 1960, MoDo came to the inescapable
conclusion that it would have to invest in
ethylene production from petrochemical
sources, and this marked the start of a new
phase in the development of the chemical
industry: the period of petroleum chemistry.
Domsjö, however, was not a suitable
location for this investment. MoDo therefore,
under an agreement with Stockholms
Superfosfat Fabriks (Fosfatbolaget) and the
From consumer to
business-to-business focus
U.S. oil company Esso, built a petrochemical
ethylene plant at the ice-free, deep-
water port of Stenungsund, some 45 km
north of Gothenburg.
Production of ethylene oxide direct oxidation
started at Stenungsund in 1963, although
the production of ethylene oxide-based,
non-ionic tensides continued for a considerable
period in Domsjö before eventually
being transferred to Stenungsund. Berol’s
presence in Stenungsund was manifest
in the form of newly constructed research
laboratories built on a hill above the ethylene
oxide factory. Marketing operations were
now carried out under the name Berol AB.
Consolidation within MoDoKemi
Chemical operations in MoDo were diversified
in the 1960s as MoDo purchased various
other companies. Svenska Oljeslageri
Aktiebolaget (SOAB) in Mölndal was acquired
in 1963, with acquisition of AB Syntes
in Nol following some years later. There
were now production plants and research
and development laboratories at four locations:
Domsjö, Stenungsund, Mölndal and
Nol. Marketing offices were located in
Stockholm, Mölndal and Nol, each of them
In its early years, Berol’s products were sold by traveling salesmen, who carried samples
of the company’s products in their luggage. Many years passed before Berol employed its
own sales staff. Exports grew slowly in the early years, initially to Denmark and Finland, then
to England, and subsequently to continental Europe and North America. Berol’s first customers
were anglers – direct consumers of the company’s products. As it grew, however,
Berol shifted its focus and started selling its products to large companies that manufactured
consumer goods such as cleaning agents, paints, varnishes, paper and pesticides.
having its own customer categories and
principal activities. In 1971, MoDo concentrated
all its chemicals activities in one company,
MoDoKemi AB, and established its
head office in Stenungsund.
Berol consequently disappeared as an individual
company name, but lived on in the
registers as a shelf company. The name
“Berol” was, however, preserved in the brand
names of several products, such as BEROL ®
09, BEROL ® 563, and BEROL ® VISCO ® 31.
The prefix “Ber” was retained as an important
part of brands such as BERMODOL ®
(the designation of polyols) and BEROCELL ®
(tensides for the cellulose industry).
The creation of Berol Kemi
The investments required to keep abreast
of developments in the petrochemical field
were becoming ever larger, and MoDo
needed extremely large sums to fund its
expansion into producing chemicals for the
pulp and paper industries. MoDo therefore
joined forces with Statsföretag AB and
spun off its chemicals operations to the
Swedish state in 1973, for which the name
Berol was revived: Berol Kemi AB was
presented as the new name for the entire
chemicals group in 1974. Three years later,
an oxo factory for the production of butyraldehyde
(the starting material for butanol,
octanol and octanoic acid) was built a few
kilometers north of Berol’s Stenungsund
plant. In the same year, Berol Kemi bought
MoDo’s production units for cellulose
derivatives at Domsjö.
Berol Kemi AB joined the Akzo Nobel fold,
along with other Nobel businesses, as a
result of the creation of the Dutch-Swedish
conglomerate in 1994 and became part
of the company’s Surface Chemistry business
unit. Currently AkzoNobel’s Surface
Chemistry business is a global producer of
surface active agents used in a wide variety
of applications. The ethylene-focused operations
also continued and now form part of
AkzoNobel’s Functional Chemicals business.
As process ingredients, Berol’s products had the task of reinforcing the properties of the
process components – offering, for instance, increased production, lower manufacturing
costs, increased sensitivity to the environment, or higher quality of the final product. These
products do not normally remain in the final product sold to the consumer, being destroyed
or neutralized in some manner during manufacturing. Berol’s product range also included
those that are used as starting materials for further processing, for example, ethylene
amines, ethanol amines and ethylene oxide.

The interior of the Mölndal works in the early
1980s. The operator is Björn Wickman
191

192
A 19th century paint factory. Crown Berger is
unusual among AkzoNobel’s paint companies
in that wallpaper played an important role in
the firm’s early development

The Nobel legacy
The name of Crown Berger brings together a brand from the 20th
century and the enterprise of a founding father from the 18th century.
The Crown ® name was first used to launch Crown ® Plus Two ® paints in
Britain in 1966. Designed to challenge ICI’s highly popular Dulux ® brand,
the first Crown ® products on the market were a non-drip polyurethane
gloss and a vinyl-gel emulsion paint.
193
Overview
The Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd.
The Walpamur ® paint brand
1922: A pivotal year
The launch of the Crown ® brand
Berger joins Crown
Acquisition by Nobel Industries
A flagship brand within Akzo Nobel
Responding to changing market requirements
Landmark applications

194
Crown Berger:
From innovative wallpapers to innovative paints
The Nobel legacy
Berger ® , meanwhile, comes from Lewis
Berger (1741–1814), a German immigrant to
Great Britain whose original name was Louis
Steigenberger. Berger established a paint
manufactory in the East End of London in
1760. Known as Lewis Berger & Sons from
1799–1879 and Lewis Berger & Sons Ltd
from 1879 onwards, this company – “manufacturers
of fine dry colors, paints and varnishes”
– specialized in supplying materials
to the decorating profession.
If it unites the concepts of brand awareness
and entrepreneurship, the name of
Crown Berger conceals, on the other hand,
many other distinctive associations – most
notably with the manufacture of wallpaper.
Crown Berger as a company was created
as late as 1988, more than 20 years after
the launch, by Reed International P.L.C., of
the Crown ® brand itself (Reed International
is now known as Reed Elsevier PLC). That
year saw the culmination of a series of
mergers within the British paint industry
which had commenced in the 1960s and
which brought together, among other
notable companies, John Hall and Sons
(manufacturers of putty and paint, founded
in Bristol in 1788) and Jenson and Nicholson
(paint manufacturers, founded in London
around 1840).
The Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd.
One of the most important of these companies
was Walpamur, or The Wallpaper
Manufacturers Ltd., to give it its full name.
Walpamur was founded in Darwen, near
Bolton in Lancashire, north west England,
in 1899. The origins of this company were
intricate, stemming back to a paper mill established
in Darwen by one Richard Hilton
in 1818. Hilton’s thriving business was acquired
in 1844 by Charles and Harold Potter,
members of an established Lancashire
family who already operated a calico business
in the district. Capitalizing on the
growing popularity of printed wallpapers,
the Potter brothers added paper staining
to the existing paper manufacturing operations.
Their products soon grew to be world
famous. An important factor in their success
was the contribution of James Huntingdon,
Drinking to the health of the company
“During these vital years from 1922 onwards, Walpamur may be said to have grown up and
to have attained that robust vitality which is now one of its characteristics. When in 1926 the
General Strike hit the country, the determination and loyalty of the staff were put to a severe
test. Despite the difficulties, work carried on, the products continued to be sent out, and
bills with the wording “Paints for Houses” were stuck on the lorries so that the strikers would
allow them through. It is related that when a tyre of one lorry burst near Wigan the miners
on strike unloaded two tons of paint and helped to replace the wheel, and were happy to
accept ten shillings from the driver with which to drink the health of the Company.”
From Walpamur Golden Jubilee 1906–1956, The Walpamur Co. Ltd., Darwen and
London 1956
who worked as a designer for paper stainers
and calico printers, and who was persuaded
to join the Potters as a partner in the firm
of Potter & Co. in 1864. Ten years later,
James Huntingdon’s two brothers likewise
joined this Darwen concern as partners.
The son of one of these brothers, Major A.
W. Huntingdon, was also to join the firm
as a partner, becoming a director of The
Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd. at its foundation
in 1899. And it was Major Huntingdon
who encouraged his fellow directors to
branch out from wallpaper manufacture into
paint manufacture in 1906.
The Walpamur ® paint brand
The major had a specific type of paint
in mind, however. From 1904 onwards,
researchers in Walpamur’s Darwen laboratory
had been attempting to develop a reliable
form of water-based paint. Two years
later, sufficient progress had been made
to justify the commencement of commercial
manufacture. Originally named Hollins
distemper, this new paint was so favorably
received by customers that it was decided
to give the product a more distinctive name.
It was rebranded Walpamur ® after the name
of its parent company.
As the name Walpamur ® would suggest,
wallpaper was still a core product of the
company, which had very successfully
exploited the late-19th century vogue for
embossed wallcoverings. The linseed oilbased
wall fabric Lincrusta ® (invented by
the pioneer of linoleum, Frederick Walton, in
1877) was first manufactured in Darwen in
1887. Its lighter rival, Anaglypta ® – which was
manufactured from cotton and pulp and had
been invented by Frederick Walton’s former
employee, Thomas Palmer, in 1883 – joined
the company’s product portfolio in 1888.
The combination of wallpaper manufacture
and paint manufacture was to characterize
the activities of Walpamur, and subsequently
Crown Berger, for many decades to come.
Although the move into paint had been
inspired by the search for an effective waterbased
paint, Walpamur nevertheless commenced
production of oil paints in 1910.
The raw material shortages brought on by

Crown’s logo adorned the shirts of Liverpool FC at a time when
Liverpool was the UK’s premier football team and one of the
predominant clubs in Europe
Walpamur Quality Paints, a brand whose reach extended far beyond its
original home market of Britain. Here employees are filling cans of paint
in Papua New Guinea in the 1960s

196
Crown Berger:
From innovative wallpapers to innovative paints
The Nobel legacy
the outbreak of World War I put a brake on paint manufacture,
but they also created new openings. Walpamur
started making varnish, which is a key component in munitions
production. In 1915, The Walpamur Company Limited
(or WPM) was created to focus exclusively on paint and
varnish manufacture.
1922: A pivotal year
The Walpamur Company Limited grew rapidly in the years
following World War I, such that by 1922 the company
employed 50 “travelers exclusively in paint”. 1922 was a
pivotal year in WPM’s evolution, for it was in this year that
Major J.G.G. Mellor was appointed director in charge. Major
Mellor commenced a major program of reorganization and
expansion which involved the re-engineering of manufacturing
processes and the creation of a nationwide depot
network and delivery fleet. The company’s product portfolio
was expanded by the addition of highly successful new
brands such as Duradio ® Enamel Paint and Muromatte Flat
Oil Paint, and its markets expanded to include Argentina and
Canada, with branches being established in Buenos Aires in
1922 and Montreal in 1929.
The company also grew through acquisitions. In 1915, it
had acquired the Manchester-based wallpaper manufacturers
Kinder & Co.; in 1929 it purchased the London-based
paint manufacturer Arthur Sanderson and Sons Ltd. In the
same decade, Walpamur Company Limited had significantly
increased its R&D operations, opening a new laboratory
staffed with highly trained chemists in Darwen in 1927.
In 1931, WPM amalgamated all its embossed wall covering
operations at Darwen. Later during the 1930s, the research
and manufacture of industrial coatings also commenced at
the Lancashire facility.
World War II again saw Walpamur producing great quantities
of varnish, as well as paint, for ammunition, military
vehicles and camouflage. It also produced a range of
special products for aircraft. The company was awarded
royal warrants in 1949 and 1955, and in 1954 a new plant
opened at Darwen to produce cellulose paints for industrial
finishes. Smith and Walton, a paint manufacturer based in
Haltwhistle, Northumberland, was acquired in 1963. Then,
in 1965, WPM was itself purchased by Reed International, a
diversified company which had originally been established
as a newsprint manufacturer by Albert E. Reed in Kent,
England, in 1894.
The launch of the Crown ® brand
It was under the direction of Reed International that the
Crown ® brand was launched. The “ease and convenience”
properties of decorative coatings took on increasing
importance during this era, as paint manufacturers began
targeting not just trade professionals, but also consumers
with their advertising and product literature. Crown ®
paints were promoted heavily on television throughout the
1970s and 1980s. Their logo even adorned the shirts
of Liverpool FC at a time when Liverpool was the UK’s
premier football team and one of the most successful
clubs in Europe.
Such was the success and power of the Crown ® brand
that in 1975 the Walpamur Company changed its name
to Crown Decorative Products. Five years later, the
Relief Decorations operations that had been so vital
to the company’s growth in the late Victorian era were
transferred into the Crown Paints Division within Crown
Decorative Products.
Six years thereafter, in 1986, Crown Decorative Products
introduced the first one-coat paint for wood and metal.
Aptly named Solo ® Gloss, this self-undercoating gloss was
achieved by the addition of extra pigments in the formulation,
which lent the paint both high opacity and extreme
brilliance. Solo ® Gloss was followed by an emulsion counterpart
called Crown ® Advance ® One Coat. Both paints
were welcomed by the growing DIY market, and a new
one-coat system category was created as rival manufacturers
strove to bring out their own versions of Crown ®
Decorative Products’ breakthrough concept.
The 1980s was generally a difficult decade for manu-
facturers in the UK, but Crown represented a rare exception,
continuing to invest, innovate and grow in the face of
a stagnant economy and widespread industrial unrest.
A new £3.5 million oil-based manufacturing plant was
opened at Darwen in 1982, to be followed in 1987 by
a new £3.5 million emulsion manufacturing plant, again
at Darwen. Indeed, 1987 was to prove a very busy, and
highly significant, year for Crown. Computerized manufacturing
process and automated filling and packing
operations were introduced, and the company attained
quality systems certification for its paint products.
Arguably the most important event of the year, however,
was Reed International’s disposal of Crown Paints
to Williams Holdings.
Berger joins Crown
Williams Holdings greatly increased the efficiency of Crown
Paints. It also brought in the Berger ® name, acquiring from
Frankfurt-based multinational Hoechst a company called
BJN, which included the successor organizations to Lewis
Berger & Sons and John Hall & Sons (creators in 1920 of the
highly successful Brolac ® brand). This huge consolidation
was followed in 1989 by Crown Berger’s purchase of Jacoa
from the diversified UK group Ward White.
Acquisition by Nobel Industries
A year later, in May 1990, Nobel Industries purchased Crown
Berger. As part of Nobel Industries, Crown Berger continued
to demonstrate its commitment to innovation and quality. In
May 1993, the company was awarded the Queen’s Award
for Technological Achievement.
A flagship brand within Akzo Nobel
Following Nobel Industries’ 1994 merger with Akzo, Crown
Paints – as the company was generally known at this
point – was positioned as the flagship brand within the
UK’s decorative coatings market, alongside Akzo’s own
decorative coatings brands – Sandtex ® , Permoglaze ® , and
Macpherson ® Paints.
Within this structure, Sandtex ® – launched as recently as
1978 – is today the market leader in exterior coatings. This
success owes much to the kind of skilful marketing that
turned Crown ® into such a dominant brand. Permoglaze ® ,
purchased by Akzo Coatings in 1986, complements Crown ®
Berger ® and Sandtex ® by acting as a leading brand for professional
users. And Macpherson, whose decorative coatings
business was purchased by Akzo from the Swedish
Kemira in 1991, plays its role in the consumer side of the
business by, for instance, acting as exclusive suppliers of
branded paints to the Woolworth chain.
Responding to changing market requirements
As Akzo Nobel’s flagship UK decorative coatings brand,
Crown ® maintained an intense focus on innovation. This
included the launch of new products such as the Decorative
Effects range (around 1996) including Colour Effects,
Woodwash ® , Smooth Velvet ® and Softsand ® . Much of

Crown Berger:
From innovative wallpapers to innovative paints
The Nobel legacy
this innovation was in response to fast-moving changes in
consumer demands. For instance, 1997 saw the launch
of a Crown ® Period Colors ® range designed to create an
authentic period feel in any home. In 2000, an international
color magazine called Key was launched to provide inspiration
and advice to consumers across Europe. New products
were also developed to meet the requirements of retailers,
one example being Quick-Dry Satin (2001) following a direct
request from B&Q (a leading British DIY chain).
Landmark applications
Although strongly focused on the consumer market, Crown ®
Berger ® also had a significant industrial products operation.
In the 1980s, when its Anaglypta ® embossed wallpaper was
still in high demand, Crown ® Berger ® was commissioned to
develop a special industrial coating to coat the walls of the
Channel Tunnel, London’s Tower and Hammersmith Bridges,
the Severn Bridge, London’s Docklands, Liverpool’s Albert
Docks, the Odeon Cinema chain, The Theatre Royal Drury
Lane and the Tate Britain art gallery are just a few of the
landmark structures to have benefited from Crown Berger’s
century of expertise in paint manufacture.
The 19th century embossed wall covering Lincrusta ® was
still on the market in the early 21st century. Sold along with
the Anaglypta ® brand to Imperial Home Décor in 2001, it was
acquired by Crown Wilman Vymura in 2003. Lincrusta ® is
still made in Morecambe, on England’s Lancashire coast
– and a version dating from 1896 is highly popular for renovating
Victorian houses in the United Kingdom.
Regulatory approval for Akzo Nobel’s acquisition of ICI in
January 2008 was made conditional on the divestment of
a number of its decorative coatings businesses with combined
revenues (in 2006) of c300 million. As a consequence,
Crown was sold to Endless LLP, an independent private
equity house. The divestment will include Crown’s manufacturing
and warehouse sites in Darwen, Hull, Warrington,
Dublin and Belfast; its Crown Decorator Centre network;
and the Crown ® , Crown Trade ® , Berger ® , MacPherson ® ,
Permoglaze ® and Sandtex ® brands.
197

198
1
2
Courtaulds, p. 201
Bocking
Braintree (Bocking)
Chelmsford (Bocking)
Halstead (Bocking)
Pebmarsh (Bocking)
Coventry
Leigh
London
International, p. 215
Newcastle-on-Tyne
Felling (Newcastle-on-Tyne)
Gateshead (Newcastle-on-Tyne)
marks the place on the map where the company
in question (see the left-hand column) was
founded.
Locations named in a chapter are listed on the
left under the name of the relevant company. The
first location named is the place where the company
was founded; all other locations are listed
alphabetically.
If locations cannot be distinguished from one
another because they are too close together, a
place already shown on the map or one that is
central to those locations is given in parenthesis.
Ireland
Dublin
Belfast
Glasgow
Scotland
Wales
Aberdeen
Edinburgh
Newcastle-on-Tyne
Leeds
Manchester
Liverpool
Cardiff
Bristol
Birmingham
England
2
France
1
Bocking

199

200
Samuel Courtauld III (1793–1881), the founder
of Courtaulds and a titan among Victorian
entrepreneurs

The Courtaulds legacy
The Courtauld family came to England, as Huguenot refugees, between
1685 and 1700. Its first link with textiles was forged in 1775, when George
Courtauld I was apprenticed to a silk “throwster” or manufacturer; his
master belonged to the settlement of Huguenots practicing in the silk
industry in London’s Spitalfields district. Around the turn of the 19th century,
George Courtauld I was managing a silk-throwing mill, owned by a
London firm, at Pebmarsh in Essex. In 1815, he set up a similar mill of his
own in Braintree, Essex. He quarreled with his partner, however, and in
1818 the partnership was dissolved.
201
Overview
A ruthless son – and a Victorian success story
Power-looms drive expansion
The halcyon years of mourning crepe
The collapse of the crepe business
Recovery: new men and new energy
An innovative product: rayon
The vital breakthrough
Courtaulds acquires the British rights to viscose
The importance of skill in textile manufacture
Courtaulds acquires the U.S. rights to viscose
Samuel Courtauld IV
The rayon boom
The 1930s: the difficult decade
World War II – and the loss of AVC
Post-war recovery and change
Diversification and the move into packaging and paints
ICI bids for Courtaulds
Vertical integration
The 1970s fibers crisis
Courtaulds splits into two companies
A new era
Acquisition by Akzo Nobel

202
Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
A ruthless son – and a Victorian success story
George Courtauld’s failings as a businessman provided the
opportunity for his son, Samuel Courtauld III, to start upon
a career which was to bring enormous wealth to the family.
In 1816, when George was in the midst of his dispute with
his partner – and with the family income thereby imperiled
– Samuel decided to set himself up as a silk throwster in
Bocking, Essex. He became a hard-driving businessman:
ruthless, impatient and autocratic.
The years immediately after 1816, when Samuel had branched
out on his own, were not easy. But he extended the scale of
his operations as a silk throwster, working variously by himself,
or in partnership with his brother, George Courtauld II,
or his cousin, P.A. Taylor I. With his brother he also used,
and manufactured for sale, a special type of spindle for silkthrowing
which their father had patented and which enjoyed
a certain temporary success. He also installed small steam
engines to supplement water power in his mills.
From 1826, Samuel began to concentrate on silk weaving
rather than silk throwing, i.e. producing silk fabrics for silk
manufacture. In 1828 the operation was set up on a new
legal footing and the firm of Courtauld, Taylors & Courtauld
came into being. Samuel Courtauld & Co., as the firm soon
became known, was to become the biggest and most successful
manufacturer of a textile fabric peculiarly popular in
Victorian Britain – silk mourning crepe.
The practice of using a particular sort of black crepe as a
part of mourning attire was not an invention of Victorian
England. During the 18th century, crepe was being imported
into England and several efforts were made to start its manufacture
on English soil. By the 1820s, crepe of this sort was
being made by two or three English silk weaving firms, and
Samuel Courtauld & Co. joined their number in about 1830.
Power-looms drive expansion
In the early 19th century, most silk fabrics were still woven
on hand-looms. It was soon discovered that the weaving
of silk gauze for mourning crepe could just as easily be
done on power-looms. Courtauld & Co. developed a particular
type of power-operated loom especially suited for
crepe weaving, and by 1840 it possessed more than 240 of
these looms. Almost all the firm’s machinery was designed
and made at the company’s own works. This engineering
side of the business was run by George Courtauld II.
The halcyon years of mourning crepe
Up until 1850, the firm, while growing rapidly, was also still
finding its feet. The original silk-throwing part of the business
continued to be important in the 1830s, but from 1850
onwards mourning crepe completely dominated the firm’s
activities. The period 1850 to 1885 was the high point both for
mourning crepe and for the profits of the family partnership.
Employing around 3,000 people, Samuel Courtauld & Co.
was one of the biggest firms in the British silk industry at
the time. It had become so profitable that at the height of its
success in the 1870s, the partners were each year earning
an average return on their capital of more than 30 percent.
These high profits were made possible by a remarkable
increase in the demand for black crepe as the ritual of
deep mourning was popularized in the middle and upper
classes. While private funerals among the better-off sustained
a steady growth in demand, occasional royal deaths
provided periodic booms, and a growing enthusiasm among
the French for what they called crêpe anglaise provided
a steady export outlet. The social origins of this demand
made it easy to keep up prices, and there were only a very
few other producers, all overshadowed by the dominance
of Courtauld & Co.
The collapse of the crepe business
It was all too good to last, however. After 1885, the gloss of
prosperity began to fade. Crepe prices fell sharply and profits
tumbled. In 1894, the business made a loss; and in 1896,
a worse loss. To some extent, these difficulties were due
to changes in the British economy as a whole. In part, too,
the firm’s troubles arose from a change in English fashion.
Although Queen Victoria’s presence upon the throne went
far to ensure a continued high regard for formal crepe-laden
mourning, there were many signs of a move towards greater
freedom in this matter. But ultimately the firm suffered from a
failure of business leadership following the formal retirement
of Samuel Courtauld III in 1865.
Recovery: new men and new energy
In 1891, the partnership was turned into a private limited
liability company, and two appointments were made which
were to have momentous consequences for the firm. In
1893, a Yorkshireman called Henry Greenwood Tetley was
appointed as head manager; and in 1894, Thomas Paul
Latham, a Lancashire man, became sales manager. These
two men, outsiders to the family business, virtually controlled
the company for the next quarter-century.
Tetley’s first job was to re-equip the production end of
the business. A major program of change was directed
at the dyeing and finishing departments and a general
rationalization of production at the three main mills was
begun. In 1898, an important new investment was made,
taking Samuel Courtauld & Co. out of its Essex isolation
– to increase production capacity, a mill was bought at
Leigh, in Lancashire.
This reorganization had two main goals. One was to improve
the quality and reduce the costs of mourning crepe; the other
was to develop the manufacture of other products, mainly
colored silk chiffons. In Britain, crepe was on its way out,
and Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 speeded up its demise.
Tetley fully understood the situation. As he told his fellow
directors in April 1904, Samuel Courtauld & Co. needed
“a new source of profit to replace crepe profits – which are
leaving us.” The adoption of his proposed remedy was to
point the company in a wholly new direction. For in July 1904,
Samuel Courtauld & Co. Ltd. bought a set of patents and
licenses which gave them the exclusive British rights to the
viscose process of making “artificial silk’’, later to be known
the world over as rayon.
An innovative product: rayon
The chemical experiments which gave birth to what was
to prove the first of the man-made fibers occurred outside
the existing textile industry. At the base of it all lay chemical
investigation of the substance called cellulose, which is
the vital component of all plant tissue. During the first half
of the 19th century, several European chemists set about
treating cellulose in various forms with a variety of acids.
Among their findings was the discovery that treating cotton
with nitric acid resulted in a highly explosive substance,
which was called nitrocellulose or gun-cotton. One line
of further enquiry from this led to the explosives industry,
but another led to the first process of making artificial
silk. In 1883 and 1884, respectively, two men, Sir Joseph
Swan in England and Count de Chardonnet in France,
patented processes for dissolving nitrocellulose in such
a way that a filament could then be extruded from a jet.
Both men, having observed the luminous sheen which the

George Courtauld I (1761–1823), an unsuccessful businessman who
sired a highly successful son, Samuel Courtauld
Halstead Old Mill, Essex, England. Originally the Town Mill, this was
converted by Samuel Courtauld III in 1825

204
Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
filaments possessed, thought in terms of ‘‘artificial silk”.
Neither, however, saw the substance’s potential for purely
textile applications.
This nitrocellulose process was not only costly, but also
very dangerous. Experimenters were naturally interested in
safer methods of manufacture and in the 1880s and 1890s
various patents were taken out for what became known as
the “cuprammonium” process. The prime interest in these
processes was not their use in manufacturing textiles, but
for the production of filaments for electric lamps. In 1895,
however, having observed the attention which Chardonnet’s
product was beginning to attract, Max Fremery and Johan
Urban started using the cuprammonium process to make
artificial silk, which they called Glanzstoff. They started a
firm in Germany which they called Vereinigte Glanzstoff
Fabriken, built a factory and began production in 1899.
(Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken was to merge with the
Dutch artificial fibers manufacturer Enka in 1929 to create
AKU, one of the forerunners of Akzo Nobel.)
The vital breakthrough
The vital breakthrough, the “viscose’’ process, was made in
Britain. The master patent was taken out in 1892 by a professional
chemist, C.F. Cross, and his partners. The patent
covered a method of treating wood pulp with caustic soda
and other chemicals to produce a golden yellow substance
called viscose. The next step was taken in 1898, when
C.H. Stearn – an amateur physicist and by then director of
an electric lamp company – took out a patent to make filaments
from viscose. In collaboration with Cross, he set up
a laboratory-cum-pilot plant at Kew, near London, with the
intention of making “artificial silk” fibers. Between 1899 and
1904, the various national patent rights were sold off, one
by one. But was this new process – and risky investment
– worth the risk?
Courtaulds acquires the British rights to viscose
H.G. Tetley first visited the works at Kew in February 1904.
But his enthusiastic proposals to the Board that the company
should buy the patent rights were turned down by the
more conservative directors. It was agreed to look at the
venture again after another proposal was put to the test,
namely to turn the private company into a public company.
The subsequent flotation was successful and the British
rights to the patents of Cross, Stearn and Topham were
subsequently acquired.
For a site on which to build a factory for the new process,
Tetley went not to the traditional textile districts of Lancashire
or Yorkshire, but to the Midlands. In July 1905, the company’s
new Coventry factory started production. None of the
company directors knew anything at all about chemistry,
and at least two of them opposed what they saw as a lot
of new-fangled nonsense. Yet the new strategy succeeded
so remarkably that by 1913 the output of the Coventry factory
had reached more than three million pounds weight per
annum. Courtauld & Co. had emerged as the strongest of all
the firms that had bought the viscose rights, the most successful
of the pioneers of rayon.
The importance of skill in textile manufacture
An important part of the company’s success lay in the fact
that of all the purchasers of the viscose patent rights, only
Samuel Courtauld & Co. was a textile manufacturing firm.
This meant that those directing the efforts of the chemists
and engineers knew just what technical qualities were
needed to make a yarn useful and saleable.
The real architect of the achievement was Tetley. He drove
the company forward, relentlessly pursuing, and indeed far
exceeding, the goals he had promised. Already by 1900 the
rayon profits exceeded those of the old textile side of the
company. In 1917, he became Chairman of Courtaulds Ltd.
Courtaulds acquires the U.S. rights to viscose
The transformation of the Essex crepe firm wrought in the
decade 1904 to 1914 generated a bigger and complex
range of overseas contacts. With the outbreak of World
War I, these associations disintegrated, but it was as a
direct consequence of these international arrangements
that Samuel Courtauld & Co. was led to make its most
important investment – the purchase of the U.S. rights to
the viscose manufacturing process in 1909.
In 1908, an agreement was reached giving Courtauld &
Co. alone exclusive permission to import viscose yarn into
the United States. In 1909, the American tariff on imported
artificial silk yarn was raised. Tetley persuaded the owner
of the U.S. rights to produce artificial silk yarn to sell them
to Samuel Courtauld & Co. This piece of opportunism left
Courtauld & Co. in a remarkably strong position.
The existing plant in the United States was scrapped
and a new factory built at Marcus Hook, near Chester,
Pennsylvania. The American Viscose Company (AVC), as
the new subsidiary was first called, began production in
1911. It rapidly proved extremely profitable and, by 1914,
Courtaulds had a legal, patent-based monopoly of viscose
yarn production in both Great Britain and the United States.
AVC’s production quickly increased, such that in 1915 it surpassed
even that of its UK parent.
Samuel Courtauld IV
In 1921, Tetley died and the leadership of Courtaulds passed
into the hands of Samuel Courtauld IV, great-nephew of
Samuel Courtauld Ill, who had founded the family business.
He remained the dominant, highly-respected leader of
Courtaulds until the year before his death in 1947.
Samuel Courtauld IV left his imprint not only on the company,
but also in the wider world. One of the earliest collectors
of Impressionist paintings, he built up a remarkable
collection, the bulk of which he made available to the public
during his lifetime, creating and endowing the Courtauld
Institute of Art. As a patron of the arts, his interest extended
to music, opera and literature. He was also active as an
industrialist, especially around the beginning of World War II,
in talking and writing about the future of industry and about
the relationship between industry and government, as well
as that between employers and employees. Altogether, he
led Courtaulds Ltd. to a position of great respectability in
manufacturing business.
The rayon boom
The end of World War I and the return of conditions conducive
to new business enterprise coincided with the expiry
of the basic patents for the viscose process. The manufacture
of artificial silk, which from the late 1920s onwards
came to be called rayon, therefore expanded in various
ways. The best-known of the new types of rayon made by
the cellulose acetate process became familiar in Britain
under the brand name Celanese, used by the British
Celanese Co., which made and marketed it. Celanese became
very popular in the manufacture of women’s under-
wear. Of greater importance internationally, and for the
future, was the development of rayon staple fiber. Made
by cutting up the continuous filament of rayon into short

Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
lengths and then spinning these into a yarn, it became
of great significance as a substitute for cotton and wool.
These changes meant a gigantic increase in the global
output of rayon. Cheap woven or knitted fabrics and
hosiery, in rayonor rayon mixtures, answered new demand
for cheaper stockings, underwear, furnishing fabrics and
dress materials.
Courtaulds’ operations in Britain and continental Europe
benefited from the rayon boom of the 1920s. Meanwhile,
on the other side of the Atlantic, The Viscose Company
– which during this period changed its name again, this
time to American Viscose Corporation (AVC) – continued
its rise to what in 1937 the American magazine Fortune
called: “one of the greatest industrial shows in the
world.” With a seemingly unlimited home market, AVC was
responsible for more than 60 percent of total U.S. rayon
production in 1928.
The 1930s: the difficult decade
Coventry 1905 – by one who was there
In 1985, Frank Jones, the editor of Courtaulds News, interviewed one of the
original inventors of viscose – Edwin Beer, who at that time was 105 years old.
The following is an excerpt from the published interview.
Despite his advanced years, Edwin Beer is not one to lie in bed of a morning. He rises at six
o’clock sharp every day, makes his own breakfast and tidily washes up before his wife – a
comparatively young 75-year-old – comes downstairs. Later he might take a glass of sweet
wine, smoke a black Burma cheroot, or simply potter around his rambling 16th century house.
The building is packed from floor to rafter with relics and mementoes of a long and eventful
life. And tucked away in innumerable boxes, drawers and cupboards is a miniature museum
of man-made fiber history. Lumps of solidified viscose, bobbins and hanks of shiny yarn,
spun at Kew long before the Courtaulds days. The first rayon stocking ever knitted. An old
board on which colored viscose skeins were shown at the Paris Exhibition in 1900.
“I dyed those skeins myself at the laboratory at Kew,” Mr. Beer recalls. “Courtaulds saw
them in Paris and this was what finally aroused their interest in viscose.” Stirred by the
memory, he reflects on those long-ago days. Edwin Beer had met two of the viscose pioneers
while still a teenager. He learned chemistry under Cross and Bevan when they were
partners at New Court, Lincoln’s Inn, London.
The 1929 crash and the Great Depression of the 1930s
did not afflict Courtaulds in Britain with anything like
the hardships felt in older industries or by some other
firms. Indeed, in 1939, the firm’s rayon output was more
than three times what it had been in 1929. But profits
were down on the heydays of the 1920s. At home, wages
were cut and persistent labor troubles beset the yarn
mills. Serious defects were becoming evident in the
firm’s technical efficiency, organization, and management.
Difficulties also multiplied overseas. Yet all this was little
as compared with the troubles which loomed at AVC.
Volumes, as well as profits, fell drastically, and in 1938 AVC
made a net loss. AVC was proving a troublesome offspring
for an already harassed parent.
By about 1935, Samuel Courtauld IV initiated a thorough
inquiry into the company’s technical and managerial
shortcomings, and a substantial modernization program
was launched.
In 1935, a new subsidiary, British Cellophane Limited,
was formed as a joint venture with the French company La
Cellophane, to pool patents and processes and develop
the British market for cellulose films.
Cellulose film (brand name Cellophane) had a technological
link with rayon in that the production process was similar
– for film, the viscose was extruded through a slot, and for
fiber, through a jet. (In time this activity grew to become a
group of companies that operated in several countries and
made a variety of products, including non-woven fabrics
and plastic packaging film. In the early 1980s, it became
a wholly owned subsidiary of Courtaulds; by the mid-1990s,
however, all these businesses had been divested).
“This was the first time I ever heard about viscose, and Cross asked me to do quite a bit of work
on it,” he says. In 1899, he joined the newly-formed Viscose Spinning Syndicate at Kew as a
chemist. There the experiments gathered pace, though viscose proved a difficult beast to tame.
“We would never get two batches alike, and Cross said we never would,” he recalls.
“Problems were always occurring. Crystals would appear in the viscose, then go away just
as quickly. Or yarn would suddenly turn as stiff as wire, instead of being soft and silky.”
What does he remember of his illustrious colleagues at that time?
“Stearn was very secretive, and quite a scholar. He wouldn’t give you a penny more than
he was obliged to and he had a mania for punctuality. Topham imagined that everything
that happened was done by him. He decided one day that he had discovered the ageing
process for viscose. Yet this was something Cross and I had been working on years before
Topham had ever heard of it.”
By the time Courtaulds began to show interest, Mr. Beer had also come face to face with
the company’s driving force at that time – H.G. Tetley. “He was a most extraordinary man
and would always contradict everything you said. Everybody admired him except me, and most
people were afraid of him. But it seems that a dominating personality like his was needed to
get viscose onto the market. Certainly when the money ran out, it was Tetley who persuaded
Courtaulds to re-finance and start again. And next time they really did make money.”
205

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Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
The Courtauld Institute of Art
The foundation of the Courtauld Institute of Art was presided over by a triumvirate of
collectors, brought together by a common wish to improve understanding of the visual
arts in Great Britain. Precedents for such an institution existed in Europe and America,
but there was opposition to the idea in Britain, rooted in the country’s deep-seated
conviction that the arts were the playthings of the rich and not a suitable subject for
a university education. Without the initiative and persistence of the founding fathers,
Viscount Lee of Fareham, Samuel Courtauld IV, and Sir Robert Witt, it is doubtful
whether the project would ever have got off the ground.
The founding fathers
The three founders came from very different backgrounds. Lee was the son of a
Dorset rector who rose to eminence through the army, public service and government,
and he knew how to exercise influence. It was Samuel Courtauld IV who provided the
bulk of the money for the enterprise. Courtauld’s wealth came from the family textile
business, but on both sides of his family there were connections with the arts and
traditions of patronage extending back several generations.
Samuel Courtauld IV loved paintings and wrote poems about them. He bought French
Impressionists and Cézannes and took out a lease on the best Adam house in London
in which to display them – a novel and stunning combination. In 1931, he made over
the house in Portman Square, together with the pictures, for the use of the new
Institute – until such time as permanent accommodation could be found for them.
In the event, the Adam house in Portman Square was to be the Institute’s home for
almost 60 years. The third member of the group, Sir Robert Witt, was a successful
lawyer who collected drawings of old masters; but his principal contribution to the
enterprise was a vast collection of reproductions of paintings. Combined with a
similar collection donated by Sir Martin Conway, these were to become the surrogate
primary sources for budding art historians. The aim of the three founders was to
provide training for professionals who intended to enter the various branches of the
art business. The doors of the Institute opened in October 1932.
The Warburg émigrés
On December 12, 1933, as a direct response to the advent of a Nazi government in
Germany, a group of scholars attached to the Warburg Library in Hamburg decided to seek
refuge abroad. Lee and Courtauld were instrumental in arranging for them to be resettled in
London, and their presence slowly but inexorably transformed the perception of art history
in England. The Warburg émigrés introduced standards of scholarship unknown among
English art historians, and they practiced a kind of art history far removed from the connoisseurs,
collectors and the art trade. For the Warburg scholars, the arts were inextricably
bound up with the zeitgeist of the time, and art history entailed research into the past in
which the clear-cut distinction between history and art history ceased to exist. It was an
approach which called for a formidable array of intellectual talents.
Putting art history on the map
The Courtauld Institute of Art became a small powerhouse of intellectual activity which put art
history on the British academic map. Many of its post-war achievements were attributable
to Sir Anthony Blunt, the Keeper of the Royal Pictures, who led a double life as one of the
“Cambridge Five” spy-ring and who eventually defected to the USSR. While Blunt’s duplicity
remains a sensitive topic among Britain’s intelligentsia, his dedication to the success of the
Courtauld Institute is unquestioned.
Under Blunt’s aegis, the Institute’s program of research was left entirely to the students
themselves. Arriving already with graduate qualifications in history, literature, languages
and even philosophy, they quickly acquired an outstanding reputation for their dedication
to the highest standards of post-graduate historical research. A substantial number were
to become leading art historians.
Over the years, the Institute’s success has attracted many private benefactors, who have
continued to expand its considerable collection – most notably Spooner, Gambier-Parry,
and Seilern. In the 1980s, the Courtauld Institute of Art and its collection were relocated to
Somerset House on London’s Strand. It remains an entirely independent institute and, as it
celebrates the 75th anniversary of its foundation, is recognized as an international center of
excellence in the study of art history.

Members of the Viscose Spinning Syndicate. From left to right: C.F. Cross, Edouard Thomas,
Mr. Mutar (secretary to Hugo Kolker), Hugo Kolker, F. Topham and F. Woodley

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Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
The discovery of nylon in America in 1937–1938 helped
to bring home to Samuel Courtauld IV the science-based
nature of the company’s activities. Yet, although Courtaulds’
laboratories proved their practical value in a variety of ways,
the funds invested in basic research remained very low.
The need for directed research work was only just being
realized when war came.
There were bright spots in the gloom, however. Courtaulds
was itself responsible for the successful development
of high-tenacity tire yarn just before the war – a breakthrough
which was to prove of great value. Moreover, a
policy of taking new products to the consumer and demonstrating
them to the more conservative elements in
the textile manufacturing strongholds of Lancashire and
Yorkshire paid off handsomely. But war was to impact this
phase of recovery.
World War II – and the loss of AVC
World War II brought problems to Courtaulds. Output
dropped, costs rose, the burden of taxation grew heavier,
and the Coventry factory suffered badly in the air raids of
1941. But none of these events was as important as the
enforced sale, in 1941, of American Viscose Corporation.
This loss effectively cut Courtaulds Ltd. in half.
The Courtauld Silver Collection
In 1939–1940, the United States was supplying Britain with
armaments on a large scale. In the summer of 1940, the
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, suggested
that it would be desirable for British-owned industrial
concerns in the United States to be transferred into
American ownership by way of recompense. The largest of
these was AVC. At the end of 1940, when Britain’s financial
position was rapidly worsening, President Roosevelt
announced the principle of “Lend-Lease”. The pressure to
make Britain sell some of her direct investments in America
grew stronger. In January 1941, Morgenthau stated before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “every dollar”
of British property in the United States would be sold. On
March 10, Morgenthau told the British Ambassador that a
big sale must be made by the end of the week. Plans were
rushed through and on March 16, AVC was publicly signed
away to a syndicate of American bankers. The total payment
was eventually set at just over £27 million.
Post-war recovery and change
Following the death of Samuel Courtauld IV in 1947, Courtaulds embarked on acquiring
what is now known as the Courtauld Silver Collection. The collection comprises pieces by
three generations of 18th century London silversmiths, members of the Huguenot Courtauld
family and ancestors of Samuel Courtauld IV, after whom the Institute is named. The
descendants of Augustin Courtauld were successful, prolific and renowned silversmiths,
and prominent members of the Huguenot community, which contributed so notably to the
arts and skilled crafts, commercial enterprise and public life of 18th century England.
Designed for domestic use and display, the items range in date from 1710 to 1779 and
demonstrate the quality of workmanship and innovative design skills brought to England by
Huguenot refugee craftsmen. The Courtauld Silver Collection now belongs to AkzoNobel
and is kept on permanent loan at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
The existence of this vast amount of cash overshadowed
the course of Courtaulds’ post-war recovery. Expenditure
on directed research was substantially increased and
modernization programs were begun. Meanwhile, the output
of ordinary rayon filament yarn was gradually replaced by
nylon (in stockings) and by cotton variously treated so as to
give crease resistance (in a variety of uses). Rapid expansion
of nylon manufacture started after the war, targeting
commercial markets. In the case of rayon, the increase
in output was concentrated on strong yarns, for tires and
other industrial purposes, and even more so on staple fiber
(fiber that comes in discrete and consistent lengths).
Diversification and the move into
packaging and paints
These measures seemed to be working. But then profits
started to slip. Furthermore, as the full impact of nylon
and other new synthetic fibers made themselves felt,
the whole future of rayon came into question. In this
context of incipient crisis, new policies were contrived.
Successful research work had been proceeding within
the company upon tri-acetate yarns and acrylic fibers.
It was therefore decided to employ new marketing
techniques and embark upon a program of vigorous sales
promotion for these fibers.
Faith in the future of rayon was signaled by further research
efforts designed to improve the quality and versatility of
rayon staple, and a policy of diversification was elaborated.

Henry Greenwood Tetley, the man who understood that Courtaulds had to
find a new product after the collapse of the market for mourning crepe Courtaulds mourning crepe, 1890

210
Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
In pursuit of these policies, Courtaulds acquired British
Celanese Ltd. in 1957 and five other rayon companies
between 1959 and 1963. This process of diversification
led in various directions. The company’s existing
interest in packaging, through British Cellophane Ltd., led
to the acquisition of firms making containers of various
sorts. The company’s chemical interests, meanwhile,
pointed the way to a move into paints. The small Cellon
Ltd. (acquired in 1958), the much large Pinchin, Johnson
and Associates Ltd (acquired in 1960) and International
Paints (Holdings) Limited (acquired in 1968), together with
the International name, became the successful Coatings
division of Courtaulds.
ICI bids for Courtaulds
Courtaulds’ fortunes began to improve. Sales of the new
fibers Courtelle ® (the first British acrylic fiber) and Tricel ® were
becoming significant, rationalization within the Courtaulds
Group helped to manage costs, and better trading
conditions improved turnover. Then, in December 1961,
ICI made its famous takeover bid for Courtaulds.
During the autumn of 1961, informal talks about a possible
merger had taken place. Courtaulds’ shares had been
falling on the stock exchange, but they dropped further
at the beginning of November, when a cut in the interim
dividend was announced. Talks between Courtaulds and
ICI continued, but apparently these did not include any
detailed negotiations for a merger or takeover. On December
18, however, preceded by an unexplained press leak,
ICI made a public takeover proposal. Courtaulds opposed
the takeover and advised their shareholders accordingly.
Battle was joined. As the biggest takeover bid in British
industrial history up to that time, the conflict attracted
considerable attention. Courtaulds issued a detailed
statement forecasting a 60 percent rise in profits over
the next three years. This and other measures had the
effect of pushing the stock exchange valuation of the company’s
shares above the value placed upon them by the ICI
offer. On March 12, ICI conceded defeat, having secured
only 38 percent of Courtaulds’ equity.
Shortly thereafter, the chairmanship passed to (later Sir)
C.F. Kearton, who had played a major part in opposing the ICI
bid. The two outstanding features of the company’s performance
and policy in the 1960s were first, not only meeting, but
actually exceeding, the profit forecasts made at the time of the
bid; and, second, the drive to build up viable manufacturing
interests at every level of the textile industry. This was largely
attributable to rapidly increasing sales of Courtelle ® and of
modified varieties of rayon staple fiber. In 1964, the direct
consequences of ICI’s bid were terminated by an agreement
between the two companies. ICI’s 38 percent shareholding
in Courtaulds’ equity was cancelled, and ICI agreed to pay
Courtaulds £10 million over five years; Courtaulds gave up
their 50 percent interest in British Nylon (the viscose-manufactoring
joint venture between Courtaulds and ICI which had
been established in 1940). The commercial production and
sales of nylon 6, marketed as Cellon, now went ahead.
Vertical integration
Overseas, Courtaulds also sold – in 1964 – their 50 percent
shareholding in the joint venture Glanzstoff-Courtauld
of Cologne; likewise it had by 1966 disposed of the last of
its equity investment in the Italian firm of Snia Viscosa. With
the failure of Britain to enter the European Common Market
in 1963, it became increasingly important for Courtaulds to
look to the British textile industry as the main market for its
fibers. In 1964, Courtaulds therefore acquired two major
groups in the British spinning industry. A policy of investment
in modernization was combined with massive expansion, in
weaving, knitting and bonded fabrics, dyeing, printing and
finishing, and the hosiery and garment trades, as well as
the wholesaling and retailing sections of the textile industry.
These developments added up to a distinctive change in the
company’s strategic direction. But they all had their roots in
the task of solving the problem of what to do with Courtaulds’
£27 million of compensation for the loss of AVC.
The last two members of the Courtauld family to sit on the
Board retired in 1965 and 1966, respectively. It was hoped
that the creation of a vertically integrated fibers–textiles group
engineered under Kearton’s aegis would solve the company’s
excessive reliance on rayon. By 1968, Courtaulds controlled
about 30 percent of cotton-type spinning capacity in
the UK, as well as 35 percent of warp-knitting production
and smaller but significant shares in weaving and finishing.
The 1970s fibers crisis
In the short term, the policy paid off. Profits rose to a high
in 1975. However, despite much reorganization carried out
by Kearton and his immediate successor A.W. (later Sir
Arthur) Knight, Courtaulds was not well placed to cope with
the recession of the late 1970s and especially with the crisis
affecting the European man-made fiber and textile industries.
Profits fell sharply in 1976 and, after some recovery, dropped
again in 1981 to their lowest point since World War II.
Sir Arthur Knight’s successor as chairman in 1979 was
C.A. (later Sir Christopher) Hogg, who began a gradual and
total reorganization of the company. During the ensuing
decade, much of the edifice created by Kearton’s move
into spinning, weaving and the mass production of textiles
was dismantled. Despite investment in new machinery,
yarns and fabrics had made losses or very small profits in
the face of cheaper imports and declining markets overseas.
Substantial closures of spinning and weaving mills
followed. Restructuring overseas included the sale of
Courtaulds’ South African pulp interests. Employee numbers
fell – the 1975 workforce of well over 100,000 in the
United Kingdom alone had contracted by 1988 to 46,000 in
the United Kingdom and 22,000 overseas. In contrast, the
other part of Kearton’s diversification – into paints, chemicals,
and packaging – fared much better. The logic of the
fiber-chemical mix came to its ultimate conclusion with the
demerger of Courtaulds Textiles in 1990.
Courtaulds splits into two companies
Courtaulds plc emerged from the break-up as an industrial
manufacturing company of specialty materials, producing
paints and coatings (accounting for 33 percent of profits in
1990), man-made fibers and films (30 percent), acetates and
other chemicals (23 percent), and packaging materials and
sundry specialized products (14 percent). It operated in 37
countries. Courtaulds Textiles plc, with 28,000 employees,
was primarily a UK-based operation with nearly 80 percent
of its workforce there. Its chief activities were the making
of apparel and furnishing fabrics, the manufacture of garments
under various brand names, and a much-reduced
spinning section.
A new era
In 1991, Sir Christopher Hogg was appointed Chairman of
the company and the 30-year Courtaulds veteran Sipko
Huismans was appointed the company’s Chief Executive.
Huismans concentrated on new product development,
consolidation via joint ventures and acquisitions, and geo-

An advertisement for British Celanese from the 1920s
211

212
Courtaulds:
From Victorian silk to synthetic fibers
The Courtaulds legacy
graphic expansion. Asserting in a 1990 Chief Executive
magazine article that “ironically, the demerger made the
mature fibers businesses an even larger proportion of the
new Courtaulds,” Huismans focused new product development
on fibers that would command higher margins.
The most celebrated of these was Tencel ® , a cellulosic
(wood pulp) fiber which boasted strength, softness, washability,
and dyeability. The company started mass production
of this “luxury fiber” in 1992 at a plant in Mobile,
Alabama, and marketed it primarily in Japan. Brisk sales
prompted rapid increases in manufacturing capacity; by
1996 Courtaulds had added a second U.S. factory and
brought a UK plant into operation in 1997.
Acquisition by Akzo Nobel
Huismans retired in July 1996, to be replaced by Gordon
Campbell. In the early 1990s, Courtaulds’ main business
strength was based on technology, particularly polymer technology
and surface science, specializing in products for protection
or decoration in a wide range of demanding environments.
Its businesses included performance films, coatings,
sealants and adhesives, advanced materials, packaging,
chemicals, fibers and films, but before the end of that decade
most of these activities had been divested. Akzo Nobel saw
Courtaulds’ coatings and sealants business as complementary
to its existing business, both in terms of the industry
segments in which they operated and their geographic coverage,
and it also believed that the acquisition of Courtaulds
would help it to strengthen and broaden its coatings activities.
Adding Courtaulds’ fibers activities to Akzo Nobel’s existing
fibers group would create a broadly based international fibers
business which Akzo Nobel believed would be viable as a
stand-alone company that could ultimately be spun off.
On May 11, 1998, Akzo Nobel made an offer to acquire the
whole of the issued share capital of Courtaulds plc. By July
7, 1998, acceptances had been received in respect of more
than 90 percent and the offer was declared wholly unconditional.
Akzo Nobel then merged all its fibers activities into
a new business called Acordis, thus creating a potential exit
for both companies from this poorly performing area. Acordis
was subsequently sold to CVC Capital partners in 1999.
The EU competition authority insisted on the divestment of
Courtaulds’ aerospace interests. AkzoNobel has nevertheless
built an extremely strong position in aerospace coatings
by virtue of subsequent acquisitions and is now equal to
PPG Industries of the United States in this field. (Interestingly,
PPG Industries mounted a counter bid for Courtaulds, with
a partner to take over the fibers operation, but subsequently
withdrew this offer after completing a deal with Akzo Nobel
to acquire Porter Paints and the worldwide Packaging
Coatings business.)

Women workers reeling yarn, Wolverhampton, England, 1930
213

214
The founding partners of Holzapfels Limited pictured in 1885:
the Holzapfel brothers (Max, W. and L. – names unknown),
a Mr F. Schnitger and another unidentified gentleman

The Courtaulds legacy
It began in 1881 with a handful of wooden casks, a simple mixing process,
and two brothers determined to make their way in the world of marine
paint. Max and Albert Holzapfel were young, ambitious and confident
of success. But even they could hardly have foreseen the growth that
would eventually push their business into worldwide expansion.
215
Overview
The birth of the red propeller brand
An international name for an international company
Acquisition by Courtaulds
Product innovation and geographical growth
New technologies and markets

216
International:
A company with a truly international mindset
The Courtaulds legacy
In 1881, their first priority was to build firm foundations at
home. The Holzapfels – German-born, British by adoption
– went into business with a third partner, Charles Petrie,
mixing paint by hand in a shipyard shed on the River Tyne
in Newcastle. As unknowns in a booming industry, they
faced a tough challenge persuading ship owners and ship
builders to buy their fledgling products. Yet even while concentrating
on British customers, they were thinking about
wider possibilities.
The birth of the red propeller brand
International was launched, with its distinctive red propeller
brand, as the name for a marine antifouling paint strong enough
to protect ocean-going vessels even in the harshest of marine
environments. The name caught on, customer demand grew,
and the company moved to larger premises in Gateshead, a
stone’s throw to the south, where it introduced iron mixing
tanks and a mechanized process.
Further expansion followed, and in 1904 the company built
a landmark factory a few miles further to the southeast at
Felling-on-Tyne, which has been its main operational base
ever since. Future efforts would concentrate on extending its
activities around the world and making the International name
respected throughout the global marine industry.
Overseas production had begun in 1889, with a factory built
in Russia to avoid the heavy duties on imported paint in
that country. Other initiatives followed in Denmark, Italy and
Germany, and 1901 saw the first foothold in the New World.
An American operation, International Paint Co. Inc., was registered
in New Jersey and produced coatings in Brooklyn, New
York, selling to ship owners along the United States’ eastern
seaboard. By 1914, International’s reputation was growing fast,
and new factories were added in Sweden, France and Japan.
An international name
for an international company
Even World War I did little to halt progress. Now known officially
as International Paints, the company moved its headquarters
to London and embarked on a further period of
expansion, starting up new operations of its own, acquiring
others and breaking into different user markets. Holzapfels
Limited changed its name to The International Paint &
Compositions Co. Ltd in 1918 and ultimately to International
Paints (Holdings) Ltd in 1951.
Activities were launched in Spain, Canada, Brazil, Mexico,
Australia and New Zealand and began to include the manufacture
and marketing of coatings for domestic and industrial,
as well as marine, applications. International also started
supplying yacht paints as a separate operation, focusing on
the sale of smaller packs to pleasure-boat builders, firstly in
the UK in 1931, then in the United States the following year.
The company’s activities continued to advance on a wide
front. When World War II started, International was well
placed to help the Allies’ cause, servicing naval fleets and
supplying coatings for military hardware. Post-war progress
continued with a scheme to expand and modernize the
Felling factory, building new research, production, office and
canteen facilities. More overseas businesses were set up
– in the Netherlands, Portugal, Nigeria and Venezuela – and
the company added drum-making, ships’ stores and paint
application to its range of interests. By this time, however,
diversification was bringing its own difficulties, and the scene
was set for a major shift in the way UK coatings businesses
were owned and operated.
Acquisition by Courtaulds
Courtaulds, a leading producer of man-made fibers (which
was to be acquired by Akzo Nobel in 1998) decided to move
into paints, and in 1958 acquired aircraft coatings specialist
Cellon. Two years later, Courtaulds took over Pinchin
Johnson & Associates (PJA), suppliers of coatings for a wide
range of industrial applications, from food cans to automobiles.
PJA was a large conglomerate in its own right and a
successful coatings company that had been trading since
1834. Finally in 1968, PJA – now a wholly owned subsidiary
of Courtaulds (Courtaulds acted as a white knight) – acquired
International Paints (Holdings) Ltd, of which Shell had been a
former shareholder. Courtaulds then set about merging all its
Coatings interests under the International banner, changing
the name of PJA to The International Paint Co. Ltd. Ultimately
the name was changed to International Paint Ltd.
Like International, PJA was a British-owned enterprise which
had established its home base on the banks of a major commercial
waterway – in London’s Silvertown, on the Thames –
and spread across the world. But there the similarities ended.
Pinchin Johnson had started life as a producer of oils and
turpentines in the East End of London, supplying the embryonic
businesses emerging from Britain’s Industrial Revolution.
Not only was its product expertise different from that of
International, but it also pursued worldwide growth mainly by
acquiring other companies and technologies. By 1930, Red
Hand, Docker Brothers and Robert Ingham Clark were just
some of the many acquisitions grouped under the company’s
umbrella, servicing customers in the automotive, aviation,
packaging, building, passenger transport and domestic appliance
industries. Overseas, Pinchin Johnson had businesses in
Europe, Australia, New Zealand and India, with smaller operations
in the United States, Nigeria and the Far East.
The challenge facing Courtaulds in 1968 was how to weld
these two business aggregations into a more manageable
whole. Both were suffering from the same problems: too many
markets, not enough profits. Inevitably, some overlapping
activities were sold off, and by the end of the 1980s Courtaulds
had narrowed down the range of coatings markets that it supplied
to packaging, marine and yacht, protective, agricultural,
domestic appliance, architectural and aerospace, plus – in
some countries – decorative paint.
Product innovation and geographical growth
Two moves, one product-based and the other geographic,
showed that the newly shaped International Paint Co. was
just as determined to grow as its predecessors had been.
Solvent-free powder coatings, partly because of their environmental
advantages, were beginning to challenge wet
paints as the preferred product for metal protection across a
whole range of industrial products, and International became
an early leader in this developing technology. It opened a
new factory at Felling in 1974, acquired powder coatings
businesses in Germany, Brazil and Italy, and started producing
in the Far East and Australia. By the 1990s, 15 plants
were operating worldwide and the Interpon ® powder brand
was selling in more than 40 countries.
The major geographic push came across the Asia Pacific
region, as International moved to satisfy demand for marine,
protective, packaging and powder coatings in those rapidlygrowing
economies. Singapore became the springboard for
expansion into Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Taiwan and
Indonesia, mostly through joint operations with local companies.
It was a campaign of growth which lasted for most of the
1980s and 1990s. Once again, International had found the
right formula – replicating homegrown technology in different
parts of the world and nursing it to fruition with local knowledge
and skills. Similar joint businesses were set up in the
Middle East, and operations were strengthened in Australia

Employees gather around the original barrel used by the Holzapfel Brothers to make varnishes in a yard behind the Dunn Cow Inn around 1886.
This photograph was taken in 1955 in the Felling production area, where the barrel is kept on display
217

218
Interior of Tankhouse 6 at Felling,
United Kingdom, in 1995

Marine coatings being delivered to a ship
at the dockside, ready to be loaded for the
purposes of maintenance while the vessel is
at sea. Pinchin Johnson and Company Ltd
(established in 1899) acquired the Red Hand
Compositions Company in the early 1920s to
produce paints and coatings for the marine
industry. This photograph dates from the
early 1960s

220
International:
A company with a truly international mindset
The Courtaulds legacy
and the United States. Courtaulds’ acquisition of U.S. companies
Porter Paints and DeSoto added trade paints and
aerospace coatings respectively to the product mix, while in
Europe, International took full control of a marine business in
Norway which it had previously partly owned.
New technologies and markets
Other acquisitions gave the company an entry into new yacht
coating technologies and markets: Extensor, a Swedish
business specializing in thin-film products for high-speed
craft; and Epiglass, in New Zealand, producing a range of
epoxy products targeted at DIY boat builders – now a major
sales outlet.
At the same time, technological advances kept the company
ahead of its competitors in many fields, particularly marine
applications. Self-polishing copolymer, a revolutionary antifouling
developed at Felling, became a worldwide bestseller,
and innovative work on tin-free coatings has kept up the
momentum, providing a new generation of products that
comply with today’s tougher environmental requirements.
By 1998, Coatings & Sealants was the most profitable
of Courtaulds’ activities, and plans were announced to
launch it as a separate business. This prompted an offer
from Akzo Nobel for the whole of Courtaulds (fibers and
coatings), which was accepted by the required majority of
shareholders. Akzo Nobel had to dispose of Courtaulds’
aerospace interests because of competition issues; the
remaining coatings operations were realigned in the integration
following the takeover.
Today, as one of six AkzoNobel Coatings business areas,
International Paint maintains its responsibility for supplying
the Marine, Protective, Yacht and Aerospace coatings markets.
Its former powder activity now operates as Powder
Coatings, a separate Coatings business within AkzoNobel,
and is the world’s largest manufacturer of powder coatings.
In all four of its current business activities, International
continues to be a major global force. It is the world market
leader in heavy-duty coatings for shipbuilding and repair, the
largest manufacturer of high performance protective coatings
for building construction and maintenance, the leading
supplier of yacht paints for pleasure boats, and a major coatings
supplier to the world’s aerospace industry.
Intersleek ® 900 – helping to reduce the
environmental impact of shipping
With an estimated 300 million tons of fuel consumed annually by the world’s fleet, there is a
clear need to reduce the environmental impact of shipping. At this level of consumption, the
industry emits some 960 million tons of CO 2 and 9 million tons of SO 2 annually.
The International Maritime Organization estimates that without corrective action and the introduction
of new technologies, air emissions due to increased bunker fuel consumption by the
world shipping fleet could increase by 38 to 72 percent by 2020.
For decades now, the industry has sought viable means of saving energy. One option is
through the use of antifouling coatings. These improve the speed and energy efficiency of
ships by preventing organisms such as barnacles and weeds from building up on the underwater
hull and thus restricting the ship’s movement through the water.
International Paint has supported the shipping industry with pioneering antifouling technology
since the introduction of the first Self-Polishing Copolymer (SPC) antifouling in 1974. In 1996,
International Paint introduced Intersleek ® 425, the first commercially available biocide-free foul
release technology for fast craft. In 1999, the revolutionary Intersleek ® 700 for deep sea vessels
was launched.
This silicone-based technology works on a foul release basis by providing an extremely slippery
surface to which fouling organisms have difficulty attaching themselves. Any which do
succeed can normally only attain a weak hold and are in general easily removed.
Within a short time, Intersleek ® 700 became the industry benchmark in foul release technology.
It was followed in 2007 by Intersleek ® 900 – a unique new patented fluoropolymer
foul release coating which significantly improves on the performance of Intersleek ® 700’s silicone-based
system. With unprecedented low levels of average hull roughness combined with
excellent foul release capabilities and good resistance to mechanical damage, Intersleek ® 900
offers the benefits of foul release technology to all vessels with an average speed of above 10
knots for the first time ever.

International Paint, with its renowned red propeller logo, is the world
leader in high performance marine coatings
A Corona spray gun spraying a powder coating onto a substrate.
Powder coatings are more environmentally friendly than traditional
paints as they do not contain solvents

222
1
ICI, p. 225
London
Alderly Park
Billingham
Jealotts Hill
Runcorn
Severnside
Slough
Teesside
Winnington
marks the place on the map where the company
in question (see the left-hand column) was
founded.
Locations named in a chapter are listed on the
left under the name of the relevant company. The
fi rst location named is the place where the company
was founded; all other locations are listed
alphabetically.
If locations cannot be distinguished from one
another because they are too close together, a
place already shown on the map or one that is
central to those locations is given in parenthesis.
Ireland
Dublin
Belfast
Glasgow
Scotland
Wales
Aberdeen
Edinburgh
Leeds
Manchester
Liverpool
Birmingham
England
Cardiff
Bristol
France
1
London

223

224
Soap and soda works in Widnes, Lancashire, in the 1890s.
The technologies of the day were extremely polluting. Ludwig Mond,
co-founder of ICI, devised a process for recovering sulfur from the
manufacturing process, thus reducing pollution

The ICI legacy
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) is unique among companies
that have gone into creating AkzoNobel in that it
was born on a ship. That vessel was the RMS Aquitania,
aboard which the company’s constitution – the “Aquitania
Agreement” – was drawn up during a trans atlantic crossing
in 1926. ICI was the result of a merger of four British companies
which came together with the objective of challenging
the rest of the world’s chemical producers. The
four were the alkali company Brunner, Mond & Co. Ltd
(“Brunner Mond”); the British arm of Nobel Industries (the
explosives concern established in 1870 by Alfred Nobel
and described elsewhere in this volume); United Alkali;
and British Dyestuffs. The merger was a response to two
main factors. On the one hand, ICI’s founders feared the
ascendancy of the German chemicals industry, which had
emerged from World War I even stronger than before. On
the other, they needed to find an answer to the growing
power of the American chemical industry, with its aggressive
promotion of free trade.
The Aquitania Agreement
Magnificence on Millbank
Depression and disaster
Into the age of plastics
The invention of polythene
The Fawcett disclosure
An improved process for the production of
polythene
Polythene is patented
Polythene is manufactured on industrial
scale
Polythene is used in radar
The Ziegler process for polythene
manufacture
Profits from war
The invention of Perspex ®
Man-made fibers
Terylene ® – the first polyester
Nuclear fission
Polythene enters the domestic market
Revolution in refrigeration
A new generation of dyestuffs
225
Overview
The Dulux ® dog
ICI becomes a pharmaceutical player
The war against malaria
The first usable penicillin
A breakthrough anesthetic: Fluothane ®
James Black invents beta-blockers
Pesticides and hormonal weed killers
The first hormonal weed killer
Growing a new protein
The environmental revolution
Substitutes for CFCs
Driving environmental standards
Biopol ® – the biodegradable plastic
Advanced materials for aerospace
“Fewer but better” drugs
Recession and turnaround in the 1980s
ICI becomes a specialty chemicals and
paints producer
ICI focuses on high-growth, high-margin
businesses
Acquisition by AkzoNobel

226
Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
In the 1870s Britain had had the world’s largest heavy chemical
industry, focused chiefly on heavy bulk products such
as soda ash, chlorine, sulfuric acid, bleach, and industrial
explosives. The leading British company was Brunner Mond,
founded in 1873 by John Tomlinson Brunner and Ludwig
Mond, a brilliant German chemist who saw that the future for
soda-ash production lay in the new Solvay process, which
produced a purer and more economical ash than the older
Leblanc manufacturing process. Soda ash was a key raw
material for the glass, paper, soap and textile industries,
among others. Brunner Mond licensed in the Solvay process
in 1873 and within 20 years became the world’s biggest alkali
manufacturing business.
Alfred Nobel’s companies stretched throughout Europe
and also operated in America. They were nowhere stronger
than in Britain, where Nobel founded the British Dynamite
Company in Glasgow in 1871. This British company, whose
title soon changed to Nobel Explosives Ltd, was by 1886
linked to four Nobel companies in Germany under a holding
company called the Nobel-Dynamite Trust Company Ltd
– a powerful combine which endured until the World War I,
being formally disbanded in January 1915.
United Alkali had its origins in the older Leblanc process for
manufacturing soda ash. Although the new Solvay process
produced superior soda ash, manufacturers using the
Leblanc process managed to survive by producing chlorine
as a by-product – something that even the brilliant Ludwig
Mond had not managed to derive from the Solvay technique.
A by-product of chlorine was bleaching powder, which found
extensive use in the textile industry and which Mond had
likewise been unable to recover from the Solvay system. In
1891 the British companies using the Leblanc process amalgamated
under the presidency of Sir Charles Tennant and
renamed themselves the United Alkali Company. Capitalized
at more than £8 million, it was the world’s largest chemical
business at the time, with 48 factories in Britain.
The British Dyestuffs Corporation was founded in 1919 by
the amalgamation of British Dyes Ltd with Levinstein Ltd,
the British Alizarine Company and a dozen lesser dyestuff
manufacturers. Although a British chemist, W.H. Perkin, was
first in the world to succeed in synthesizing a natural dye (the
color mauve, which he extracted from aniline in 1856), by
1914 Germany led the world in dyestuff manufacture, producing
88 percent of all synthetic dyes. The whole of German
industry suffered in the wake of the war, but it was surprisingly
quick to recover. By the year of ICI’s foundation, the
country’s leading chemical manufacturers – BASF, Hoechst,
Bayer and Agfa – had not only recovered the dyestuff markets
which they had dominated before 1914 but also leaped
ahead in connected fields such as pharmaceuticals and photographic
supplies. Even before the war, German industrial
chemists were outstripping their British counterparts in the
development of products such as varnishes, cellulose fibers,
insecticides, pigments and perfumes. The combined power
of German chemical manufacture, united under the umbrella
of IG Farben, was in fact greater than before 1914.
The British chemical industry made one important acquisition
as a result of World War I however – that of the Haber-
Bosch process for synthesizing ammonia. First used on an
industrial scale in Germany in 1913, this process created
synthetic ammonia by “fixing” nitrogen in the atmosphere.
Used for the manufacture of both fertilizers and explosives,
synthetic ammonia played an important role in sustaining
Germany’s war effort. This process was appropriated by
British chemists shortly after the 1919 Armistice and gave
Brunner Mond the wherewithal to develop a British nitrogen
industry. At the behest of the British Ministry of Munitions,
a plant capable of producing 60,000 tons per year of
ammonium nitrate by the Haber-Bosch method was built
shortly afterwards by Brunner Mond at Billingham, near
Middlesborough in north east England; it was to become the
biggest single working asset of the new Imperial Chemical
Industries combine.
If the British chemical industry had much still to fear from its
former enemy, Germany, it had just as much reason for disquiet
in the face of its ally the United States. In 1920 Orlando
F. Weber established Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation.
Created out of the union of five American companies
making everything from alkali to dyes, Allied came to the
market valued at $282.7 million – a sum which outweighed
the value of the entire British chemical sector. Weber had
no patience with the traditional European cartel system
and resolved to carve out a bigger slice of world export
markets for Allied.
By this time Sir Alfred Mond (the second son of Ludwig
Mond) had assumed the leadership of Brunner Mond.
Sir Alfred believed that the future lay with bigger business
units and was the first to apply the term “rationalization” to
the organization of business. His flair was much needed at
Brunner Mond, for the investment in the Billingham ammonium
nitrate plant, in combination with a costly lawsuit
with Lever Brothers over the control of the alkali and soap
industries in Britain, had left the company in need of capital.
Sir Alfred began to look for a merger partner.
Sir Alfred’s first inclination was to seek a merger with arch-rival
IG Farben of Germany. He had always admired the German
chemical industry’s technical brilliance and was interested in
IG’s attempts to extract oil from coal. This vision was to yield,
however, to the views of his fellow captains of industry during
a series of ever more intense discussions during 1925 and
1926; the outcome was to be the formation of ICI.
Nobel Industries in Britain emerged from World War I very
changed, and was further weakened by the bitter 20-week
coal strike of 1926. The company’s chairman, Sir Harry
McGowan, believed that Nobel Industries’ future lay outside
its core competence in explosives and began to invest
heavily in the motor industry. Governmental concern with
the flagging performance of British Dyestuffs in the face of
IG Farben’s technical superiority was to prompt a move of
a different kind, however. Reginald McKenna, the former
British Chancellor of the Exchequer, suggested to Sir Harry
McGowan that a coalition of British companies should take
over British Dyestuffs. Sir Harry suggested instead the creation
of a “British IG” – a combination of Nobel Industries,
Brunner Mond, United Alkali and British Dyestuffs itself. Thus
were the seeds of the ICI concept first sown.
Subsequent discussions of this proposal with Sir Alfred
Mond proved initially unfruitful, however. Sir Alfred was still
interested in the idea of a merger with IG Farben and was
actively pursuing a project to license in the use of IG Farben’s
oil-from-coal technology. Negotiation of this agreement was,
however, to bring the eventual founders of ICI together on
the RMS Aquitania.
The Aquitania Agreement
Sir Alfred crossed the Atlantic on August 21, 1926 to discuss
the oil-from-coal project with Orlando Weber of Allied – for
although the United States possessed its own rich reserves
of oil, it was assumed that the Americans would also wish
to be party to the extended use of IG’s new technology.
Carl Bosch of IG Farben, meanwhile, set sail from Germany
on 15 September with his own plan to negotiate an agreement
with Allied concerning the oil-from-coal project.
Sir Harry McGowan, who had just been on a business trip
to Africa, feared that a “British IG” might be created in New
York without the participation of Nobel Industries. He therefore
caught the next westbound liner out of Southampton,

ICI was created by the merger of four companies, each with its own distinctive logo.
The wavy lines in the Nobel Industries logo were borrowed for the new ICI logo
227

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Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
arriving in New York on September 24. Over lunch with Sir
Alfred Mond the next day, McGowan argued for a merger of
the four leading British chemical companies, hinting that if
Mond did not agree, Nobel Industries would link up with IG
Farben. Mond was persuaded and the merger was agreed
the following day. Carl Bosch and the IG Farben team were
cut out of the equation, and the prospect of collaboration
with IG was abandoned.
Mond and McGowan returned to Britain on the Aquitania.
During the voyage, it was decided that the new company
was to acquire, by exchange of shareholdings, the capital
of Brunner Mond, Nobel Industries, United Alkali (which had
not yet been consulted), and British Dyestuffs Corporation.
Mond and McGowan agreed to name the new company
Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd, a name chosen – as the
company’s first shareholder prospectus explained – “to
lay emphasis upon the fact that the promotion of Imperial
trading interests will command the special consideration and
thought of those who will be responsible for directing the new
Company.” The British Empire, shareholders were reminded,
was “the greatest single economic unit in the world,” and it
would be the avowed intention of the new combine “without
limiting its activities in foreign overseas markets, especially
to extend the development and importance of the Chemical
Industry throughout the Empire.”
The spoils of war
Sir Alfred Mond became ICI’s first chairman, with Sir Harry
McGowan assuming the positions of deputy chairman
and president of the board. United Alkali agreed to the
four-way merger that had been sprung upon them, and
Imperial Chemical Industries was formally incorporated on
December 7, 1926. It took its famous logo from the original
logo of Nobel Industries and was ready for business on
January 1, 1927. In its first year of trading, the new chemical
giant sold £27 million worth of products and made a pre-tax
profit of £4.5 million.
Magnificence on Millbank
On the day after the Armistice, with most of London still roaring drunk and cavorting joyfully
in the streets, a young army major named Francis Freeth, who had been a chemist with
Brunner Mond before the war, called on Lord Moulton in his office and urged him to send
a chemical mission to join the British Army as it advanced through Germany towards the
Rhine. The object, in Freeth’s words, was “to pinch everything they’ve got.” Specifically, he
had in mind the BASF plant near Oppau on the Rhine, where the Haber-Bosch process had
been in production since 1913. Raiding Oppau’s secrets as part of the spoils of war seemed
to Freeth a much more satisfactory method than painstakingly trying to unravel the German
patents. (BASF’s British patents were taken over anyway in the aftermath of war.)
Moulton demurred, though not with great conviction. Others in Whitehall supported Freeth’s
idea and in April 1919 a group of five British chemists duly moved into Oppau, then occupied
by French troops. The BASF management protested to the French commanding officer
ICI identified itself intimately with the British Empire. When the
Registrar of Joint Stock Companies had objected to the proposed
use of the word “Imperial” in the new company’s title,
Sir Alfred Mond and McGowan protested to the President of
the Board of Trade, stating, “We are ‘Imperial’ in aspect and
‘Imperial’ in name … The developments which this Company
has in view, we may confidentially inform you, will be of enormous
value, both from the point of view of national defense
and of the economic position of the Empire.”
“The ICI”, as the company became familiarly known,
employed 33,000 people working in alkali products, metals,
explosives, dyestuffs, and general chemicals including chlo-
rine, acids and synthetic ammonia. ICI’s chief business ally
overseas became the American company DuPont, with which
Nobel Industries had had a strong relationship prior to the
foundation of ICI.
Within two weeks of ICI’s registration as a company, the
excavators were moving in to prepare the foundations of a
magnificent headquarters on London’s Millbank, facing the
Thames near the Houses of Parliament. Imperial Chemical
House went up faster than any other structure of its size
in Britain. It was the first building in the world to be lit by
“artificial daylight” (provided by tungsten lamps in pale-blue
globes); it also had its own artesian wells. The metal fittings
were of a copper and nickel alloy called “Silveroid”, made by
the Mond Nickel Company and using Ludwig Mond’s patented
nickel manufacturing process. The same material was
used to coat the almost 7-meter high main doors, made of
cast bronze and modeled with panels in bas-relief illustrating
the application of science to industry.
In labor relations, the new company started with the reputation
of Brunner Mond’s tradition of “co-workers in industry”
and the works councils, which gave employees direct
access to their managers, but, above all, with the concept
of profit-sharing, which for Sir Alfred Mond lay at the heart
of the co-partnership idea. “The best answer to socialism
is to make every man a capitalist,” Sir Alfred wrote in 1927.
that if he let the British in, they would shut down the plant and throw 10,000 people out of
work. The British party was accordingly asked merely to observe the works, not to take measurements
or draw plans. As they moved through the BASF plant, they found blacked-out dials
on the machinery and great gaps where stairs and ladders had been removed between floors.
The British scientists had to rely on memory, making up sketches and reports as quickly as
they could after leaving. On the way home to England, their luggage was stolen from a locked
and guarded railway wagon. One member of the party, however, had prudently kept his
notes with him in a kitbag, and from these a report was put together, which enabled Brunner
Mond to work out how the system could be constructed. Thirteen rough drawings formed the
basis of the plant; they were drawn in such haste and enthusiasm by one of the Oppau party,
Captain A.H. Cowap, that Brunner Mond’s office manager had to stand by him sharpening
colored pencils as quickly as he broke them in his eagerness to get the details down.

ICI’s purpose-built headquarters on Millbank, London, were a monument
to the art deco movement. Here craftsmen work on carvings in the
unfinished building

230
Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
In pursuit of this, he introduced the ICI Workers’ Shareholding
Scheme, which enabled employees to buy the company’s
ordinary shares below the market price and to pay for them
in installments. As Lord Melchett (Sir Alfred Mond was made
a peer in 1928), he told ICI’s Central Works Council in 1928,
“I look on you as my friends and partners, without whom I
could do nothing and without whom the shareholders would
never see any dividends.”
From the beginnings of ICI, Lord Melchett was determined
to maintain his father’s philosophy of attracting the best
scientific talent of the day to work on industrial problems.
This was the only way, he believed, to match the technological
achievements of IG Farben. Brunner Mond had had
its own well-established head-hunting system. This tradition
was continued within ICI and was supplemented by a
scheme for identifying potential talent within Britain’s public
schools and universities.
To fertilize the new company with scientific talent, Lord
Melchett followed another German practice, setting up a
research council with the universities in 1927 through which
leading academic scientists would be invited to brainstorming
sessions with ICI scientists. The scheme was intended to
provide ideas for promising lines of work in ICI laboratories.
Within a year, ICI’s expenditure on research rose from
£221,000 to £350,000, and recruitment of chemists and
engineers burgeoned.
Depression and disaster
Formative influences:
Sir John Brunner and Ludwig Mond
Ludwig Mond was born in Cassel, in Germany, studied under Bunsen at Heidelberg, and
settled in England in 1864. From his earliest work as a chemistry student, Mond was driven
by the conviction that the wasteful processes of 19th century industry contained a huge
potential for new products and businesses. It was this which led to the first of his scores
of patents, filed in 1861, when he was 22 years, for recovering sulfur from alkali waste, and
ultimately to his perception that the future of the alkali industry lay with the Belgian Solvay
process for producing soda ash.
John Tomlinson Brunner entered parliament in 1885 and gained the nickname the
“Chemical Croesus”. He remained a conscientious backbencher for the next 25 years, and
was made a baronet in 1894. Although he withdrew from the day-to-day business of running
Brunner Mond in pursuit of public life, he remained chairman of the company until 1918.
The characters of Sir John Brunner and Ludwig Mond had a formative influence on the
company they founded, and indirectly but powerfully helped to shape the corporate ethos
ICI’s research program was torpedoed by the Great
Depression. Even before the Wall Street Crash, however,
everything was going wrong at the new chemical giant. ICI’s
success had been largely predicated on the Brunner Mond
nitrogen plant at Billingham supplying an ever-increasing
demand for fertilizers. But the forecasts were wrong. The
world already had far too much production capacity.
Furthermore, market-sharing agreements between ICI and
IG Farben had failed to materialize. The collapse of the
money markets in New York in October 1929 multiplied the
consequences of the nitrogen over-supply for farm products
of all kinds. The Billingham plant had been built on a
scale far in excess of any realistic level of demand. Indeed,
ICI came close to bankruptcy by the end of 1929.
Could the investment at Billingham be rescued? The answer,
Lord Melchett persisted in believing, lay in the dream of
extracting oil from coal. But ICI’s future was in fact to be
secured not by heavy chemicals and bulk commodities, or
even by oil from coal, but from up to then neglected sections
of the company such as Dyestuffs and Explosives. An
entirely new kind of chemical industry was to develop at ICI
– one built on plastics, man-made fibers, pharmaceuticals
and agricultural chemicals.
Into the age of plastics
Plastics of a kind, though not known as such, had existed
since 1862, when Sir Alexander Parkes’ new material – a form
of nitrated cellulose known after its inventor as “Parkesine” –
was exhibited for the first time at the International Exhibition
in London. The better-known “Celluloid,” invented by the
American John Wesley Hyatt in 1869, was also a nitrocellulose
compound. Less flammable acetate resins were patented
by Cross and Bevan in 1894 and phenol formaldehyde
resins by the Belgian Leo Baekeland in 1909. Under
the trade name of Bakelite ® , the latter was used for many
domestic objects in the homes of the 1920s.
of Imperial Chemical Industries. Mond’s passion for laboratory research and his incessant
seeking after new markets that could be created out of scientific discovery gave Brunner
Mond an edge of innovation, while Brunner’s radical instincts and non-conformist background
molded the company’s reputation as a progressive employer in the tradition of the
Rowntrees, Cadburys, Wedgewoods and Courtaulds. Brunner Mond brought to ICI several
pioneering concepts in industrial relations. It was the first company to introduce (in 1884)
a week’s holiday with pay for every worker who had completed a set number of shifts in
the year. The holiday week’s pay was subsequently doubled to enable workers to take
a proper break, and at a time of their own choosing, not when it suited the employer. Sir
John Brunner also introduced the idea of an industrial “parliament” at which workers had a
chance to question the boss in person –a tradition that was enshrined in ICI from the beginning.
In Victorian Britain, such an idea smacked of an invitation to anarchy, if not outright
subversion or insubordination.

The cover of ICI’s first in-house journal in 1928
symbolized the company’s progressive ideas
for linking workers and management,
a philosophy inherited from Brunner Mond
231

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Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
However it was German chemists who were in the vanguard
of plastics research. In 1922 Hermann Staudinger published
his findings about the structure of natural rubber, suggesting
that it was composed of giant long-chain molecules. With this
new understanding, scientists were able to begin developing
much more flexible, truly plastic materials. In Britain, however,
ICI was still thinking of materials based on nitrocellulose
(which was almost explosive) or formaldehyde and urea,
which the Billingham plant was well equipped to provide.
Attractive possibilities certainly presented themselves for
manufacturers of plastics. There was a rising demand for
electrical gadgets for the home made of Bakelite ® and casein
formaldehyde products, which was driven by the expansion
in housing that continued even during the Depression. ICI
acquired a majority stake in a firm called Croydon Mouldrite
Ltd, a manufacturer of phenol-formaldehyde powders which
was regarded as the most important British competitor to
American-owned Bakelite ® . ICI then set about organizing
a Plastics Division to coordinate its research into urea-formaldehyde,
vinyl resins, nitrocellulose and phenol-formaldehyde.
In 1938, all the strands, including the discovery of
methyl-methacrylate (Perspex ® ), would be pulled together
into a Plastics Group, but long before that, one of the key
discoveries of the 20th century was made by accident in a
laboratory at Winnington, home of the Alkali Group.
The invention of polythene
The word “plastics” was coined by ICI in 1927, but it was a
1933 laboratory accident that led its scientists to discover a
new polymer that was a landmark in its development – polythene
(or polyethylene), the very first plastic. This product was
to revolutionize industrial manufacture in the 20th century and
facilitate the consumer revolution of the post-World War II era.
ICI’s Francis Freeth, the aforementioned army major, was
previously a believer in “blue-sky” research. Between 1919
and 1922, Freeth spent time at the University of Leiden in the
Netherlands, the home of one of Europe’s finest physics laboratories,
to study how experimental techniques there were
being applied to liquid–gas systems at high pressure and
low temperatures. He imported one of Leiden’s finest glass
blowers and two highly skilled Dutch instrument makers to
help prepare the equipment for his work on ammonia-soda
and oil-from-coal at ICI. The vessels they made for highpressure
work paved the way for the experiments in which a
revolutionary new polymer was to be made.
Freeth recruited two young chemists from London
University, John Swallow and Reginald Gibson, and sent
each to study at Leiden University. While Gibson was there
he sought help from Dr Anton Michels, a research assistant
in the Thermodynamics Laboratory in Amsterdam who was
working on the design of apparatus to make precision measurements
at high pressures. A friendship evolved between
the two men, and at Michels’ request, Gibson was sent to
Amsterdam in 1928 to work with him for the next three years.
The following year, two more bright graduates who would
play key roles in the polythene story were recruited by ICI:
Michael Willcox Perrin and Eric William Fawcett.
By mid-1930, ICI’s research laboratories at Winnington numbered
82 senior research staff, and faith in “blue-sky” research
continued there even as the Depression began to bite. A
report in July 1930 by the Winnington research management
team noted that the Physical Chemistry Group was engaged
on “work involving special techniques ... in general of a high
scientific order, and it is out of work of this type that the big
discoveries have usually come in the past ... we submit in our
unanimous opinion that this type of work should be extended”.
The recommendation was accepted, and work went ahead to
see what interesting phenomena could be discovered at high
temperatures, in vacuum and at high pressures.
The project was sponsored by the Dyestuffs Group, which
was interested in pressure-freezing as a method of isolating
different dyestuffs. A young Cambridge engineer called
Dermot Manning was given the task of designing vessels
that could be used up to a pressure of 3,000 atmos-
pheres: they became known, from their shape, as bombs.
Early in 1931, the high-pressure apparatus, made in the
Netherlands under Michels’ supervision, was installed at
Winnington. Michels speculated that pressures above 1,000
atmospheres might produce chemical reactions that would
not normally happen except in the presence of catalysts.
The pressure-freezing experiments for Dyestuffs came to a
dead end, but ICI continued exploring high-pressure chemistry.
Gibson and Fawcett began work with mixtures of ethylene
and carbon monoxide. These were found to react readily
at 160°C and 3,000 atmospheres to give a white, powdery
substance which appeared to be a type of polymer. On the
evening of Friday, March 24, 1933, Gibson and Fawcett set
out to react ethylene and benzaldehyde at a temperature of
170°C and a pressure of 1,900 atmospheres. The apparatus
was left overnight and on the Saturday morning was found
to have lost some gas. The two chemists raised the pressure
back to over 1,900 and left it over the weekend. On Monday
morning there was virtually no pressure left in the apparatus
because a leak had developed in the oil line, and all the benzaldehyde
had blown out of the test tube into the oil. When
they dismantled the “bomb”, Fawcett noticed that the tip of the
gas-inlet tube, which had been in the reaction space, looked
as if it had been dipped in paraffin wax. It was the first recorded
observation of polyethylene, an entirely new polymer.
Analysis showed it to be a polymer of ethylene of fairly high
molecular weight. Threads could be drawn from the molten
material. Attempts to repeat the experiment were only
occasionally successful. The first resulted in an explosion so
violent that it smashed the gauges. But in May the experiment
worked again, producing “a hard wax” solid containing
no oxygen. Fawcett pressed hard to be allowed to continue
the experiments but any commercial possibilities for the new
material seemed remote. More than two years were to elapse
before the ethylene experiments were resumed in December
1935, with a new team of chemists, and the “bombs” this time
safely isolated in brick cubicles. Fawcett, meanwhile, was
nursing a bitter disappointment that his and Gibson’s discovery
had not been allowed to develop. His determination to
make the world of science recognize what had been achieved
led in September 1935 to what became known as “the Fawcett
disclosure”. It could easily have led to Britain losing one of its
key wartime advantages over Germany in the development of
radar, which was to prove the first major use of polythene.
The Fawcett disclosure
The occasion of the Fawcett disclosure was the Faraday
Society’s General Discussion at Cambridge on “The
Phenomena of Polymerization and Condensation.” It was
attended by the world’s most eminent polymer scientists,
including Wallace Carothers of DuPont, then working on his
epoch-making discovery of nylon, and, from Hitler’s Germany,
Hermann Staudinger and Kurt Meyer. Fawcett had applied for
permission within ICI to give a paper on the polymerization of
ethylene, which was at that time unknown. His request was
granted – although patents had not yet even been applied
for. Fawcett actually informed Staudinger privately about the
ICI breakthrough on the evening before the conference.
Staudinger, however, did not believe him. At the conference
itself, Fawcett informed the assembled scientists that he
had succeeding in making a solid polymer ethylene with a
mole-cular weight of 4,000 by heating ethylene to 170°C,

ICI invented polythene, the world’s first plastic, by accident in 1933.
This test tube shows an early sample of the breakthrough product
Eric W. Fawcett, who worked with Reginald O. Gibson on the
discovery of polythene
233

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Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
at a pressure of 1,000 atmospheres. Staudinger refused to
comment. In 1937, two years after ICI’s patents on polythene
were safely out, one of IG Farben’s top polymer chemists,
a Dr Ambros, visited ICI and was heard to remark: “I don’t
know how we missed it.”
An improved process for the production of polythene
Further experiments in polymerization occurred at ICI which
were to considerably improve the quality of polythene.
On December 20, 1935, Michael Perrin, John Paton and
Edmond Williams set up an experiment to make polythene
using ethylene alone. The temperature and pressure were
the same as in Fawcett and Gibson’s first experiment, but the
outcome was different. Pressure started to fall in the “bomb”
– apparently because the ethylene was escaping through a
leaky joint. Perrin’s lab assistant, Frank Bebbington, periodically
raised the pressure back to its original level of 2,000
atmospheres. When all the ethylene in the secondary compressor
was used up, the “bomb” was cooled and opened.
In Perrin’s words, “it was with no surprise but considerable
pleasure that I saw the vessel apparently filled with a white
powder.” There were eight-and-a-half grams of it, more than
double the amount that Fawcett and Gibson had succeeded
in making from all their experiments put together.
It was some months before the team realized that their success
was an accident. IG Farben’s chemists had probably been
right in their assertions that ethylene would not poly-merize
– but a trace of oxygen in the ethylene, which had been supplied
in cylinders by the British Oxygen Company, had acted
as a catalyst. As extra ethylene was fed in to counteract the
leak, the oxygen entering with it had sustained the reaction.
Polythene is patented
By February 1936 the first British provisional patent for polythene
had been filed. By April a brand name, “Alketh”, later
changed to Alkathene ® , was registered for the material.
Complete British patent specifications were filed in Septem-
ber 1937 for the manufacture and conversion of the polymer
into threads and films. The trade mark Alketh was regis-
tered in April 1936 and, in November 1937, the generic
name polythene was introduced to describe solid polymers
of ethylene. In America both DuPont and Union Carbide mapped
out their own paths for the making of polythene, but ICI’s
patents ensured rich royalties for ICI in the U.S. market.
Polythene is manufactured on industrial scale
Polythene was to find many and varied uses in the development
of packaging, insulation materials and household
goods, but it was its application in radar that initially drove
production. From an 80 cc reactor in the original experiments,
development moved to a 750 cc size in November
1936 and, by January 1937, to a 9-litre vessel capable of
producing 10 tons of polythene a year. By September 1938,
ICI had designed a 50-litre reactor capable of making 50
tons a year. The first full-scale polythene plant, a 100-tonner
(comprising two 50-litre vessels) went into production on
September 1, 1939. Polythene was about to meet its hour in
history, while, for ICI as a whole, the war would have a profound
and catalytic effect on its development in many areas
– plastics, man-made fibers, pharmaceuticals, agricultural
chemicals and, for a brief but momentous period, in giving
birth to the atomic age.
Polythene is used in radar
Radar, a system that locates the position of objects in space
by using radio waves, is an acronym for Radio Detection
and Ranging. Radar had been developed on both sides of
the Atlantic in the late 1920s and early 1930s and was perfected
for military purposes in 1935 by R.A. (later Sir Robert)
Watson-Watt. Before World War II broke out, Britain was
already equipped with a chain of radar masts to give early
warning of approaching aircraft, but the masts were awkwardly
high and obvious targets themselves for air attacks.
To enable radar sets to be fitted into warships or aircraft, it
was first necessary to reduce the wavelength and hence
the size of the “mirror” needed to concentrate the electromagnetic
beam. At the outset of war, no one could generate
electromagnetic waves at wavelengths measured in
centimeters – “centimetric radar”. That problem was solved
by two British scientists, J.T. Randall and H.A.H. Boot, who
discovered the cavity magnetron, which could generate
a wavelength of ten centimeters or less. But the strength
of the signals being bounced back from the target was
low, and without exceptional insulation there was a risk
that they would be lost in the feeders from the aerial into
the equipment.
Neither of the two materials then widely used for electrical insulation
– rubber and gutta-percha – was good enough to make
centimetric radar a practical proposition. Polythene was.
The first ton of polythene made in ICI’s full-scale manufacturing
plant was delivered for experimental radar cables
shortly after the outbreak of war. The plant was quickly doubled
in capacity and the second unit came into production
on June 1, 1940. All output was then channeled to radar
use; although polythene-insulated sets were not ready in
time for the Battle of Britain that summer, the decision had
already been taken to standardize all future radar cables on
the use of polythene.
The first sensational use of mobile radar was at the end of
the Blitz on London, when RAF night fighters began to locate
and shoot down German bombers, and then at the Battle of
Cape Matapan against the Italian fleet in March 1941, one
of the most decisive British naval victories since Trafalgar. It
was largely a night action, and the radar sets installed in the
British battleships enabled the British guns to be so accurate
that the Italians lost three heavy cruisers, a six-inch gun
cruiser, three destroyers and a battleship, while the British
lost only one naval aircraft and suffered no casualties or
material damage to the fleet.
Radar proved a decisive advantage for the Allies in the
Atlantic war too. March 1943 had been the worst month of
the Atlantic war for the Allies, with 43 ships sunk in the first
20 days. Following the introduction of centimetric radar, no
Allied ship was lost to U-boats in the Atlantic between the
middle of May and September 1943, and the German navy
never regained supremacy. The Germans were employing a
bulkier insulating material and their radar was consequently
less effective.
The Ziegler process for polythene manufacture
By 1945, the Alkali Group had the capacity for producing
about 5,000 tons of polythene a year. This still required a highpressure
process, however, and called for a feedstock based
on alcohol derived from molasses. The discovery of how to
make polyethylene of a high molecular weight at normal
temperatures and pressures using oil instead of alcohol was
made not by ICI but by Karl Ziegler, a German chemist, in
1950. By this time, ICI’s original patent for polythene manufacture
had expired and two American oil companies, Phillips
Petroleum and Standard Oil of Indiana, independently developed
their own low-pressure processes. With their ready
access to domestic oil resources, American companies were
well placed to develop oil-based plastics instead of using an
alcohol-based feedstock. The need to keep pace with these

Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
technological advances forced ICI to license in the Ziegler
process and produce its own polythene from oil.
Profits from war
ICI dominated Britain’s chemical industry and played a pivotal
role in Britain’s war effort. Ammonia supplied the basis
of nitric acid, essential for explosives; the technology of dyestuffs
could be applied variously to explosives, gases or pharmaceuticals.
ICI also offered Britain’s largest pool of scientific
talent combined with industrial resources. As war became
increasingly probable, the company negotiated various
“agency” roles with the government – a system designed
to avoid profiteering by which government paid the costs of
plant for war production which would be useless in time of
peace. With 25 such factories producing material ranging
from aircraft alloys to mustard gas and detonators, ICI was
the government’s largest industrial agent in the World War II.
ICI’s sales grew enormously during the war, and so did its
profits, though these were greatly reduced by wartime
taxation. The war gave a great push to innovations and discoveries
within the company on which much post-war business
would be built. Important breakthroughs in weed killers
and pesticides were made in ICI’s plant-protection laboratories,
and its infant pharmaceutical business developed out of
wartime necessity for such drugs as the anti-malarial drug
Paludrine ® . But the ICI discovery to make its greatest impact
on the war – and to open up entirely new markets in later
years – was Perspex ® .
The invention of Perspex ®
Perspex ® , the trade name for a non-splintering transparent
sheet made from methyl methacrylate, was the result of
a process of synthesis invented in 1932 by ICI’s Dr John
Crawford. Its wartime role as the material for aircraft cockpit
canopies was the spur for its invention. Reginald Mitchell,
the designer of the new fighter plane later to be known as
the Spitfire, was searching in the early 1930s for a suitable
transparent material to enclose the pilot’s cockpit in a sliding
canopy. Glass splintered, and celluloid had terrible problems
of opacity. A German firm, Rohm and Haas of Darmstadt,
was experimentally developing a similar substance called
Plexiglas ® at the time, but the German process was expensive
and complex. Crawford set to work in 1931 to devise a
cost-effective and practical manufacturing process for methyl
methacrylate. This he achieved by mixing acetone cyanohydrin
with sulfuric acid, adding methanol to the products
and isolating the “ester” by steam distillation. The reaction
needed to be carried out with specific catalysts present,
such as copper and sulfur. The working out of the process
was widely recognized as a brilliant piece of chemistry. The
name Perspex ® – from the Latin “to see through” – was given
to the new material, and the trademark was registered on
November 16, 1934, being first incorporated in a Spitfire
fighter plane two years later.
The war not only hugely increased demand for Perspex ®
in aircraft but also inadvertently discovered an entirely new
market for the new product as an optical material. Surgeons
treating wounded pilots discovered that fragments of
Perspex were tolerated by the body’s tissues, even when
they penetrated the eye. An ophthalmic surgeon named
Harold Ridley went on to pioneer the use of a special grade
of Perspex ® , known as CQ, for intraocular surgery, replacing
the natural lens of the eye after operations such as those for
cataracts. Perspex ® became the chief material for contact
lenses until the advent of alternatives to the hard lens, now
known as “soft” and “gas-permeable” lenses, which use a
different formula of plastic.
With its enormous versatility, Perspex ® remains a key invention
for ICI. Today it is used all over the world for signs, light
fittings, glazing, dentures, technical models, sanitary ware
and lightweight furniture. Despite ICI’s almost simultaneous
discovery of polythene, Perspex ® was the first of the modern
plastics to be in commercial production by 1939 as an
entirely new business for the company.
Man-made fibers
Alongside the infant plastics industry, the other great development
in man-made materials during the 1930s had taken
place in fibers, when DuPont announced its discovery of
nylon at the New York World’s Fair in October 1938. The discovery
of nylon founded a whole new industry without which
most modern clothing and a huge variety of other synthetic
textile products would be inconceivable. A polymer of high
molecular weight achieved by chemical condensation, nylon
was the result of 10 years of “blue-sky” research by a young
chemist from Harvard named Wallace Carothers. Nylon’s
molecules could be drawn into fibers of unusual strength and
were superior in many ways to natural fibers or chemically
modified ones such as rayon. In 1939, ICI took out a license to
manufacture the new fiber. Realizing that it needed the experience
of a specialized textile firm, ICI formed a partnership
with Courtaulds, then the world’s largest producer of viscose
rayon. The new company was registered in January 1940
under the name of British Nylon Spinners. It immediately
commenced manufacturing nylon for parachutes – a role
that became critical to Britain’s war effort when Japan’s entry
in December 1941 cut off large supplies of natural silk.
Terylene ® – the first polyester
In 1941, ICI was presented with the discovery that was to lead
to the creation of Terylene ® , the first polyester. This discovery
had been made by two chemists working in the research laboratory
of a Manchester company called the Calico Printers’
Association. One of these chemists, J.R. (Rex) Whinfield,
had become increasingly interested in Carothers’ work on
synthetic fibers at DuPont. In 1935 he urged Calico Printers’
Association to likewise enter the field of synthetic fibers. Five
years went by, however, before his advice was followed. When
Whinfield, assisted by a colleague named J.T. Dickson, was
permitted by his employers to re-open the line of inquiry which
Carothers had explored but then abandoned, he adopted a
different approach from the American chemist. Whereas
Carothers had worked with aliphatic acids, which have a
long-chain molecular make-up, Whinfield chose one of the
so-called aromatic acids, with a different structure including
a benzene ring. This was terephthalic acid. As Whinfield suspected,
the resulting molecular chain was closely packed and
strong, and highly resistant to melting.
Terephthalic acid was, however, notoriously difficult to react,
being extremely impure. J.T. Dickson devised a way to purify
it, however, and created a few grams of a polymer which had
most of the properties of nylon as well as certain unique ones
of its own. The new fiber was less affected by water than nylon
and it could be crimped to give the feeling of a woolen yarn.
It was also exceptionally resistant to wrinkling and could be
heat-set in pleated skirts, which became one of the great early
successes of Terylene ® . Unlike rayon or cellulose acetate, it
was, moreover, highly resistant to sunlight through glass and
made excellent curtains. Net curtaining became one the biggest
markets for the new synthetic fiber.
Whinfield had already chosen the name Terylene ® for his
invention when the Calico Printers’ Association, interested in
the possibility of a joint venture, brought it to ICI. In 1944, after
conducting its own research into the new fiber, ICI entered into
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a licensing agreement with the Calico Printers’ Association
for the production of Terylene ® . The first piece of Terylene ®
fabric was woven at the Shirley Institute in Manchester in
August 1946. Huge tonnages were confidently anticipated.
The first commercial sale of Terylene ® in Britain was on
October 4, 1948, to the Nottingham firm of Dobson and
Braine for the manufacture of lace curtains. Two years later
ICI decided to invest £10 million in a plant at Wilton to produce
5,000 tons of Terylene ® a year. This went into production
in 1954. It was supplied with its raw polymer by
another Wilton factory under the control of Dyestuffs. So
rapidly did the business grow that by 1956 ICI had created
a Fibers Division. The success of Terylene ® pushed ICI
into the synthetic fibers business and was the driving force
behind the company’s abortive 1961 bid for Courtaulds,
which was its single biggest customer for Terylene ® and
which is described elsewhere in this volume. The bid failed,
but ICI did subsequently gain control of the jointly owned
British Nylon Spinners and in 1966 merged it with its Fibers
Division to make a completely new company, ICI Fibers Ltd.
Terylene ® had the characteristic of blending better than nylon
with natural fibers such as cotton and wool. This opened
the way to the “easy-care” revolution in clothing, which was
based on a 50:50 or 67:33 cotton/polyester blend. Although
never developed for wartime use, Terylene ® was undoubtedly
the most influential of the inventions of that period in
terms of postwar business for ICI. But there was one discovery
of the 1930s which overshadowed all others in its
portents for the world; one in which ICI as Britain’s leading
science-based industrial group was to play a small but
highly significant role. That discovery was the atom bomb.
Nuclear fission
Soon after the outbreak of war, an ICI scientist drafted
a paper which stated: “The year 1939 is likely, in the future, to
be remembered not so much for the start of the present war
than as the date of the discovery of a new phenomenon in
physics which has been given the name of ’nuclear fission.’
The importance of this discovery lies in the certain proof,
which it provides, that the enormous store of sub-atomic
or nuclear energy available in matter can be released and
controlled for practical use. It may mark the introduction of
a new technical era in civilization and lead to the development
of a source of power which will allow for the re-orientation
of world industry.”
The first steps towards this discovery had been taken at the
end of the 19th century with the work on radioactivity done in
Germany by Roentgen, the discoverer of X-rays, and in Paris
by Pierre and Marie Curie. Further key links had been added
to the chain by Ernest Rutherford, John Cockcroft and James
Chadwick in Cambridge, Enrico Fermi in Rome and Irene
Curie and Pierre Joliot in Paris. The latest burst of discoveries,
to which the ICI paper referred, originated with the German
chemist Otto Hahn, the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner and
her nephew O.R. Frisch and, independently, Pierre Joliot.
These findings proved that the release of atomic energy from
uranium was possible. The papers embodying this work were
freely available – many were published in the distinguished
journal Nature – and speculation had ranged freely over the
implications not only for industry but also for weapons. The
words “super bomb” were much in evidence.
In the spring of 1939, the British government began to give
consideration to the defense implications of pure uranium compounds.
Work went on without any great urgency until a report
produced by Professor Rudolf Peierls and O.R. Frisch changed
the official attitude almost overnight. Together the two men had
analyzed a key paper published by Niels Bohr, a brilliant scientist
from Copenhagen, just two days before the outbreak of war.
In this paper, Bohr had put forward his theories that fission was
more likely to occur in the light isotope of uranium, U235, than in
U238, which forms almost 99.3 percent of natural uranium. The
problem would be how to separate them. Speaking 46 years
later, the then Sir Rudolf Peierls recalled: “Our main motivation
was that we suspected the Germans might have had the
same ideas and might in fact be further advanced, and such a
weapon in the hands of Hitler would have been very frightening.
We knew there could be no defense; the only thing to do would
be to have the weapon yourself and use it as a deterrent.”
Peierls and Frisch propounded a critical size for the bomb and
proposed separating the isotopes by thermal diffusion to produce
a lump of pure U235. They also suggested making the
bomb in two or more sections, to be kept separate until the
moment for explosion, and they gave a warning about the dangers
of radiation, which they predicted would be fatal to living
beings for a long time after the bomb had gone off. Interest
in the bomb project was made still more urgent by the information
that some French scientists had managed to smuggle
out of occupied France the world’s entire stock of heavy water.
(Heavy water resembles ordinary water in appearance and
chemical behavior, but it has a particular hydrogen isotope
which makes it efficient in slowing down neutrons, a vital part
of the process of atomic explosion.) The British government’s
special uranium committee called on ICI to help transforming
scientific theory into industrial fact; of all British companies, ICI
alone had the scientific and industrial range needed to comprehend
and coordinate the central processes. ICI was eager
to develop what it saw as a new source of power which had
not only wartime uses but, also applications which would be
revolutionary in peacetime.
The company’s concern was chiefly with the production of
U235 or uranium hexafluoride. Despite initial difficulties, ICI’s
scientists – working under the code name “The Directorate of
Tube Alloys” – managed to produce this compound in sufficient
quantities to make its use in a bomb a feasible proposition.
By July 1941 ICI was confident enough to report that a bomb
could be in production by the end of 1943. In the same year,
President Roosevelt of the United States offered to pool
American resources with the British on a joint development.
But the British, who were ahead of the Americans at that
stage, rejected the offer, wishing to keep the research under
British control. The consequences were swift and irreversible.
The United States intensified its own research efforts and
within months outstripped Britain. British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill made every effort to restore co-operation
and in August 1943 succeeded in persuading Roosevelt
to share American atomic research and resources in the
common war effort. But the work was based in the United
States and resulted in a “brain drain” across the Atlantic as
American re-quests for British scientists and engineers were
speedily met. Several were sent by ICI. Professor Rudolf
Peierls, O.R. Frisch and Frank Kearton (later Lord Kearton,
chairman of Courtaulds) were among the British scientists
and engineers attached for a while to the so-called Kellex
Corporation in New York – the anonymous-sounding business
set up by the cereal manufacturers Kellogg’s to cloak
work on the atomic project.
Meanwhile in Britain, ICI continued its efforts to produce uranium
on an industrial scale. By the spring of 1943 a pilot plant
was in operation producing up to 1,000 pounds of uranium a
week. In April 1945, however, ICI’s work in this field was halted.
Under the post-war government of Clement Atlee, the development
of atomic energy in Britain was taken over by the newly
established UK Atomic Energy Authority. ICI provided two men
to key appointments in that body – Christopher Hinton and
Michael Perrin – but from thenceforth, ICI was no longer the
driver of nuclear research in Britain. A brief but intense chapter
in the company’s history had come to an end.

J.R. Whinfield, originally of the Calico Printers’
Association, invented the world’s first polyester
fiber, Terylene ® . ICI developed Terylene ® into
a global business, and Whinfield finished his
career on the board of ICI Fibres
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Polythene enters the domestic market
In the wake of World War II, Britain was very down-at-heel.
Clothing was still rationed, furniture was sold under the
“Utility” label and kitchens were still equipped with enamel
bowls, stone sinks and cast-iron stoves. Soon, however, a
housing boom commenced; within ten years, one in every
five people in Britain would be living in new post-war houses.
New factories and housing estates demanded a new internal
environment, and it was the research chemist who provided
the materials for it.
Nylon and Terylene ® made immediate inroads on the sales
of traditional fabrics such as wool, cotton and silk as soon
as they came on the civilian market. Detergents were first
marketed for the housewife under brand names in 1951,
and washing machines and refrigerators revolutionized the
middle-class kitchen. Along with washing machines came
unbreakable buckets, bowls and brushes made from polythene.
The first polythene bowls began appearing in the
shops as early as 1948. They quickly became popular as
their advantages were realized – bright, clear colors, long
life, resistance to chipping or rusting, quiet in use and
much safer when washing up precious glass or china. ICI
manufactured molded polythene: it sold the raw material in
bulk, usually in the form of chips. Sales of this new material
expanded enormously with the rise of supermarkets and
self-service, and, indeed, helped to bring about the shopping
revolution of the 1950s. For the first time, customers could
see what they were buying, even though it was pre-packaged.
Plastic bags and carriers were the next to be
developed, and polythene was used to coat cardboard for
milk and soft-drink cartons.
Revolution in refrigeration
Another type of plastic – polyurethane foam – had a comparable
impact on the way we live. Polyurethanes were
invented by Otto Bayer in Germany just before World War II;
they were developed by IG Farben as foams for insulating
material in V2 rockets and some aircraft and military vehicles.
The details of polyurethane technology were brought
to Britain after the war by the Allied commission on German
wartime industrial development, and ICI’s Reg Hurd was one
of the chemists who played a major role in its progress thereafter.
Polyurethane foams are made from a combination of
resins and polyisocyanates: these react with each other, cre-
ating a foaming structure. Early types of polyurethane foam
were made from a resin known as 2:4 toluene di-isocyanate,
or TDI. Rigid foams fill cavities and bond strongly to most
surfaces, providing immense strength. TDI foams, however,
give off noxious vapors during application. Hurd decided to
try to make foams from a different polyisocyanate, Diphenyl
Methane Di-isocyanate, or MDI. MDI was much safer to
handle, but conventional wisdom had always been that
it was impossible to make foam from it. Hurd, however,
developed a method to make the substance foam, and his
breakthrough coincided with a boom in refrigerated cargo
ships and the whole refrigeration industry. MDI was stronger
and more fireproof than the cork traditionally used for insulating
the cold-storage sections of ships and also safer to
apply than TDI. Very soon ICI was providing foam to fill cold
stores, refrigerated transport and carbon dioxide tankers;
chemical plants and pipelines were also being insulated with
rigid foam.
From the consumer’s point of view, the development of
MDI foams revolutionized the manufacture and price of
domestic fridges and freezers. By the early 1960s they
were becoming a standard fitting in British kitchens instead
of a luxury item, and frozen food gained sweeping popularity.
During the 1960s ICI introduced developments which
greatly extended the market for MDI foams, producing
applications as diverse as soles molded directly to shoes
and impact-resistant car bumpers.
A new generation of dyestuffs
Almost simultaneous to the discovery of MDI foams came
the creation of synthetic dyestuffs. The first synthetic dyes
had been discovered in England in 1856 by William Henry
Perkin, but Germany quickly seized industry leadership and
by 1914 commanded nearly 90 percent of the global market.
The collapse of the European dyestuffs cartels after World
War II enabled Britain to expand her export markets, but until
the late 1940s there had been no major discoveries in the
industry since the development of azoic dyes in 1912.
Nylon and polyester fibers demanded new dyestuffs. Within
ICI alone, approximately 3,000 new potential dyes were
being synthesized and screened every year. The synthetics
manufacturers were vigorous in promoting their own products,
but ICI continued its work on dyes for natural fibers, for
which a huge market still existed. ICI’s chemists sought to
find a new bright wool dye which would be colorfast when
washed. They had a totally new idea: to modify the structure
of some known dyes so that they would undergo a chemical
reaction with the wool fibers. Instead of water-soluble wool
dyes, which were attached to the fibers by mere physical
forces, the ICI chemists were trying to produce a chemical
bond between dye and fiber, making the color part of the
fiber itself.
One of these chemists, Dr W. E. Stephen, had prepared
derivatives of azo dyes with derivatives of trichlorotriazine, or
cyanuric chloride. This did not work with wool, but Stephen’s
colleague Ian Rattee realized that these dyes might work well
with cotton, producing water-soluble dyes which would be
colorfast even when washed. Within six months, three promising
Procion ® reactive dyes had been chosen for development
– a red, a blue and a yellow. The three-dye range was
launched in March 1956. By 1961, demand for Procion ® dyes
was running at 600 tons a year. The investment in Procion ®
dyes reached break-even point by 1972, only sixteen years
after they were first recognized as a workable discovery.
This success was complemented by ICI’s development of
effective dyes for polyesters.
The Dulux ® dog
The post-war explosions of color in clothes and domestic
utensils were matched by comparable advances in the
paints which decorated homes and offices, and in ease of
use which transferred much of the business of decorating
from the professional to the do-it-yourself enthusiast. ICI had
been concerned with paints and lacquers almost from its
inception; Dulux ® was a brand name used in the early days
of ICI’s existence. Created in fact not by ICI but by DuPont
and first launched by that company as an automotive paint in
1926, Dulux ® was the first of the alkyd-based paints, which
were an advance on the old, lead-based types, offering quick
drying in combination with high gloss. In Britain, however,
the name was used for a range of paints for the domestic
rather than the automotive market.
In those days, however, decorators and their suppliers were
the main customers; even in the early 1950s, the advertising
slogan was, “Say Dulux ® to your decorator.” But by then the
do-it-yourself revolution was just around the corner. Nearly
three-quarters of all wallpaper sold in Britain by the second
half of the 1950s was directly to the public; sales of portable
electric drills rocketed and even furniture began to be
sold in kits which claimed that “All you need is a screwdriver.”

Frank Rose (right) and Frank Curd, discoverers of the anti-malarial drug
Paludrine ® , which played an important role in World War II

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By 1953, Dulux ® was on the retail market. It rapidly rose to
become the brand leader, and 10 years later an Old English
sheepdog was used in its advertisements for the first time,
being chosen as a symbol of “family.” The breed was relatively
uncommon at the time, but under the influence of the advertisements
has become widely popular; indeed, puppies are
often advertised for sale as “Dulux ® puppies”. Dulux ® Brilliant
White, a breakthrough in home decorating, was a success
from its launch in the mid-1960s. Dulux ® paint, produced on
ICI’s main paint manufacturing facility at Slough, is one of the
very few products which go directly from ICI to the customer in
the high street. In the words of Philip Hanscombe, managing
director of the Paints Division in 1986: “Many people think of
ICI as Dulux ® ; the brand gives the company a humanity.”
ICI becomes a pharmaceutical player
Lord Melchett (Sir Alfred Mond) had wanted ICI to be a
research-based company whose innovations would match
those of its great German rival, IG Farben. But the collapse
of its cornerstone business, the nitrogen market, in the late
1920s and the world depression that followed forced deep
cuts in its research budgets, which did not begin to rise again
until the mid-1930s. By this time the whole chemical industry
was undergoing profound change, away from the old 19th
century bulk commodities towards “fine” organic chemistry.
ICI’s research policy began to change direction in response.
Pesticides, pharmaceuticals, synthetic rubber, fibers and
plastics were among the new developments clamoring
for attention.
After much debate within the company’s senior management,
ICI finally took the plunge into pharmaceuticals in
1936, six years after Lord Melchett’s death. An ICI board
minute of June 11, 1936, authorized an initial “grant” of
£5,000 a year for five years from October 1936 for “research
by the Dyestuffs Group in regard to synthetic organic pharmaceuticals”.
A team of seven chemists was appointed to
search for new drugs and one of the seven was Dr Frank
Rose, an azo chemist who was to become the discoverer of
the anti-malarial drug Paludrine ® .
The war against malaria
Efforts to reproduce the natural anti-malarial properties of
quinine in synthetic form dated back to the late 1890s, in
particular to the work of Paul Ehrlich at the Moabite Hospital
in Berlin. More experiments had been conducted in Austria:
Professor Julius Wagner-Jauregg of Vienna won a Nobel Prize
in 1927 for his work in the field. But the main thrust of early
anti-malarial research was carried on in Bayer’s laboratories
in Elberfield, Germany, where the focus lay on Ehrlich’s idea
of preparing derivatives of a dyestuff called methylene blue as
potential drugs to combat the disease.
One reason why the Germans had focused so much effort on
quinine substitutes was the difficulty the country had experienced
during World War I in obtaining supplies of the natural
product. As war loomed again in the late 1930s, it became evident
that this time round it could well be the British who would
be cut off from supplies if Japan gained control of the East
Indies, the main source of chinchona bark from which quinine
was extracted. ICI therefore joined the other leading British
pharmaceutical manufacturers in the war research effort. A
team of seven ICI chemists stopped looking for new drugs
and concentrated on “cracking the German patents”. One of
Rose’s colleagues, a brilliant chemist named Frank Curd, set
out to discover the structure of mepacrine from the 30 or so
examples of the German patents. He was so successful that
ICI had a pilot plant in production by September 1939. At first,
mepacrine was considered to be merely a synthetic substitute
for quinine, but its use on large numbers of servicemen
in the Far East soon revealed that it was in fact more effective
than the naturally occurring compound. Mepacrine still had
drawbacks, however. It did not solve the problem of patient
relapse, it turned the skin yellow, and it often led to gastrointestinal
upsets and anemia. A better synthetic substitute for
quinine was clearly required.
By chance, the ICI team learned that some soldiers who had
caught malaria and, simultaneously, a streptococcal infection
had been treated for the latter with sulfa drugs such as
Sulfamethazine (sulfadimidine), which Frank Rose had synthesized.
The sulfa drugs not only cured the streptococcal infection
but also alleviated the malarial condition. Rose and Curd
now began to design anti-malarial drugs based on this fact.
Success came with Rose’s synthesis of analogues based on
the chemical system biguanide. Clinical trials at the Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine, in which the research team at one
point deliberately infected themselves with malaria, identified
the compound 4885, named proguanil or Paludrine ® , as the
best of the group. Paludrine ® was colorless and proved to act
in the early stages of the disease before the malaria parasite
invaded the bloodstream. The new drug was extensively used
by British troops in the Malaysian campaign after 1945 and
was to prove the most effective anti-malarial treatment available
for more than four decades. Reflecting on his achievement,
Frank Rose was later to remark: “I think I can say we
never killed anyone. Paludrine ® has an inbuilt safety device – if
you take too much of it, it makes you sick. Whenever you get
a new drug, sooner or later someone will try to commit suicide
with it, but you can’t do that with Paludrine ® .”
The first usable penicillin
While Rose and his fellow-workers were absorbed in their
anti-malarial research, ICI’s Dr William Boon was working
on the early development of penicillin, which had been
discovered by Alexander Fleming. In his original research
during the 1920s, Fleming had written a report on the bacteria-inhibiting
properties of penicillin, but this report had
lain neglected. When Ernst Chain, a Jewish chemist who
had left Germany for Britain in 1933, was working at the
Oxford School of Pathology, he studied Fleming’s report and
embarked on an investigation into how penicillin could be
synthesized and purified. Penicillin was still being produced
in laboratories by the fermentation method at the time, but
the wisdom of the day assumed that large-scale manufacture
would have to involve chemical synthesis in order to be
cost-effective. ICI undertook to synthesize penicillin for use
in the clinical work being conducted at the Oxford School
of Pathology. A team headed by Boon was set up in 1942
to produce the first medically usable quantities of penicillin.
Shortly afterwards, the British Ministry of Supply became
involved, wanting large-scale production because penicillin
had by then become acknowledged as highly effective in
treating wounds. The emphasis within ICI now switched to
making penicillin by fermentation. ICI managed to purify the
culture, thus demonstrating that industrial production by
fermentation was also technically possible. Production by
chemical synthesis never proved to be an economic form of
manufacture, and manufacture by fermentation remains the
most cost-effective procedure to this day.
A breakthrough anesthetic: Fluothane ®
ICI’s work on anti-malarial and anti-infective drugs was complemented
by important advances in the field of anesthesia.
The first half of the 20th century had seen few advances in
anesthetics, at least of the inhalant variety. What innovations
did occur had been made in the development of intravenous

First introduced in the 1960s, the Dulux ® dog became one of the most
popular advertising icons of post-war Britain, triggering a revival in
the popularity of the Old English Sheepdog breed

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anesthetics such as barbiturates and in muscle relaxants for
use in combination with anesthetics. Inhalants – chiefly chloroform,
nitrous oxide, cyclopropane and ether – had scarcely
changed since the previous century, and all possessed disadvantages.
ICI’s development of a new type of anesthetic
was to occur through its investigations of the properties
of fluorocarbons.
Fluorocarbons had been originally developed as refrigerants
by General Motors and DuPont in America during
the 1930s, In 1939 ICI’s James Ferguson had advanced a
revolutionary theory that connected narcosis to thermodynamic
activity. He concluded that a similar relationship might
work in anesthesia and should be tried out with fluorinated
compounds. In 1950, Ferguson – by then research director
of ICI’s General Chemicals Division – assigned the task of
investigating this theory to a young chemist called Charles
Suckling, who had joined ICI in 1942. Suckling began to
investigate the anesthetic properties of fluorocarbons.
All told, four people had to be satisfied by the ideal inhalant
anesthetic. The patient wanted to be rendered unconscious
easily and pleasantly and to recover quickly, with no adverse
after-effects. The surgeon required a non-explosive gas
which did not restrict surgical work. The anesthetist needed
a potent compound with a good safety margin. Last but
not least, the manufacturer wanted a chemical which could
be simply and inexpensively made and was easy to purify,
transport and store. The problem was to take from this list of
requirements those which might be related to the properties
of the fluorine-containing compounds under examination.
Suckling used the relatively new techniques of gas chromatography
for his investigations, which ensured a high
standard of purity and later facilitated the scale-up of manufacturing
techniques from laboratory to factory. He synthesized
a number of new compounds, including halothane.
Halothane proved to be the breakthrough, and was subsequently
marketed by ICI as Fluothane ® .
Fluothane ® encountered initial resistance among some members
of the medical profession when it was first introduced in
1953. Anesthetists of the day favored mixing their own “cocktail”
of inhalant anesthetics from a range of different gases,
and viewed the use of a solitary anesthetic gas as a retrograde
step. Fluothane ® also presented a challenge to equipment
makers, requiring them to produce more advanced
vaporizers. Anesthetists soon came to acknowledge the
advantages of halothane, however. By March 1958, many
thousands of cases of patients successfully anaesthetized
by Fluothane ® had been recorded. Dr Michael Johnstone
of the Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester was responsible
for testing the novel anesthetic on ICI’s behalf. He noted
that one of the most important advantages of Fluothane ®
was that it permitted many forms of abdominal surgery to
be conducted “while the patient breathes spontaneously”.
Fluothane ® went on to become the most commonly used
anesthetic in the western world.
James Black invents beta-blockers
In the early 1950s the pharmaceutical industry was experiencing
one of the most fundamental upheavals of its existence.
Synthetic products were replacing existing medicines
and bringing about a revolution in both pharmacy and medical
practice. Responding to this trend, ICI concentrated all
its medical business in a separate division at a new site in
Alderley Park in Cheshire in 1957. James (later Sir James)
Black joined this new division in 1958 with the object of developing
drugs to reduce the risk of heart attack. His father having
died from a heart attack following a car crash, Black was particularly
interested in the role of stress in producing adrenaline
and precipitating an angina attack. He believed that it might
be possible to develop a new approach to prevention based
on blocking the action of adrenaline on the heart, and thus
reducing the heart’s demand for oxygen. This insight led to
the development of the world’s first beta-blockers.
Black’s work drew on the research of Ray Ahlquist of Des
Moines, Iowa, who in 1948 had posited the idea of two distinct
types of adrenotropic receptors, which he designated
alpha and beta. His work also benefited from the research
carried out at the Eli Lilly laboratories in Indianapolis where
it was discovered that a compound named dichloroisoprenaline,
or DCI, negated the effects of adrenaline. Black realized
that it would be possible to synthesize an analogue of
DCI which would be devoid of any intrinsic action of its own
when bound to the receptors of the heart. In January 1960,
John Stephenson, a medical chemist at Alderley Park, had
the idea of replacing the two chlorine molecules in DCI by
another phenyl ring to make a naphthalene. He synthesized
this new compound, which was named pronethalol. The new
compound was given the brand name “Alderlin,” derived from
Alderley Park, and by 1962 clinical trials confirmed that it was
indeed helpful in the treatment of angina as it blocked the cardiac
effects of the sympathetic nervous system – the “fight or
flight” reaction to stress which had been described by Walter
Cannon in his book The Wisdom of the Body. ICI next set out
to find an improved version of this prototype drug. This led to
the creation of propranolol, devised and synthesized by Dr
A.F. Crowther, which was approximately 10 times as potent as
its predecessor. Propranolol proved to be the first beta-adrenergic
antagonist or “beta- blocker”. It was launched as Inderal ®
(a near-anagram of “Alderlin”) in 1965. Inderal ® proved a safe
and effective treatment for angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmias
and hypertension, with hardly any serious side-effects.
Black left ICI in mid-1964. He was made Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1976, knighted in 1981, and awarded the Nobel
Prize for Medicine in 1988. In 1986, when he was 62 years of
age and directing a small research unit at the Rayne Institute
of King’s College Hospital Medical School, he explained that
he found it “hard to live with” the celebrity Inderal ® had brought
him. “The things I’ve been associated with happen to have
made a lot of money, but commercial success has nothing to
do with the quality of the science,” he said. “I had fun doing it,
it was tremendously exciting.”
Pesticides and hormonal weed killers
People have been trying to control pests and improve the
yield of their crops since the cultivation of land began. Virgil
in the second of his Georgics recommended dressing seed
with ashes and other substances to preserve the crops
from disease. Pliny’s Natural History suggested sprinkling
cabbage caterpillars with a compound of wormwood. The
modern era of pest control began around 1860, when
arsenic compounds were first used in the United States
against the dreaded Colorado beetle.
In contrast to the relatively late development of its interest
in pharmaceuticals, ICI had from its inception been interested
in agricultural chemicals. In 1927, the company established
a centre for “agricultural research and demonstration”
at Jealott’s Hill, near Bracknell in south east England.
The aim of the research station was to popularize the use of
nitrogen on grass by farmers and encourage the adoption of
an intensive system of grassland management, which
could substantially increase the numbers of livestock
supported by pastures. As a second world war became
increasingly likely, work at Jealott’s Hill focused on the
development of fertilizers to stimulate intensive grass
production. More significant, however, were two war-
time discoveries which were to come on to the market as
“Gammexane” and Methoxone ® .

Dr Charles Suckling (centre) discovered the breakthrough anesthetic Fluothane ® in 1955. With him are Dr Michael Johnstone,
who conducted the clinical trials, and fellow researcher James Raventos

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Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
“Gammexane” – properly named gamma benzene hexachloride
– is a benzene hexachloride (BHC) compound. Deriving
its name from the toxicity of its gamma isomer, the compound
was found to be highly effective in the eradication of locusts in
Africa and wireworms and flea beetles in Britain. Gammexane
was, however, ultimately edged out of the market by the even
more effective DDT, manufactured by the Swiss firm Geigy.
The first hormonal weed killer
Almost parallel with Gammexane came the discovery of the
first of the so-called hormonal weed killers, Methoxone ® .
The development of Methoxone ® grew out of ICI’s work on
phytohormones, substances occurring naturally in plants
which regulate their growth. The existence of these chemicals
had been discovered in the Netherlands in 1926, and
two related substances, alpha-naphthaylacetic acid (NAA)
and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), were already under study by
ICI in 1936. ICI’s chemists deduced that the organic part of
the soil might contain growth hormone from decayed plants,
and that thus the soil itself might stimulate plant growth.
Simultaneously, an ICI scientist named W.G. Templeman
made a revolutionary observation: NAA did not just fail to
stimulate plant growth; it suppressed it, and the suppression
was selective. Further work proved conclusively that
Sir John Harvey-Jones (1924–2008)
Famous for the length of his hair, the brightness of his ties and his Falstaffian figure,
Sir John Harvey-Jones was one of ICI’s most inspirational chairmen in the second half
of the 20th century. In fact he has been described as the most famous British industrialist
since Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Born in Hackney, London, John Harvey-Jones spent his early childhood in India, where
his father – an officer in the British Army – was guardian and tutor to a boy Maharajah.
At the age of seven, however, he was sent to a preparatory school in Kent, England, where
he was the victim of bullying and became extremely unhappy. In 1940, when he was just
16, he went to sea as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, subsequently serving in submarines in
the Baltic Sea. He twice experienced being torpedoed. When World War II came to an end,
Sir John was sent by the Royal Navy to Cambridge University to learn Russian and German
for use in naval intelligence.
When his daughter contracted polio, however, Sir John decided to leave the Royal Navy
in search of an occupation which would permit him to spend more time with his wife and
many of the most troublesome weeds growing in cereals
or grass were killed off by NAA while most of the crops
remained resistant to it. Supported by the British Ministry
of Agriculture, ICI organized the largest field trial of its kind
ever attempted at the time, and by 1946, Methoxone ® or
“cornland cleaner” was available to British farmers.
ICI built on the success of Methoxone ® by developing further
selective hormonal weed killers in the 1950s, including
diquat and paraquat. Named after the quaternary salts from
which it is derived, Paraquat was launched on the market as
Gramoxone ® in 1962 and came to be used by farmers in 120
countries worldwide. Herbicides are considered risky today,
but at the time Gramoxone ® was a breakthrough. Quickly
effective and then quickly inactive, it left little residue, was
harmless to wildlife, inactive in soil, and helped to prevent
soil erosion by not affecting soil-retaining grass or weeds
surrounding the treated crop. Dr William Boon, who was
instrumental in the development of diquat and paraquat,
was keenly aware of the potential dangers of these products,
both to the environment and to human health. He in
fact formed an Ecology Section within ICI, which was to
become the basis for the Environmental Sciences Group
that the company established in 1969. Boon later become
a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his contributions
to organic chemistry.
Growing a new protein
In the 1960s, the World Health Organization predicted that
the world was going to run short of protein – in particular,
the rich European countries which were not among the chief
producers of soy beans, the ultimate protein commodity. In
response to this idea, ICI’s Dr Peter King set out to develop
a new protein – not for people to eat directly, but for animal
feed. Their first intention was to synthesize protein by chemical
means, but the chemistry involved was too complex and
the plan was soon abandoned. Various fermentation processes
were then considered. They chose as a substrate a
substance containing carbon that can be metabolized that
had just appeared in abundant quantities under the North
Sea – natural gas. Using this as a feedstock, bacteria or
yeasts could in theory be grown in quantities, producing
protein-rich microbial cells or single-cell protein (SCP).
In 1968, King started searching the world for micro-organisms
that would grow on methane. After much trial and error,
it was found that Methylophilus methylotropus would grow
not on methane but on methanol – and this proved to be
the breakthrough. From the early laboratory fermenters, the
process was gradually scaled up and by 1971 a pilot plant
was working, plus a separator and a drying plant for harvesting
the protein, which was branded “Pruteen.” Then it all
daughter. He joined ICI on Teesside as a junior manager in 1956. Sir John joined ICI’s
board in 1973 and became Chairman in 1982. By the time he stepped down five years
later, many of the company’s non-core businesses had been divested, its bureaucratic
structures had been reformed, and its profits had trebled.
On leaving ICI, Sir John built a new career in television with his popular Troubleshooter
series, in which he advised struggling businesses on how to improve their performance.
His role won him a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award.
Knighted in 1985 for his services to industry, Sir John Harvey-Jones became Chancellor
of Bradford University, Chairman of The Economist and a board member of Grand
Metropolitan. He also worked for various charities. In 1991 he published an autobiography,
Getting It Together, in which he described the “Jekyll and Hyde” tension between his
outwardly self-confident persona and the insecure child within. Despite his numerous
achievements in a range of different disciplines, Sir John remained painfully aware of his
inadequacies and never ceased to long for the respect of his father.

The KLEA 134a plant at Runcorn, Cheshire, in the early 1990s.
KLEA 134a was a replacement for ozone-damaging
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Sir John Harvey-Jones – an inspirational chairman during the 1980s
and one of the foremost industrialists of his era
245

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Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
began to go wrong. The economics of Pruteen were badly
affected by two things. The first was the oil-price shock of
l973, which pushed up the price of methanol. The second was
the decline in global soya meal prices, which were caused by
the introduction of more efficient cultivation methods and the
simultaneous expansion of soya bean cultivation. Pruteen
had been intended as an alternative to soya meal for use in
animal feed, and the drop in soya meal prices had the effect
of shrinking the potential market for Pruteen. Even so, the ICI
board gave the green light in 1976 for the construction of the
world’s first commercial plant to manufacture protein from
methanol. At its peak the plant could have produced 50,000
tons of Pruteen a year – but it never did. The expected “protein
gap” never materialized. However, the work was not wasted.
Pruteen was found to be highly successful as a replacement
for expensive skim-milk powder in the diets of calves
and young pigs. The work on single-cell protein also led ICI
into fermentation technology and biotechnology in general.
The company’s Biological Products business has been
responsible for a number of significant product developments,
most notably myco-protein, a foodstuff similar to
edible fungus, brought to market in partnership with Rank
Hovis McDougall as Quorn ® .
The environmental revolution
In 1962, the American author Rachel Carson published Silent
Spring – a book that shocked a generation with its revelations
of the toxic effects of DDT and other chemicals and transformed
attitudes to the chemical industry. Scientific and
public awareness of the damage being done to the environment
by chemicals began to gather force in the 1970s. In 1971
an apparently minor decision by the Schweppes company not
to accept the return of its soft-drink bottles sparked a demonstration
by hundreds of British consumers, who besieged
the company’s headquarters with a barrage of bottles. From
this was formed the Friends of the Earth, Britain’s first environmental
pressure group.
Substitutes for CFCs
The early 1970s were the years when scientists started to
investigate the long-term effects of chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) on the earth’s upper atmosphere. CFCs had been
first developed in 1928 by General Motors in the USA. They
had the unique properties of being both chemically and
thermally stable, and found extensive usage in refrigeration
(as coolants and foam-blowing agents) and in aerosols
(as propellants). By 1974, nearly one million tons of CFCs
were being produced annually. Then two American scientists,
Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, posited a
link between CFCs and depletion of the ozone layer. By
1978 the U.S. government was sufficiently concerned to
impose a ban on aerosols containing CFCs. Worldwide
CFC production ceased in 1995. In seeking alternatives,
ICI decided to explore HFCs, products with a zero potential
for ozone depletion in which all the chlorine is replaced by
hydrogen. ICI started producing one HFC-based product,
KLEA 134a, in 1990 and another, KLEA 32, in 1992. The
company also developed a safe process for disposing of its
remaining CFC stocks.
Driving environmental standards
The 1990s also saw ICI setting new environmental standards
for all its new plants, halving its production of waste
and implementing a rigorous energy conservation program.
A new process of ammonia synthesis was developed at this
time to replace the company’s two ageing ammonia plants
at Severnside. Requiring less feed gas, building land and
steel for construction, it also produced less waste. In 1990
the new process won the Royal Society of Arts’ Pollution
Abatement Technology Award, sponsored by the United
Kingdom’s Environment Foundation, the Department of the
Environment, and Shell.
The drive to reduce pollution gave birth to a new environmental
business in the form of ICI Watercare, launched in
1990 to develop products for purifying drinking water and
treating sewage, as well as systems for the treatment of liquid
wastes from industrial manufacturing processes. In 1992, ICI
also published its first report on progress towards environmental
objectives, giving data on waste and emissions and
the number of prosecutions sustained on environmental
charges. The announcement of environmental objectives
was the first of its five-year series of Challenge improvement
objectives, which continue today with Challenge 2010.
Biopol ® – the biodegradable plastic
ICI’s most technically exciting development of this period was
Biopol ® , the biodegradable plastic hailed by the American
magazine Popular Science in 1990 as one of the one hun-
dred greatest scientific achievements in environmental technology.
In fact Biopol ® was a discovery of the 1970s, an
offshoot of the Pruteen experiment described above. Nonoil
based, and made by the action of natural organisms on
glucose, it was seen in the years following the 1973 OPEC oil
embargo as a potentially winning substitute for petroleumbased
plastics, and a potential boon to developing countries
with no oil but the ability to grow sugar. The price of oil stabilized,
and then fell, however, and more supplies of oil came
on stream. The world appeared to have passed Biopol ® by.
The green revolution was to open up new horizons for the
innovative plastic, however, which found its first commercial
use in the form of shampoo bottles for the environmentallyconscious
German market.
Advanced materials for aerospace
A new family of plastics, developed out of aromatic chemistry
with its high-density molecular structure (as opposed to the
looser aliphatic compositions) began to emerge in the 1960s,
beginning with PES (polyether sulphone), which is far more
resistant to heat than polythene. ICI secured a world first with
PES and launched it as an engineering plastic for such uses
as transformer windings, parts of electric motors and medical
sterilization equipment. Then the search began for a more
crystalline compound that would take high-precision molding
and could be used at high temperatures. It resulted in the discovery
of PEEK (polyether ether ketone), which came out in
the early 1970s and found immediate application as a wirecoating
material in the electronics industry.
An earlier discovery than PES, developed in the 1950s, was
PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a polyester derivative from
the same technology as Terylene ® . PET started life in ICI as
a base for photographic film but, with a changed molecular
structure, is now widely used for plastic bottles. The liquidcrystal
polymers that were developed later from PET have
remarkable optical and magnetic properties.
During the 1980s, synthetic materials called aromatic polymer
composites (APCs) began to open up new markets.
APCs are thermoplastics reinforced with fiber to form a light
but stiff and immensely strong material that can make anything
from high-performance tennis rackets to aerospace
components. APCs were originally another response to
the energy crisis of the 1970s: to save fuel, engineers were
looking for lighter-weight components for cars and aircraft.
The aerospace industry offered ICI more scope for its inno-

Imperial Chemical Industries
The ICI legacy
vative products than the increasingly cost-conscious car
industry of the day, and ICI turned its attention to combining
PEEK with carbon fiber as a replacement for epoxy, the substance
widely used at that time for building aircraft. The ICI
scientists working on APC were buoyed up by excitement
and worked Saturday and Sunday night shifts as the project
moved into high gear. It was well into the 1990s before APC
was a proven success, however. Then history intervened:
the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the
progressive winding-down of arsenals on both sides of the
superpower divide brought cuts in government spending in
the defense and aerospace industries. It also brought much
less demand for advanced materials such as APC.
“Fewer but better” drugs
In the 1980s, ICI’s Pharmaceuticals Division pursued a
policy of developing “fewer but better” drugs, building on the
platform of its drug discoveries, such as the beta-blockers
Inderal ® (described above) and Tenormin ® . Tenormin ® had
been launched in 1976 and would become the best-selling
beta-blocker in almost every market in the world. ICI’s
dominance in the cardiovascular therapeutic category was
strong, and Inderal and Tenormin ® together became the
most subscribed beta-blockers in the world. ICI’s innovation
in pharmaceuticals continued with the launch of Diprivan ® ,
an intravenous anesthetic that allowed the level of sedation
to be precisely controlled. For patients and anesthetists it
offered speed and quality of recovery following surgery. The
prostate cancer treatment Zoladex ® , an injectable, was also
launched in this period.
Recession and turnaround in the 1980s
The early 1980s saw ICI struggling to cope with the effects
of recession. The chairmanship of John Harvey-Jones from
1982 to 1987, however, transformed the company from a
loss-making operation to a profitable one again. In 1984,
while the chemical cycle was “up”, ICI was the first UK
company to achieve £1 billion in annual pre-tax profits. The
£1 billion mark was to be achieved several times during the
decade, with more than £1.5 billion being reached in 1989.
ICI became the first company in the world to market solid
emulsion paint for application by roller to the domestic consumer.
With the purchase of Glidden of the U.S. in 1986, ICI
became one of the largest paints companies in the world.
Expansion into the USA continued with the acquisition in
1985 of the chemicals interest of Beatrice and of Garst Seed,
a major corn seed company. In 1987, Stauffer Chemicals
of the U.S. was acquired to further strengthen the agro
chemicals business, and the Board of Directors met in
New York, the first time it had met outside the UK. Another
first, in 1991, was the appointment of the first woman to
the ICI Board. Even more significant events, however, were
to follow.
ICI becomes a specialty chemicals
and paints producer
First was the demerger in 1993 of the Pharmaceuticals
and Agrochemicals businesses to form Zeneca (today
AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceuticals company; the agrochemicals
business joined Novartis to form Switzerland-based
Syngenta). Then, in 1997, ICI continued its momentous portfolio
shift with the acquisition of the speciality chemicals businesses
of Unilever and the divestment of its bulk and intermediate
chemicals businesses. These divestments were to total
more than 50 separate deals over a period of just five years.
Businesses that trace at least part of their origins back to ICI
include – besides AstraZeneca and Syngenta – the polyester
manufacturer Artenius UK, the specialty chemicals business
Avecia, the pharmaceuticals giant, Brunner Mond (recreated
as a stand-alone company in 1991), the surfactants manufacturer
Croda, Dow Chemicals, the Warrington engineering
consultancy Eutech, Huntsman, INEOS (which acquired
ICI’s Chlor and Klea businesses), Invista, the acrylics manufacturer
Lucite, the Swiss refining group Petroplus, Premier
Foods (whose antecedents within ICI developed Quorn ® ),
Saffil (a manufacturer of heat-resistant material used in catalytic
converters), the rock salt manufacturer Salt Union, the
Saudi petrochemicals company SABIC, SembCorp (which
owns the former ICI utilities and services business of Teesside
in the UK), SOG (ICI’s former Runcorn business park), the
fertilizer manufacturer Terra Industries and the plastics
maker Victrex.
ICI focuses on high-growth,
high-margin businesses
By becoming a leading specialty chemicals and paints producer,
ICI aimed to move away from cyclical bulk chemicals
and up the value chain to be a higher growth, higher margin
business. ICI became one of the world’s major specialty
products and paints businesses, represented mainly by
National Starch and ICI Paints. By this stage in the company’s
evolution, approximately one-quarter of ICI’s sales
were made in the Asia Pacific region and 40 percent in the
Americas, while less than 12 percent of sales were made in
the UK. The ICI Group achieved sales of £6.4 billion in 2001,
with its paints portfolio driving the company’s profitability.
ICI employed 38,600 people in businesses worldwide by
this point; on commencing trading in 1927, it had employed
33,000 people, all of them in Britain.
Entering the new millennium, ICI’s product portfolio included
flavors and starches for the food industry, fragrances, surfactants
and specialty polymers for personal care products,
adhesives for the electronics and packaging markets, and
a wide range of decorative coatings and specialty products
for domestic use and the construction industry. Listed on
both the London and New York stock exchanges, ICI was a
member of the FTSE100, FTSE4Good and the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index. In 2006, when it disposed of its fragrance
business Quest to Givaudan SA and its surfactants
business Uniqema to Croda International Plc, ICI posted
annual sales of £4.8 billion, 50 percent of which was attributable
to paints.
Acquisition by Akzo Nobel
The following year, ICI was acquired by Akzo Nobel
after an intense negotiation process which captured
the headlines throughout the latter part of the summer.
Akzo Nobel’s original offer of 600 pence per share had
been rejected by ICI when first made in June 2007; an
improved offer of 650 pence per share was likewise turned
down as undervaluing ICI. Only when Akzo Nobel combined
forces with the German consumer products group
Henkel to create a joint bid of 670 pence per share was the
offer successful. The deal, which valued ICI at £8.1 billion
(c10.8 billion), was announced on August 13, 2007 and formally
concluded on January 2, 2008.
247

248
1 AkzoNobel headquarters
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Major AkzoNobel manufacturing,
R&D, and sales locations
1
Amsterdam

249

250
The Akzo Nobel resins facility in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands, in 1995

AkzoNobel
In 1994, Akzo took one of the most important steps in its history. It merged
its coatings and chemicals businesses with those of Nobel Industries,
swiftly integrating them to create a new global organization named
Akzo Nobel. For a merger which is frequently regarded as a textbook
example of successful integration, the starting position was inauspicious:
Nobel Industries was deeply in debt, and the Swedish government – which
owned 65 percent of the company’s shares – wished to divest its shareholding
as quickly as possible.
251
Overview
A perfect fit
An instinct for cooperation
Acquisition of Courtaulds
Market and technology focus
Pharma, Coatings, Chemicals
Fit for the future
ICI joins Akzo Nobel
Rebranding to become AkzoNobel

252
AkzoNobel 1994–2008:
Consolidation and focus
AkzoNobel
There was a prelude to this move, however. In the summer
of 1992, Ove Mattsson, Chairman of the Board of Nobel
Industries, visited Aarnout Loudon, Chairman of the Board
of Management of Akzo, in Arnhem with a proposal to take
over Akzo’s coatings business. In return he offered a majority
share in Nobel, the ownership of Nobel’s chemicals business,
and a cash payment. This would have made Nobel
a pure coatings company. Loudon rejected the offer, but
he contacted Mattsson again in February 1993: “Ove,” he
said, “I like the industrial logic of your proposal, so let’s talk.”
Loudon, however, inverted Mattsson’s original idea, suggesting
that Akzo should take over Nobel Industries’ coatings
and chemicals businesses. On examination of Loudon’s
industrial logic, Mattsson agreed.
A perfect fit
The acquisition has, in fact, been frequently described as a
merger. “As the bigger party,” commented Aarnout Loudon
during an interview in 2003, “it was Akzo who took over Nobel
Industries, but for coatings it was a merger. Strategically, it
was a perfect fit. Of course, the analysts said we paid too
much – they always do. I replied: ‘Time will tell,’ and, looking
back, it has. After further acquisitions, Akzo Nobel has
become the largest coatings company in the world.”
Keen to identify best practices in both companies and translate
these into the new situation, Akzo Nobel sought top
talent to manage the complex knowledge transfer and integration
process. Many of these came from Sweden, including
Ove Mattsson himself, who became Akzo Nobel’s Board
Member for Coatings. “I’ve got very positive memories of
working with the Dutch,” Mattsson was later to recall. “Their
easy-going way of doing business matched ours. And, like
us, they have a small-nation syndrome and an international
outlook. The Nobel coatings business had something
of a family company culture, so joining with similar Akzo
companies was easier.” The fact that both partners had
divested their consumer businesses during the 1980s, and that
both were organized in terms of business units rather than
divisions, also helped.
An instinct for cooperation
Aarnout Loudon retired as Chairman of Akzo Nobel’s Board
of Management in 1994, taking on the role of Chairman of
the Supervisory Board. He was succeeded as Chairman
of the Board of Management by Cees van Lede, to whom
fell the task of making the integration work over the coming
years. Van Lede’s philosophy echoed that of Mattsson: “Like
the Netherlands,” he observed, “Sweden is a small country,
and I think small countries have an instinct for co-operation.
Nobel also shared our business unit philosophy, and, like us,
had a culture of give-and-take and consensus building, and
once Swedes reach a consensus, it’s virtually unbreakable.”
Acquisition of Courtaulds
Only four years later, Akzo Nobel announced its intention
to acquire Courtaulds (see the separate chapter on The
Courtaulds Legacy). This brought Courtaulds’ extremely
strong coatings portfolio into the business (as explained in
the separate chapter on International Paint). On January 1,
1999, Courtaulds’ and Akzo Nobel’s fibers businesses were
integrated into a new company called Acordis, which supplied
man-made fibers and materials for industrial, textile,
medical and hygiene applications. With production facilities
in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, the United States,
Brazil, Italy, Spain and Poland, Acordis had its organizational
headquarters in Derby (UK) and its legal headquarters in the
Netherlands. It employed 19,000 people worldwide and had
sales of NLG 6 billion (approximately $3 billion) at the time of
its establishment. Acordis was divested in the same year to
CVC Capital Partners.
Market and technology focus
This brought to an end Akzo Nobel’s association with fibers,
which stemmed back to the foundation of Enka by Jacques
Coenraad Hartogs in 1911. In the years that followed,
Akzo Nobel made selective acquisitions in coatings, chemicals
and pharmaceuticals, refocused its chemicals portfolio
(integrating its salt and base chemicals activities and
strengthening its specialty chemicals portfolio), and made a
number of strategic divestments.
The new Company Statement, formulated in 1995,
described Akzo Nobel as a “market-driven and technologybased
company,” and this set the tone for operations in the
closing years of the 20th century. Following the acquisitions
of Nobel Industries’ coatings and chemicals businesses
and of Courtaulds, Akzo Nobel was also a genuinely international
business in spirit as well as name. “We distinguish
ourselves from many others as a multicultural company,”
stated Cees van Lede in 1996, “not only in terms of human
resources, but equally in terms of the national backgrounds
we assemble under the Akzo Nobel logo, and the business
that we conduct worldwide. But we are also multicultural in
that we emphasize the responsibilities of the business units
and service units, and we stimulate them to exploit their own
identities and styles. On the other hand, the competitive
edge of our corporation above all lies in our acting as one
coherent group in spite of its many different parts. Each of
our employees, whatever he does or wherever she works,
should have the same attitude, showing full commitment to
the success of our customers, eagerness to make a sound
return on our shareholders’ investments, ability to create an
attractive working environment and a deeply felt sensitivity
to conduct our activities in a socially responsible manner.
Within this common framework, our diversity should enable
us, more than others, to benefit from the wide range of individual
ideas within the company, stimulating one another
to bring to life new business concepts and to develop new
products or services.”
Pharma, Coatings, Chemicals
Under the chairmanship of Van Lede, Akzo Nobel positioned
itself as a company offering Pharma, Coatings and
Chemicals, and the emphasis on the human and animal
healthcare sectors increased during these years, taking
advantage of the non-cyclical nature of the pharma industry.
Akzo Nobel’s success during this period owed much to the
strategic thinking and international orientation of Van Lede,
who succeeded in translating Aarnout Loudon’s bold expansion
plans into operational reality. Van Lede’s stated single
priority on assuming the chairmanship in 1994 had been
“to make this work,” and he used his renowned interpersonal
and linguistic skills to great effect in this cause. Indeed, Van
Lede added Swedish to his portfolio of foreign languages so
as to better understand the viewpoint of his new colleagues
from Nobel Industries. Ultimately 60 percent of the company’s
sites received a visit from Van Lede during his almost
decade-long tenure.
The successful integration of Nobel Industries, the acquisition
of Courtaulds’ cutting-edge coatings operations,
the divestment of the problematic fibers business and the
new emphasis on a very strong Pharma group were all the
achievement of Cees Van Lede. Throughout his chairmanship,
he cultivated a managerial style which balanced a

Powder coatings being packed by Anders Engman at Akzo Nobel’s
powder coating facility in Malmö, Sweden, in 1998
253

254
AkzoNobel 1994–2008:
Consolidation and focus
AkzoNobel
pragmatic approach to business with a deep understanding
of the human factor. “His major achievement was to take
former CEO Aarnout Loudon’s business-unit concept of a
decentralized, two-layer organization and actually put it
into practice,” commented his former colleague CFO Fritz
Fröhlich in an interview marking the occasion of Van Lede’s
retirement in 2003. “Van Lede is one of those cosmopolitan
Dutch businessmen who speaks numerous languages and
loves diversity,” Fröhlich continued. “I have never heard him
voice any prejudice, he’s very tolerant, he isn’t just the hardnosed
profit-driven business man. He’s interested in all stakeholders
– and employees, the public, the shareholders.”
Under Van Lede’s direction, AkzoNobel posted the best
results in its long history as it entered the new millennium
in 2000, with net income of c966 million, up 25 percent
on the previous year’s figure. The first years of the 21st
century witnessed economic stagnation, however, and the
perceived attractiveness of the pharma sector underwent a
general decline, as pure pharma players found the process
of bringing “blockbuster” drugs to market increasingly
lengthy and expensive. Indeed, the early years of the new
millennium proved to be particularly challenging, with the
increasingly difficult economic climate adding to the pressure
brought about by the loss of patent protection for key
pharma product Remeron. A series of restructuring programs
soon followed and it was against this background
that Hans Wijers succeeded Cees van Lede as Chairman
of the Board of Management in 2003. Van Lede had been
at the helm for almost a decade and had overseen a crucial
phase in the history of the company.
Fit for the future
Within months of Wijers becoming Chairman, the company
was quick to signal its new, more focused, strategy. A major
chemicals divestment program was announced which would
eventually result in a complete realignment of the portfolio.
The Decorative Coatings business was also restructured,
with Wijers intent on creating a platform for growth and
maneuvering the company into a position of financial and
organizational strength.
A few years later, in 2006, another landmark announcement
was made, when Wijers spelled out his vision for
the company.
“Pure play” was the key phrase in Hans Wijers’ new strategy,
which was presented on February 7, 2006, at Akzo Nobel’s
2005 Annual Results press conference. Wijers announced
the creation of a pure play chemicals and coatings company
and a pure play pharmaceutical company. The objective of
this bold move was to enhance shareholder value through
increased management and strategic focus, offering greater
transparency and putting both businesses in a position to
accelerate their growth independently of one another.
The initial plan was for a minority listing of Organon
BioSciences (comprising Akzo Nobel’s pharma business
units Organon, Intervet and Nobilon) on the Euronext
Bourse in Amsterdam, with full separation of the two
companies to occur within the following three years. On
March 12, 2007, however, the separation process was
dramatically speeded up by Schering-Plough’s offer to
acquire Organon BioSciences for c11 billion. The offer was
accepted, marking the termination of Akzo Nobel’s association
with pharma – a link stretching back most prominently
to Saal van Zwanenberg’s foundation of Organon
in 1923. At the moment of acceptance, Akzo Nobel
employed a total of 61,900 people worldwide and generated
net income of c1.2 billion on annual revenues of
c13.7 billion. The company was, in Hans Wijers’ words,
“Fit for the future.”
ICI joins Akzo Nobel
Only months after disposing of Organon BioSciences,
Akzo Nobel made another swift and decisive move,
announcing on August 13, 2007 its intention to acquire
Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI). The deal, which
was formally closed on January 2, 2008, was worth
£8.1 billion (c10.8 billion). An important component of this
transaction was the sale of ICI’s Adhesives Division and
Electronic Materials Division to the Düsseldorf-based international
consumer products company Henkel for £2.7 billion
(c3.6 billion). The disposal of the two divisions offered a
compelling strategic fit for both Akzo Nobel and Henkel and
enabled Akzo Nobel to increase the offer it had originally
made for ICI in August 2007 while maintaining its financial
discipline. Taking into account these disposals, the acquisition
of ICI gave Akzo Nobel pro forma combined sales
(based on figures for 2006) of c15.3 billion, c10 billion of
which were attributable to coatings activities. The combination
of Akzo Nobel’s and ICI’s coatings portfolios assured
the expanded Akzo Nobel a leading presence on all continents,
the ability to serve customers worldwide, a strong
and complementary fit across all its regions, markets and
brands, and an excellent platform for growth.
Rebranding to become AkzoNobel
The purchase of ICI set in motion a reorganization of management
functions and the company’s business activities to
integrate the new acquisition. While Akzo Nobel’s Chemicals
businesses had by and large already been rationalized in
2004, the incorporation of ICI’s highly successful Dulux
brand into Akzo Nobel’s Decorative Coatings business triggered
a major rethinking of the company’s Coatings organization.
The Coatings portfolio was divided into a Decorative
Paints business, featuring seven regional business, and a
Performance Coatings business, including Car Refinishes,
Marine & Protective Coatings, Powder Coatings, Industrial
Finishes, and Packaging Coatings. The acquisition and integration
of ICI within Akzo Nobel was the last milestone in the
transformation of the company from the conglomerate it had
been nearly a decade before to a highly focused Coatings
and Specialty Chemicals company.
The time was ripe for a new corporate brand for the company.
On April 25, 2008, AkzoNobel was born. The company
had been re-energized for a new beginning. A new corporate
brand and identity was unveiled, symbolizing the fundamental
transformation which the company had undergone. But the
name was retained (now written as one word) because it
commanded too much value, heritage and respect for it to
be discarded. The familiar logo also remained, having been
given a modern restyling to make it more relevant to the new
positioning. “Our new brand promise typifies our desire to
create new ideas,” explained Wijers. “We are one company
and will continually seek out new and better answers for our
customers, making true on our brand promise: Tomorrow’s
Answers Today.”

Akzo Nobel provided the coatings for the two largest wind turbines in the world when commissioned in 2006. Situated off
the northeast coast of Scotland, they weigh 750 tons each and have rotor blades more than 61 metres long. Approximately
3,000 liters of coatings were required to protected the turbines against this notoriously harsh maritime environment
255

256
Akzo Nobel’s Sikkens ® products being used to help restore the original ornamental
frieze above Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum

AkzoNobel
Most companies do not survive longer than 40 years; the conflicting pressures
to continually evolve in the face of change while retaining a clear
sense of identity and purpose are simply too great. AkzoNobel traces its
earliest forbear back to the middle of the 17th century. The account of
the company’s genesis, growth and survival into the 21st century is by
definition a huge success story.
257

258
AkzoNobel in the 21st century
AkzoNobel
That success has been based on many things. On entrepreneurial
flair, commercial acumen, informed risk-taking and,
of course, innovative capability. The companies that have
gone into the creation of today’s AkzoNobel were in themselves
significant organizations that were successful over the
course of many decades. AkzoNobel’s success is founded
on its remarkable ability to change.
Looking beyond the horizon of this book, there is perhaps
only one safe prediction to be made. AkzoNobel will con-
An ever-changing
portfolio
At the time of this book’s publication, AkzoNobel’s portfolio
is focused on coatings and chemicals. The company is
the world’s largest coatings manufacturer and commands
leading market positions in virtually all its chemicals
businesses. AkzoNobel develops, manufactures and
markets innovative, high-quality products and services for
most market segments. The coatings portfolio includes
decorative paints; products for industrial applications
including powder coatings; marine, protective and
aerospace coatings; and coatings-related products such
as wood and building adhesives. Key AkzoNobel coatings
brands include Albatex ® , Astral ® , Dulux ® , Dulux ® Magic
White ® , Dulux ® Valentine ® , Flexa ® , Flood ® Herbol ® ,
International ® , Interpon ® , Lesonal ® , Levis ® , Marshall ® ,
Molto ® , Nordsjö ® , Sadolin ® , Schönox ® , Sico ® , Sikkens ® ,
Tintas Coral ® , Trimetal ® and Vivechrom ® .
AkzoNobel is also one of the world’s leading producers
of specialty chemicals, holding leading or strong global
positions in many markets. A key supplier to the polymer
production and processing industries, the company is also
the world leader in pulp bleaching chemicals and an
important producer of salt, functional chemicals, and
surfactants. Key AkzoNobel chemicals brands include
Akucell ® , Bermocoll ® , Bolikel ® , Demeon ® D, Dissolvine ® ,
Eka ® , Expancel ® Microspheres, Jozo ® Salt, Kromasil ® MCA,
Nezo ® Salt, Suprasel ® and Trigonox ® .
tinue to change. It will make further acquisitions and divestments,
reorganize its activities, develop new technologies,
and create new markets. These are things that the company
will have to do in order to excel – and it will have to excel
in order to survive. That is the way of business. If this brief
account of AkzoNobel’s history tells us one thing, it is that
the fundamental laws of business never change. The challenges
and opportunities facing AkzoNobel today are not
so very different from those faced by so many of the great
AkzoNobel’s
business line-up 2008
Decorative Paints
Decorative Paints supplies a full range of interior and
exterior decoration and protection products for both the
professional and DIY markets. Our Decorative Paints
organization consists of 7 regional businesses.
Performance Coatings
Car Refinishes supplies paints and services to the car
repair, commercial vehicle and automotive plastics markets.
Industrial Activities comprises the company’s Industrial
Finishes and Powder Coatings businesses.
Marine & Protective Coatings is a global market leader
in marine paints and antifouling coatings. It manufactures
fire-retardant products for large plants and offshore installations,
as well as protective coatings for structures such as
bridges, aircraft and stadiums.
Packaging Coatings manufactures and supplies inks and
coatings for the interior and exterior of cans and other metal
containers.
pioneers described in this narrative – and by the countless
more who could not be named, but whose anonymous
contribution was just as vital in helping to create today’s
AkzoNobel.
These pioneers of so many years ago had their sights firmly
set on tomorrow. In today’s very different world, there is no
better place to look for the future of AkzoNobel. Where better
to highlight that idea than in the company’s corporate identity:
Tomorrow’s Answers Today
Specialty Chemicals
Base Chemicals produces energy, salt, chlor-alkali products
and derivatives. Its products are used to make items such as
glass, pharmaceuticals and textiles.
Chemicals Pakistan focuses on providing, for example,
specialty chemicals, polyester fibers and soda ash exclusively
for the Pakistan market.
Functional Chemicals comprises a number of businesses
that manufacture and sell a variety of chemical intermediates
and performance chemicals on a global scale.
Polymer Chemicals produces organic peroxides, and
is also a major producer of metal alkyls and co-catalysts
– chemicals used primarily in the production of thermoplastics,
and for making a wide range of plastic goods.
Pulp & Paper Chemicals produces bleaching chemicals
used in the manufacture of paper pulp and supplies process
and performance chemicals that improve the properties
of paper.
Surface Chemistry produces surface-active agents used
to facilitate the combination or seperation of two different
materials.

A selection of AkzoNobel powder coatings

260
Located alongside the Veracel pulp mill in Brazil, Eka’s Bahia plant, which was opened in 2005,
is an example of the Chemical Island Concept of AkzoNobel Pulp and Paper Chemicals

The products described in this book are not solely the creation
of AkzoNobel and its predecessor companies. They are
the result of economic conditions, scientific aspiration and
consumer demand in many different markets of the world
at many different times. They are, at the deepest level, the
creation of society itself.
Every society has its aspirations, and every society has its
fears. A fear widely held by many people at the opening of
the 21st century is that our creative ability to intervene in the
course of nature may ultimately lead to the destruction of the
very planet on which we live. Whatever science may or may
not be able to teach us on this subject, this fear is very genuine,
and it needs to be taken very seriously. Our capacity for
recombining the constituent elements of nature by means
of chemistry is now seen to harbour risks that were never
dreamt of even half a century ago. The word sustainability
– still a newcomer to the world’s economic vocabulary in the
early 1990s – is rightly on everybody’s lips today.
In his Chairman’s Statement in the 2007 AkzoNobel
Sustainability Report, Hans Wijers clearly acknowledged
the central role that sustainability has to play in AkzoNobel’s
future. Addressing all the company’s stakeholders, he wrote,
“Companies have to understand the new fundamentals of
today’s markets and changing customer needs. These
include a growing scarcity of raw materials, fossil fuels and
fresh water resources; rising energy prices; the economics
of CO 2 emissions; and the international debate on supply
chain responsibility and social standards. This combination
will increasingly impact market propositions and profit and
loss accounts.”
Hans Wijers continued that “Our capability to deliver sustainable
solutions to our customers is crucial for the success of
our company.” Delivering solutions to customers has always
been the business of AkzoNobel and its predecessor companies.
Indeed, many stories in this book depict the entre-
preneurial struggle to capitalize on a technology, open up a
market with it, and then service that market with products for
as long as possible. This is not, however, what is nowadays
understood as truly sustainable practice. If AkzoNobel, as a
commercial enterprise, still has to capitalize on technologies,
open up markets with them, and then service those markets
with products for as long as possible, it has to do so in ways
which not only deliver maximum value to its customers but
also demand minimum resources from the planet. The management
of sustainability in the value chain is as important
as the delivery of value through the product – indeed, the
management of sustainability is itself becoming a means of
delivering value, as customers and consumers alike seek
eco-premium and low-carbon solutions.
Historically, this is still a very new element in the entrepreneurship
equation, and its application will have far-reaching
effects on every aspect of AkzoNobel. As the end of the
opening decade of the 21st century approaches, the
responsibilities inherent in operating any industrial chemical
process are clearer than ever before. Writing in the same
Sustainability Report, Hans Wijers said, “Our employees will
be challenged and rewarded to develop sustainable solutions
and to contribute to innovation. We will unlock new
economic value for our shareholders, reaping the benefits of
a successful combination of sustainable solutions and efficient
operations. And for our environment and the communities
in which we operate, it means being able to make an
even greater contribution to a more sustainable world.”
The stories in this book show that AkzoNobel has made a
great contribution to the world on many fronts during the
course of its history. The challenge for the future is to do
that not only in a sustainable manner, but in such a way as
to actively bring about a more sustainable world. More than
ever before, AkzoNobel’s task is to fulfil the declaration that
is integral to its brand: Tomorrow’s Answers Today.
261

262

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263

264

Index
Letters after a page number refer to columns
or separate side stories on that page.
Columns are designated in order from left
to right: a, b, c, and d. Separate side stories
are indicated by the letter i.
Page numbers in bold refer to illustrations.
Page numbers in italics refer to maps or
milestones.
Dutch names that include a particle (e.g.
van) can be found listed under the particle.
The abbreviation KZO refers to Koninklijke
Zout-Organon.
A
AB Berol-Produkter (Berol) see Berol
AB Bofors Nobelkrut 134b, 138i
AB Kema 15, 180b–180c see also Barnängen
AB Stockholms Bryggerier 180c
AB Syntes 190b
acetic acids 20, 76i, 186b, 244a
Acordis
acquisition by CVC Capital Partners 20,
28a, 46c, 252b
annual turnover 252b
divestment of 20, 31
founding history 28a, 46c, 212a, 252b
management structure 46c
range of products 46c
activated carbon 15, 64a
Activit 64a
adhesives
advertisement for 177
production of 14, 15, 173, 174a–174c, 174i,
176a
soy based 14, 174a
testing of 172
advertisements see also advertising campaigns
for Biotex ® 80c, 81
Casco calendar girl 177
for Celanese 211
for Duyvis ® peanuts 99
for Enkalon ® 47
founding of KemaNobel 134c–134d
for Rubbol ® 51
for Sikkens 53
slogan for Ovowop ® 102b
advertising campaigns see also advertisements
by Akzo 38i
for Crown ® 196b
for Dulux ® 238c, 240a
by G.W. Sikkens & Co. 52a
joint advertising by Kortman & Schulte and
AKU 80c
by Sadolin & Holmblad 162
aerospace coatings see aircraft coatings
aerospace industry 246c–247a
Aftonbladet (newspaper) 143
Agfa 226b
Agis, Maurice 59
Agrochemicals division (ICI) 20, 247b
AgVax 110c
Ahlquist, Ray 242b
Airbus 4 27
aircraft coatings
Akzo Nobel 28b, 212a–212b, 220a
Courtaulds 216b
Sikkens 52c
Walpamur 196a
Akcros Chemicals 116c
Aktiebolaget Kema 180b–180c
AKU (Algemene Kunstzijde Unie) 80d see
also Enka; Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken
diversifications 16
employees at 44a
expansion of 44a–44b
founding history 18, 24a, 36a–36b, 42b
invention of aramid fiber 36a–36b
joint advertising with Kortman & Schulte
80c
management structure 42b, 44b–45a
merger history 14, 30, 35–36a, 36i,
44b–45a, 88, 204a
merger with KZO 18, 24a, 36i, 44b–45a,
45c
production of nylon 24a, 44b
during WW II 42c
Akulon ® 44a
Akzo see also under specific divisions; under
specific sites
acquisition of Armour 18
acquisition of US companies 19, 36c
advertising campaigns 38i
competition with DuPont 19, 24a–24b, 46a
corporate identity of 19, 38i
creation of Intervet 110a
efficiency drive 90s 36c, 38
environmental management system 19
founding history 18, 24a, 35–36a, 36c,
44b–45a
impact oil crisis 24a
labor relations at 19
logo of 18, 38i, 45c, 80b
management structure 19, 24b
map of site locations 32
merger history 18, 23–24a, 26a, 26c, 30,
44b–45a, 54a, 70a, 80d, 88, 114c-114d,
116a–116c
merger with Nobel 30, 123, 145c, 170a,
176b, 251–252a
product range of 36a
production of Twaron ® 19, 24a–24b, 46a
reorganizations 18, 24b–24c
sole shareholder of Akzona 19, 24c, 114c
Akzo America Inc. 19, 114c–114d, 116a
Akzo Chemicals Inc. 114c, 116b
Akzo Chemie America 114c, 116a–116b
Akzo Code of Conduct 45c
Akzo Nobel see also Acordis; Akzo; AkzoNobel;
Nobel Industries AB; under specific
business units; under specific sites
acquisition of Courtaulds 20, 28a, 46c,
212a–212b, 220a, 252b
acquisition of Crown Berger 196c–197
acquisition of Eka 154b
acquisition of ICI 21, 28c–29, 197, 247c,
254b
annual turnover 28b, 254a, 254b
Company Statement 252b–252c
creation of Organon BioSciences 21, 28c,
106c, 254b
divestment of fiber production 28a, 252b
divestments 20, 28c, 30–31
divestments to Henkel 247c, 254b
environmental policies 20, 21
founding history 20, 24c, 26a, 26c, 30, 38,
123
integration after merger ICI 252b
joint venture with Courtaulds 26c
listing on stock exchange 254b
map of site locations 248
merger history 20, 23–24, 26c, 30–31, 56a,
145c, 160c
portfolio of 28b
production of powder coatings 20, 253
production of veterinary products 28b
relocation headquarters to Amsterdam 21,
28c
reorganizations and expansions
116c–116d
salt production of 70b
Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings AB 170a
Akzo Nobel Industrial Coatings AB 170a
Akzo Nobel Salt, Inc. 26c
Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry LLC. 116d
Akzo North America (Akzona) see Akzona
Akzona (Akzo North America) see also Akzo
America Inc.
Akzo sole shareholder of 19, 24c, 114c
founding history 18, 114c
name change to Akzo America Inc. 19
name changes and divestments 19,
114c–114d
AkzoNobel see also Akzo Nobel
and aircraft coatings 212a
and the Björkborn Foundation 140c
corporate identity of 258c, 261b
founding history 23, 29, 38, 56i, 67, 109
future of 258a–258c, 261a–261b
logo 254c
map of site locations 248
marine coatings 220a
new corporate brand 21, 29, 254c
portfolio of 258i
production of powder coatings 259
Sustainability Report 261a–261b
US history 113
Albemarle Corp. 21
265

266
Albright & Wilson 19
Alby Klorat 19
Alderley Park site (ICI) 242b
Alderlin 242b–242c
Alfred Nobel and Co. 126c
Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU) see AKU
alkali 230i
Alkali Group 232a
alkali plant 151
Alkathene ® 234a
Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation 226b,
226c
alphanaphthaylacetic acid (NAA) 244a
Alvik site (Barnängen/Lars Montén) 180b, 182
Ambros, Dr. 232c
American Enka Corporation 14, 18, 19, 42b,
114d
American Internatonal Salt Company 18, 70b,
70c, 115
American PVS Chemicals Inc. 64c
American Viscose Company (AVC) 204c, 205a
American Viscose Corporation (AVC) 15,
205a–205b, 208a–208b, 210b
American Wyandotte Paint Products Company
19
Amersfoort site (Van Hasselt) 92a, 92c
amine plant 188
ammonia
Haber-Bosch process 226b
overproduction 230b
production of 17, 144c, 152a, 235a
synthesizing process 246b
Amsterdam sites (Boldoot)
closure of several 86c
Haarlemmerweg factory 13, 86a, 88
shop in Kalverstraat 14, 85, 86b
on Singel and Langestraat 86a
Amsterdam sites (Ketjen)
in 1835 62
catalysts for oil plant 16, 64b
destruction of 64b
hydrochloric acid plant 13, 64a
sulfur dioxide plant 16, 64b
sulfuric acid plant 12, 64a, 64b, 64c, 65
Amundsen, Lars 173–174a, 174c
anabolic steriods 17, 104c
Anaglypta ® 194d, 197
Andriol ® 18, 106b
anesthetics 240c, 242a–242b, 247a
animal feed 73, 96a, 109
anti-depressants 18, 20, 106b–106c, 107
anti-malarial drugs 240b–240c
APCs (aromatic polymer composites)
246c–247a
Aquitania, RMS 225, 226c, 228a–228b
Aquitania Agreement 226c, 228a–228b
aramid fibers 36b, 46a see also Kevlar ® ;
Twaron ®
architecture see Sikkens Prize
Ardbo, Martin 140c
Arenka ® 19 see also Twaron ®
Armak Chemicals (formerly Armour Industrial
Chemicals) 18, 114c
armaments industry 14, 15, 122b, 122c, 126a,
138a–138d, 140a–140c
Armerican Cabot Corporation 64b
Armour, Philip Danforth 114a
Armour & Co. see also Chicago site; Dial
Corporation; Industrial Chemical division;
McCook site
acquisition by Greyhound Lines Inc. 18,
114c
acquisition of Kessler 17, 114b
Chicago Stock Yards 112, 114a
develops fatty acid fractionation 17,
114a–114b
founding history 11, 113, 114a
improvement of potash 15, 114b
joint venture with Dan Hess 17, 114b
joint venture with Lion Fat and Oil 114b
merger history 30
name changes and divestments 19,
114b–114c
production of soaps 12, 16, 17, 114a–114b
Armour-Dial, Inc. (formerly Armour-Dial
Company) 114b
Armour-Dial Company (formerly Armour & Co)
114b
Armour’s Family Soap 114a
Arnhem site (Akzo) 39
Arnhem site (Enka/AKU)
Enka plant 37
production at 44b
research centre 42b, 44a
start of production 41–42a
aromatic polymer composites (APCs)
246c–247a
art history 206i
Artenius UK 247b
Arthur Sanderson & Sons 196a
artificial silk see rayon; viscose
Asheville site (Akzo America Inc) 19
Asheville site (American Enka Corporation) 14,
42b
Asken (investment company) 145c
Aspa Mill 152c
Aspro-Nicholas 110a
Astral 54a
AstraZeneca 247b
Atlee, Clement 236c
atom bomb 236a–236c
atomic energy 236a–236c
Ausvac 20, 110b
Autocryl ® 54a
Autoflex ® 17, 52a, 54a
Autoflex ® Filler 52c
Autoflex ® Sneldrogend 52c
Autoflex ® Washprimer 52c
AVC (American Viscose Company) 204c, 205a
AVC (American Viscose Corporation)
205a–205b, 208a–208b, 210b
Avecia 247b
B
Bad Boekelo 15, 69
BAE Systems 140c
Baekeland, Leo 230c
BAFTA award 244i
Bahia site (Eka) 260
Bakelite ® 230c
ballistite 126b, 126c, 134a
Banting, Fred 14
Barnängen (Barnängen Tekniska Fabrik) see
also Alvik site
acquisition by Henkel 182
acquisition by KemaNord (formerly
Fosfatbolaget) 17, 18, 122b, 145b
creation of AB Kema 15, 180b–180c
education in beauty care 180c, 183
expansions 180b–180c
founding history 11, 179
marketing of soaps 12, 180b
merger history 30, 180b–180c, 182
production of ink 180a–180b
production of personal care products
180c, 181
production of soaps 180a–180b, 182
“Shantung School” 16, 180c, 183
trademark 180a
Base Chemicals 258i
BASF 19, 114d, 226b, 228i
Battle of Britain 234c
Battle of Cape Matapan 234c
Bayer, Otto 238a
Bayer AG
acquisition of Nordsjö 166c
agreement with AkzoNobel 28a
anti-malarial research 240b
divestment of Nordsjö 170a
role in chemical industry 226b
vaccine factory 110c
and Zwanenberg 102b, 104a
Bayer Biologicals 20, 31, 110b
Beadle, Clayton 12, 44i
Beatrice 247b
Bebbington, Frank 234a
Beer, Edwin 205i
Bell, Alexander Graham 86i
Bemberg 10, 23
Bénénuts ® 96d, 98a
Bengtsfors site (Eka)
alkali plant 151
founding site 12, 150a–150b
hydro-electric power station at 150a
relocation to Bohus 14
Bergen op Zoom site (AkzoNobel) 250
Berger, Lewis 10, 194a
Berger ® 194a, 197
Bernigaud, Hilaire (Count de Chardonnet) 202c
Bernström, Mr. 184, 185
Berol (AB Berol-Produkter) see also Domsjö
site (Berol/MoDo)
acquisistion by MoDo 16, 186a–186b
acquisition by Nobel Industries 122c
and business-to-business products 190i
founding history 15, 185
merger history 30
production of impregnation agents 15,
186a
Berol Kemi AB 18, 19, 145c, 190c–190d
Berol Nobel AB 19
Berol ® (brand) 190c
Best, Charles 14
beta-blockers 17, 242b–242c, 247a
Bevan, Edward John 12, 44i, 205i, 230c
Bifacton ® 16
Big Ben (soap brand) 114a
Billingham site (Brunner Mond) 226b
Bindol ® 15, 166b
Biopol ® 246b–246c
Biotex (stage play) 80d
Biotex ® 80c–80d, 81, 88
Birkeland, Kristian 144b
BJN 196c
Björkborn Foundation 140c
Björkborn Manor 128c, 140c
Bjurvald, Martin (Dr. RX) 174b
Black, Sir James 242b–242c
Blaisse, Folkert 46c
blasting cap 11, 122a
blasting gelatin 11, 26a, 126c, 134a
bleaching powder 226a
bleaching process see chlorine; chlorine
dioxide; hydrogen peroxide
the Blitz 140b, 234c
“blue sky” research 232b, 235b
Blunt, Sir Anthony 206i
bodyshops 54a, 54c, 55
Boekelo site (KNZ) 15, 68a–68b, 69
Bofors AB see also Bofors site; Nobel
Industries i Sverige AB
acquisition by Nobel Industries
122b–122c, 134a
acquisition of KemaNobel, 19, 176a
cannon manufacturing 11, 138a–138d
divestment by Nobel Industries 145c
founding history 10, 122b, 137–138a
innovations in weapon manufacturing
140a–140b
merger history 12, 23, 26b, 30, 121
production of armaments 14, 15, 122b,
122c
production of steel 138b
weapons deal scandal 19, 26b, 122c,

140b–140c
Bofors Nobel 122b
Bofors Nobel Explosives Company 138i
Bofors site (Bofors)
Cannon Works 136
employees at 141
founding site 138a
production of gunpowder 134b, 139
Bofors ® guns 122b, 137, 140a–140b, 141
Bofors ® turretless tank 140b
Boforsite (explosive) 138i
Bohr, Niels 236b
Bohus site (Eka) 14, 150b, 153, 155
Boldoot ® (brand) see also Boldoot (firm);
Eau de Cologne
bottles 87
and the competition 86b, 88
delivery van 84
Boldoot (firm) see also Amsterdam sites;
Boldoot ® (brand)
Catholic faith and 86d, 88
expansion after WW II 86d, 88
founding history 10, 83
merger history 17, 23, 30, 88
part of Consumer Products division (Akzo)
88
part of Consumer Products division (KZO)
88
products range 89
shop in Kalverstraat 14, 85, 86b
takeover by British American Cosmetics
88
and the telephone 86i
use of Eau de Cologne in soap 11, 86a
during WW I and WW II 86b–86d
Boldoot, Jacobus Cornelis 82, 83
Boldoot museum 86b–86c
Boon, William 240c, 244b
Boot, H.A.H. 234b
Borden Inc. 174a
Borth (North-Westphalia) 68i
Bosch, Carl 226c
Boxmeer site (Intervet) 110c
Breda site (Enka/AKU)
employees at 43, 45a–45c
final closure of 46a–46b, 47
proposed closure of 19, 45a–45c
British Alizarine Company 226a
British American Cosmetics 88
British Celanese Ltd. 210a
British Cellophane Ltd. 205c, 210a
British Dyes Ltd. 226a
British Dyestuffs Corporation
founding history 226a
logo of 227
merger history 225, 226c
after WW I 226c
British Dynamite Co. 226a
British Ministry of Agriculture 244b
British Ministry of Supply 240c
British Nylon Spinners 15, 210b, 235b–235c,
236a
Brolac ® 196c
Broxo ® 70a
Brunner, Mond & Co. Ltd. see Brunner Mond
Brunner, Sir John 226a, 230i
Brunner Mond (Brunner, Mond & Co. Ltd.) see
also Billingham site
founding history 226a
and the Haber-Bosch process 226b, 228i
head-hunting system 230a
influence on ICI 230i
logo of 227
merger history 225, 226c, 247b
BT Kemi scandal 18, 160a–160b
butanol 186b
butyraldehyde 190d
C
calcium carbide 15, 144b, 144c, 145b
Calico Printers’ Association 15, 235b–236a
California ® soups 88, 104d
"Cambridge Five" 206i
Campbell, Gordon 212a
Canadian Competition Bureau 197
candle-making 114a, 178, 180b
Cannon, Walter 242b–242c
cannons 136, 138a–138d
Car Refinishes 254c, 258i
Car Refinishes Instruction Center 18, 54c
car refinishing systems 17, 52c, 54a, 55
carbide see calcium carbide
carbon disulphide 152a
Carlson, Birger 144c
Carlson, Oscar 134d, 142, 143, 144c
Carmiggelt, Simon 104d
Carnegie (investment company) 145c
Carothers, Wallace 232c, 235b–235c
Carson, Rachel 246a
Casco AB see also Kristinehamn site
acquisition by Fosfatbolaget (formerly
Superfosfat) 17, 122b, 145b, 174c
advertisements 177
expansion after WW II 174b, 174c
founding history 14, 173–174a
logo of 174a
merger history 19, 30, 170a, 176a–176b
product range of 174c
production of adhesives 14, 15, 174a–174c,
174i
Casco Glue 174a
Casco Nobel 176a
Casco ® (brand) 176b
Cascoflex ® 19, 176a
CascoGard 18
Cascol ® 16, 174b
Casconol ® 174b
Cascosinol ® 174a
casein 14, 15, 173, 174a, 174i
Cassell, G.E. 150a
Catalyst business unit 20, 28b, 64b
catalysts 16, 64b
caustic soda (natrium hydroxide) 68i, 150b,
204a see also lye (sodium hydroxide)
Cefarox 92b
Celanese (brand) 204c, 211
Celanese Co. 204c
Cellon (nylon brand) 210b
Cellon Ltd. 17, 210a, 216b
Cellophane 205c, 210b
Celluloid 230c
cellulose lacquer 14, 52a
Central Research (Akzo Nobel) 76
Central Works Council (Enka-Glanzstoff)
45a–45b
Central Works Council (ICI) 230a
Cerazette ® 20, 106b
CetaBever 52c
CFCs (chlorofluoro carbons) 246a–246b
Chadwick, James 236b
Chain, Ernst 240c
Challenge 2010 246b
Chardonnet, Hilaire Bernigaud, Count of 202c
Chefarine ® 106a
Chefaro (Chemische Fabriek Rotterdam) see
also Dordrecht site
merger history 16, 31, 92b, 92c, 106a,
106c
part of Pharma division (Akzo) 18, 20, 92c
Chemical Island Concept 260
Chemicals businesses 26c, 28b, 64c, 116d, 252c
Chemicals division (Akzo)
Ketjen part of 64c
Kortman & Schulte part of 80d
merger with Salt division (Akzo) 20, 70b
Noury & Van der Lande part of 76
Van Hasselt part of 18, 92c
Chemicals division (KZO) 36c, 106a
chemicals industries 36b–36c, 64c, 144b
Chemicals Pakistan 258i
Chemische Fabriek Rotterdam (Chefaro) see
Chefaro
Chicago site (Akzo Nobel) 116d
Chicago site (Armour) 112, 114b
Chilean saltpeter (sodium nitrate) 80a
chlorine
as a by-product of LeBlanc process 226a
as derivative of salt 68i
environmental problems of 152a–152b
production of 20, 68c, 152a–152b
use of (chlorine tree) 71
chlorine dioxide 152c
chlorofluoro carbons (CFCs) 246a–246b
Churchill, Sir Winston S. 53, 236c
citric acid 15, 74c
Clarks Summit site (International Salt
Company) 115
clothing, easy-care revolution in 236a
Coatings businesses
creation of 26c, 54a, 252c
diversifications of 28b
use of Sikkens brand name 56a
Coatings division (Courtaulds) 210a
Coatings division (KZO) 36c, 54a, 106a
Cockcroft, John 236b
Colomap ® 54b
coloring agents 91–92a, 158c
Colorozo ® 15
Colorscala ® 54b
commercials see advertisements; advertising
campaigns
Community Program 21, 28b
competition authorities 197, 212a
Compiègne site (Noury & Van der Lande) 15,
74c
Compozil ® 18, 19, 152c, 154a–154b
Consumer Products division (Akzo)
Boldoot part of 88
Duyvis part of 98a
founding of 18
Kortman & Schulte part of 80d
products range 89
Shell’s shares in 88
transferred to Douwe Egberts/Sara Lee
19, 30, 88, 98a
Consumer Products division (KZO) 88
Consumer Products division (Nobel) 20, 30,
122c, 182
contraceptives see oral contraceptives
Conway of Allington, Martin Conway, 1st Baron
206i
Copenhagen site (Sadolin & Holmblad) 158a,
158b, 159, 161
copolymer 220a, 220i
Corona spray gun 221
Corporate Environmental Department (Sadolin
& Holmblad) 160b
Corporate Environmental Policy (Sadolin &
Holmblad) 160b
Corporate Social Responsibility Report (CSR
Report) 21, 28b
Cortophine ® 16
Coty Inc. 88
Courtauld, Augustin 208i
Courtauld, George I 201–202a, 203
Courtauld, George II 202a
Courtauld, Samuel III 113, 200, 201–202a, 202b
Courtauld, Samuel IV 15, 204c, 206i, 208i
Courtauld, Taylors & Courtauld see Samuel
Courtauld & Co
Courtauld Institute of Art 15, 204c, 206i, 208i
Courtauld Silver Collection 208i
Courtaulds see also Courtaulds plc; Courtaulds
Textiles plc; Samuel Courtauld & Co; under
267

268
specific divisions; under specific sites
acquisition by Akzo Nobel 20, 28a, 46c,
212a–212b, 220a, 252b
founding history 113
joint venture with Akzo Nobel 26c
listing on stock exchange 13
map of site locations 198
merger history 31, 56a, 216b
partnershp with ICI 235c
rivalry with Enka 42i
separation into two businesses 19, 210c
share prices 210a
Courtaulds News 205i
Courtaulds plc
acquisition by Akzo Nobel 212a–212b
founding history 19, 210c
product range of 210c
Courtaulds Textiles plc
acquisition by Akzo Nobel 212a–212b
founding history 19, 210c
product range of 210c
Courtelle ® 210a, 210b
Coventry site (Courtaulds) 204b
Cowap, A.H. 228i
Crawford, John 235a
Croda 247b
Crompton Corporation 116d
Cross, Charles Frederick 12, 44i, 204a, 205i,
207, 230c
Crown Berger Ltd. see also Crown Decorative
Products
acquisition by Nobel Industries 196c
founding history 19, 193, 196c
merger history 30, 56a, 122c, 145c, 176a
part of Akzo Nobel 196c–197
production of industrial coatings 196a, 197
production of wallpaper 194a
Queen’s Award for Technological
Achievement 196c
Crown Decorative Products 18, 19, 196b, 197
see also Crown Berger Ltd.
Crown Wilman Vymura 197
Crown ® (brand) 17, 56a, 193, 196b, 196c–197
Crown ® Advance ® One Coat 196b
Crown ® Period Colors ® 197
Crown ® Plus Two ® 17, 193
Crowther, A.F. 242c
Croydon Mouldrite Ltd. 232a
Crumpsall Hospital 242b
CSR Report (Corporate Social Responsibility
Report) 21, 28b
Cuprinol ® 170a
Curd, Frank 239, 240b
Curie, Irene 236b
Curie, Marie 236b
Curie, Pierre 236b
CVC Capital Partners 20, 28a, 46c, 212a
D
Dan Hess 17, 114b
Danielsson, Carl 138d, 140a
Darwen site (Walpamur/Crown) 194b–194c,
196a–196b, 197
DCI (dichioroisoprenaline) 242b
DDT 244a, 246a
Decorative Coatings business 254a, 254c
Decorative Paints business 254c, 258i
Delfshaven site (Kortman & Schulte) 12, 78,
80a, 80d
Delfzijl site (Enka/AKU) 46a
Delfzijl site (KNZ) 17, 70b
Desogen ® 24c
DeSoto (aircraft paints producer) 220a
DeSoto site (Intervet) 20, 110b
detonator 11, 126b
Deventer Dagblad 36i
Deventer site (Noury & Van der Lande)
closure of flour factory 76
creation of Nourypharma 74c
explosion at peroxide plant 76
founding site 73
move to new building 74b–74c
safety laboratory at 76
Dexter Corporation 28b
Dial Corporation (formerly Armour & Co.) 19,
20, 114d
Dial Deodorant Soap 16, 114b
dichioroisoprenaline (DCI) 242b
Dickson, J.T. 235c
Diosynth 18, 20, 28b, 106c
Diphenyl Methane Di-isocyanate (MDI) 238b
Diprivan ® 247a
diquat 244b
DJSI (Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes) 21,
28b, 247c
Dobbelman ® 80d, 88
Dobson and Braine 236a
Docker Brothers 216c
Domsjö site (Berol/MoDo) 190a–190b, 190d
Dordrecht site (Chefaro) 92c
Douwe Egberts/Sara Lee 19, 30, 88, 98a
Dow Chemicals 247b
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) 21,
28b, 247c
Driehoek ® 80b–80c, 88
Drietex 80c
DSM (Dutch Sate Mines) 45
Du Saar (employee Ketjen) 64a
Dulux ® 16, 193, 238c, 240a
Dulux ® Brilliant White 240a
Dulux ® dog 240a, 241
Dunlop 174b
DuPont
and competition Akzo 19, 24a–24b, 46a
development of fluorocarbons 242a
and the Dulux ® brand 238c
invention of nylon 232c, 235b–235c
Kevlar ® production 24a–24b, 46a
production of polythene 234a
relationship with ICI 228c
Durabolin ® 17
Duradio ® Enamel Paint 196a
Dutch State Mines (DSM) 45
Duyvis (Koninklijke Fabrieken T. Duyvis Jz. n.v.)
see also Koog aan de Zaan site
advertisement 99
founding history 10, 13, 95–96a
listing on stock exchange 17, 96d
merger history 18, 30, 36a, 36i, 106a
merger with Recter 19, 98a
part of Consumer Products division (Akzo)
98a
as part of Douwe Egberts/Sara Lee 98a
production of consumer food 15, 96b–96d
production of linseed oil 96a–96b
production of nuts, snacks and mixes 17,
98a–98b
“Royal” designation 17, 19, 96d, 98a
Duyvis, Ericus Gerardus (son of T. Duyvis Janz.)
96a
Duyvis, Teeuwis 94, 95–96a
Duyvis Janszoon, Teeuwis (grandson of
Teeuwis Duyvis) 96a–96b
Duyvis ® (brand) 98a, 99
Dyestuff Group (ICI) 232b, 240a
dyestuff industry 158a–158b, 226a, 238b–238c
dynamite
invention of 11, 70i, 122a, 126b
production of 134a–134b
use of 70i, 126c, 133
E
Eau de Cologne 11, 83, 88, 88i, 180a see also
Boldoot ® (brand)
Eau de Cologne 'Extra-Vieille' 88i
Eau de Cologne 4711 88i
ECF (elemental chlorine-free) 152c
Echafa 104d
Ede site (Enka/AKU) 42b, 44a
Edet 106a
Edison, Thomas 114a
Ehrlich, Paul 240a–240b
Eigen Vervoers Organisatie (EVO) 44a
Eka (Elektrokemiska AB (EKA)) see also
Bengtsfors site; Bohus site; Eka Nobel AB
acquisition by Nobel Industries 19, 122c,
154a
annual turnover 152a
diversifications 152a–152c
employees 150i, 153
founding history 12, 14, 18, 149–150a
merger history 30, 154b
name change to Eka Nobel AB 19
part of Akzo Nobel Chemicals 116c
product range of 152a
production of ammonia 17
production of caustic soda 150b
production of chloride of lime 12,
150a–150b
production of chlorine dioxide 152c
production of Compozil ® 19, 152c,
154a–154b
production of hydrogen peroxide 14, 152b,
155
production of lye 12, 150b, 152a
production of metacilicate 15, 152a
production of water glass 14
reorganization by Montgomery 152a
Eka Chemicals see Pulp & Paper Chemicals
Eka Nobel AB 19, 145c see also Eka
(Elektrokemiska AB (EKA))
Ekerö site (Barnängen) 182
Elektrokemiska AB (EKA) see Eka
(Elektrokemiska AB (EKA))
Eli Lilly laboratories 242b
Emmen site (Enka/AKU) 16, 44a, 45a, 45i, 46a
Emmerich site (Noury & Van der Lande/Akzo)
13, 18, 74a, 74c
employees see also job losses
of AKU 44a
at Bofors site 141
at Breda site 43, 45a–45c
of Eka 150i, 153
at Emmen site 45i
at Enka plant 43
at Felling-on-Tyne site 217
female 150i, 247b
labor relations 19, 180a, 228c, 230i
Nordsjö 164
Nordsjö staff canteen 171
at Oss site 106a
of Sadolin & Holmblad 159
at Sassenheim site 52b
transport for 44a, 166c
in yarn factory 213
enamel 158c, 160i
energy conservation 19, 220i, 246b
Eneroth & Co. 180b
Engman, Anders 253
Engström, Albert 180b
Enka (Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek)
see also AKU; American Enka; American
Enka Corporation; Arnhem site (Enka/AKU);
Asheville site; Breda site (Enka/AKU); Delfzijl
site (Enka/AKU); Ede site (Enka/AKU);
Emmen site (Enka/AKU); Lowland site
corporate identity of 19
employees at 43
founding history 13, 41–42a
international expansion 42a–42b
loss of German companies 42c, 44a
merger history 18, 21, 24a, 30, 36a,

36a–36b, 42b, 44b–45a, 204a
production of viscose 13, 16, 41, 44a
rivalry with Courtaulds 42i
during WW I 42a–42b
Enka ® chamois 44b
Enka International 18
Enka-Glanzstoff
founding history 18, 44b, 44b–45a
job losses 46a–46b
master plan for Fibers division 45a–45c
outsourcing synthetic fiber production 46b
synthetic fiber market crisis 46a–46c
Enkalon ® 44a, 47
Enka ® -spons (Enka ® sponge) 44a
Enschede see Boekelo site (KNZ); Usselo site
(KNZ)
Enso Paperikemia 20
Entosorbine ® 88
environmental awareness, growth of 246a–246c
environmental crimes 160a–160b
environmental policies
Akzo Nobel 20, 21
ICI 246b
Nordsjö 20, 170b
Sadolin & Holmblad 160b
Environmental Protection Act (Sweden) 160b
Environmental Sciences Group (ICI) 18, 244b
Epiglass 220a
ethanol 88i, 186b
ethylene 186b, 190a–190b
ethylene glycol 15, 186b
ethylene oxide 186b, 190b
EU Flower 20, 170b
European Commission 197, 212a
Eutech 247b
EVO (Eigen Vervoers Organisatie) 44a
Expancel (firm) 176i
Expancel ® 145b, 176i
explosives
and Alfred Nobel 26a, 126c
production of 11, 64a, 122a, 134a–134c,
135
use of 50d, 138i
Extensor 220a
Eyde, Sam 144b
F
4711 (Eau de Cologne) 88i
Fabergé, Peter Carl 160i
Fabriken Tomten and Vignäron 180b
Faraday Society 232c
Farina, Giovanni Maria (Johann Maria) 83, 88i
Farina, Jean Maria Joseph 88i
fatty acids 14, 17, 80d, 96i, 114a–114b
fatty amines 15, 16, 114b
Fawcett, Eric William 232b–232c, 233
Fawcett disclosure 232a–232b
FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) 26c
Felix ® 98a
Felling-on-Tyne site (Holzapfel/International)
development of copolymer 220a
employees at 217
expansion and modernizing 216b
factory at 13, 18, 216a
powder coating factory at 216c
tankhouse 6 218
Feminis, Gian Paolo 88i
Ferguson, James 242a
Fermi, Enrico 236b
fertility drugs 17, 20, 28b, 102b, 106b
fertilizers, artificial 64a, 144a–145a, 145b
Fibers business unit 26c, 46c
Fibers division (Akzo)
financial struggles 24a, 46b
master plan for 18, 43, 45a–45c
outsourcing production 46b
Fibers Division (ICI) 17, 236a
Fina works 104d
fire brigade 52b, 161
Fleming, Alexander 240c
Fleurs de Hollande (perfume) 86d
Flexa ® 56a
Flexsys 92c
flour improver 74b, 92b
fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) 26c
fluorocarbons 242a
Fluothane ® 16, 240c, 242a–242b, 245
Flyol 92b
Follistim ® 28b
Fonderies & Ateliers Mécaniques Nobel & Fils
126a
Food division (KZO) 36c, 106a
Forskningslaboratoriet LKB 180c
Fosfatbolaget AB see also KemaNord AB
acquisition of Casco 17, 122b, 145b, 174c
acquisition of Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik
122b
agreement with MoDo 190a–190b
name change to KemaNobel 18, 122a,
145b, 174c
name change to KemaNord AB 18
production of melamine 147
4711 (Eau de Cologne) 88i
fowl pox 110a
Freeth, Francis 228i, 232a–232b
freeze-driers 111
Fremery, Max 204a
Friends of the Earth 246a
Frisch, O.R. 236b, 236c
FSH 20
FTSE100 Index 247c
FTSE4Good Index 247c
Functional Chemicals 190d, 258i
fungicides 92c
furniture design see Sikkens Prize
furniture industry 174b, 176b
G
Gamlestaden, financial crisis 19, 26b, 122c,
145c, 170a, 182
Gammexane 242c, 244a
Gandhi, Rajiv 140b–140c
Garst Seed 247b
Geigy 244a
Gellini 20, 110b
Gembo 52c
General Chemicals Division (ICI) 242a
General Motors 242a, 246a–246b
General Strike (1926) 194i
General United Viscose see AKU
Getting It There 244i
Gibson, Reginald 231c–231d
giornata particolare, Una (film) 60
Gist-Brocades 19, 110b
Gladweg ® 70a
Glanzstoff-Courtauld 210b
Glidden 247a
Glimfabriek 104d
Glover, William 150i
glue see adhesives
grain storage 77
Gramoxone ® 17, 244b
Great Depression 42b–42c, 96a–96b, 205b,
230b, 232a
Greyhound Lines Inc. 18, 114c
Groen, Henk 54b–54c
Groningen site (Sikkens) 49, 50a, 50d, 52b
Groningen Street 52b
“Guldhuset” 158a
Gustav VI Adolf, King 189
G.W. Sikkens & Co. see also Sikkens Group;
under specific sites
advertising campaign 52a
coatings for aircraft 52c
forming of the Sikkens Group 52c
formula for varnish 50i
founding history 10, 30, 49
listing on stock exchange 16, 52c
official dealerships 50c
paints for car manufacturing 50a–50b, 50d
paints for car refinishing systems 52c
part of KZK 17
production of cellulose lacquers 14, 52a
production of Japanese lacquers 12,
50a–50b, 52a
production of synthetic resins 52b
production of water glass 52c
Purveyor of the Royal Household 15, 52a
“Royal” designation 13, 50b
and Rubbol ® Japanlak sneldrogend 14,
50d, 51
during WW I 50b–50c
during WW II 53
during and after WW II 52b
Gyttorps Sprängämnes 134b
H
Haber, Fritz 144b–144c
Haber-Bosch process 226b, 228i
Hahn, Otto 236b
halothane 242a
Halstead site (Courtaulds) 203
Hammar, Victor 140a–140b
Hanscombe, Philip 240a
Harcross Chemicals 116c
Hartogs, Jacques Coenraad 40, 41, 42i
Harvey-Jones, Sir John 244i, 245, 247a
Hedström, Bengt 172
Helpman 50a
HEMA 61
Hendrik Gahns AB 180c
Hendrix, Wim 108
Hengelo site (KNZ)
job losses 70b
new plants at 15, 68c
research centre 68c, 70b
salt-drilling rig 25
Henkel
acquisition of Consumer Products division
(Nobel) 20, 30, 122c, 182
acquisition of Dial Corporation 20, 114d
acquisition of parts of Akzo Nobel 247c,
254b
herbicides 16, 17, 76, 244a–244b
Herrema, T. 18
“he’s worth his salt” 70i
Hess, Sophie 128b
HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) 246b
Hierta, Lars Johan 134d, 143
Hilton, Richard 194b
Hinton, Christopher 236c
Hoechst AG 196c, 226b
Hoechst Roussel Vet 20, 28a, 31, 110b
Hoesch Chemie 36i, 64c, 106a
Hogg, Sir Christopher 18, 210c
Hollandia Theater Group 80d
Hollandse Kunstzijde Industrie 42b
Holmblad (firm) 10, 11, 158a–158b
Holmblad, Jacob 49, 158a
Holmblad, Lauritz 158a–158b
Holmblad, P.L. 158b
Holmbladsgade 158b, 159
Holmström, John Wilhelm 179, 180a
Holzapfel, Albert 215
Holzapfel, brothers 214
Holzapfel, Max 214, 215
Holzapfel Limited see also Felling-on-Tyne site;
International Paints (Holdings) Ltd.
founding history 11, 214, 216a, 217
name change 14, 216a
production of paints 12
Hopton Technologies 20, 28b
Hossman, Paul 138a
Household Products division (KZO) 36c, 106a
269

270
HPC (hydroprocessing catalysts) 26c
Huguenot refugees 113, 201, 208i
Huisman, Sipko 210c, 212a
Humegon ® 17, 106b
Hunink, Anton 104d
Huntingdon, A.W. 194c
Huntingdon, James 194b–194c
Huntsman 247b
Hurd, Reg 238a–238b
Hutter, Joseph R. 46b
Hyatt, John Wesley 230c
hydrochloric acid 13, 14, 15, 64a, 68c
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) 246b
hydrogen peroxide
chemical composition 76i
production of 14, 152a–152c, 155
as substitute for chlorine 152b
hydrophobization agents 186a
hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) 26c
I
IAA (indoleacetic acid) 244a
ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) see also
under specific divisions; under specific sites
abortive bid for Courtaulds 17, 210a–210b,
236a
acquisition by Akzo Nobel 21, 28c–29,
247c, 254b
agricultural research 242c, 244a–244b
ammonia synthesizing process 246b
anesthetic research 242a–242b, 245, 247a
annual turnover 247a, 247c
anti-malarial research 16, 240b–240c
biodegradable plastic 246b–246c
collapse of nitrogen market 14, 230b, 240a
development of beta-blockers 17,
242b–242c, 247a
development of penicillin 15, 240c
development of proteins 18, 244c, 246a
divestments 20, 247b
dyestuffs research 238b–238c
energy conservation 246b
environmental policies 246b
expansion 247a–247b
founding history 14, 226c, 228a–228b
head-hunting system 230c–231a
house journal 231
identification with Empire 228b–228c
influence of Brunner Mond on 230i
and international competition 225,
226b–226c
invention of Perspex ® 15, 235a–235b
invention of polythene 15, 232a–232b, 233
labor relations at 228c
listing on stock exchange 247c
logo of 28c, 228b
map of site locations 222
merger history 31
nuclear research 15, 236c
partnership with Courtaulds 235c
product range of 228b–228c, 247c
production of Dulux ® 16, 193, 238c, 240a
production of Fluothane ® 16, 242a–242b,
245
production of herbicides 16, 17,
244a–244b
production of MDI foams 238b
production of mepacrine 240b
production of paints 247b
production of polythene 234b–234c, 238a
production of Terylene ® 15, 235c–236a,
237
relationship with DuPont 228c
research in CFC alternatives 19,
246a–246b
during WW II 235a
ICI Fibers Ltd. 236a
ICI Paints 247c
ICI Watercare 246b
ICI Workers’ Shareholding Scheme 230a
IG Farben 226b, 226c, 228a, 238a
Imperal Home Décor 197
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) see ICI
Implanon ® 20, 106b
impregnation agents 186a
Inderal ® 17, 242c, 247a
indoleacetic acid (IAA) 244a–244b
Industria paint factory 92c
Industrial Activities 258i
Industrial Chemical division (Armour) 114c
Industrial Finishes 254c
INEOS 247b
ink 11, 28a, 158c, 180a–180b
insulin
discovery of 14
production of 14, 103, 104i
use of offal for production of 102a, 102i
Inter-Continental Biologics 19, 110b
International Paint & Compositions Co Ltd. see
International Paints (Holdings) Ltd.
International Paint Ltd. see also International
Paints (Holdings) Ltd.
founding history 14, 215–216b
expansion 216a–216c
production of marine paints 15, 215–216b
International Paints (Holdings) Ltd. see also
International Paint Ltd.
acquisition by Courtaulds/PJA 18, 210a,
216b–216c
founding history 11, 16, 216a–216b
geographical expansion 220a
product innovations 216c, 220a
production of powder coatings 216c,
220a, 221
International ® 56a
Internatonal Salt Company 18, 70a, 115
Interpon ® 56a, 216c
Intersleek ® 425 220i
Intersleek ® 700 220i
Intersleek ® 900 220i
Intervet International see also Laboratoria
Nobilis (Intervet); under specific sites
acquisition of Hoechst Roussel Vet 20,
28a, 110b
acquisition of Inter-Continental Biologics
19, 110b
founding history 18, 109, 110a
geographical expansion 20, 110a–110b
and Gist-Brocades 19, 110b
innovations 110b–110c
merger history 18, 30, 31, 110a
part of Organon BioSciences 21, 110c,
254b
production of veterinary vaccines 19,
110a, 110c
Invista 247b
IRA 18
J
Jacoa 196c
Jansen, Jac 110a
Jansson, Emanuel 140a–140b
Jealott’s Hill site (ICI) 242c
Jenson and Nicholson 194b
J.F. Laucks Company 174a
job losses
Enka-Glanzstoff 46a–46b
Ketjen 64c
in salt plants 70b
synthetic fibers market 46a–46b, 210c
Johansson, Egon 184
John Hall and Sons 194a–194b, 196c
Johnstone, Michael 242b, 243
Joliot, Pierre 236b
Jones, Frank 205i
Jones, Peter 59
Jozo ® 14
Judd, Donald 58i, 61
K
Kearton, Sir C.F. 210a, 210b–210c, 236c
Kellex Corporation 236c
Kema Companies see AB Kema
Kemabolagen 180c
KemaNobel
advertisements 134b–134c
founding history 18, 26b, 122a–122b,
134c–134d
merger history 19, 30, 121, 122b–122c,
145b, 170a, 176a
product range of 145b–145c
KemaNord AB see also KemaNobel
acquisition of Barnängen 17, 18, 122b,
145b
acquisition of Nitro Nobel 18, 134c, 145b
founding history 122a–122b, 174c
merger history 19, 30, 134c
name change to KemaNobel 18, 134c,
145b, 176a
Kemi-Casco 174b
Kemira 196c
Kemisk Værk Koge A/S 158c
Kempensche Zinkmaatschappij 17
Kenobel 19
KenoGard 19, 145c
Kessler 17, 114b
Ketjen (Koninklijke Zwavelzuurfabrieken van het
Ketjen) see also Amsterdam site (Ketjen)
develops activated carbon 15, 64a
founding history 10, 63
innovations & growth 64a–64b
job losses 64c
merger history 17, 30, 36a, 36b, 64c, 68c,
92c
production of sulfuric acid 12, 15, 64a–64b,
64c
during and after WW II 64b
Ketjen, Gerhard Tileman 63
Kevlar ® 19, 24a–24b
Kew laboratory (Viscose Spinning Syndicate)
204a, 205i
Key (magazine) 197
Kinder & Co. 196a
King, Peter 244c
Kinsky, Bertha 128a
Kjellberg & Söner 134b
KLEA 134a 19, 245, 246b
KLEA 32 246b
Kleefse Waard site (Enka/AKU) see Arnhem
site (Enka/AKU)
Kleve site (Noury & Van der Lande) 73, 74a
Knight, Sir Arthur 210b–210c
KNZ (Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie)
see also under specific sites
diversifications 68b–68c
founding history 14, 68a
merger history 17, 30, 36a, 36b, 64c, 68c
production of potash 15
production of soda 14, 17, 68c
Kolker, Hugo 207
Kölnisch Wasser 88i
Koninklijke Fabrieken T. Duyvis Jz. n.v. see
Duyvis
Koninklijke Lak- en Japanlakkenfabriek G.W.
Sikkens & Co see G.W. Sikkens & Co.
Koninklijke Nederlandse Zoutindustrie (KNZ)
see KNZ
Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen (KZK) see also
Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO)
founding history 17, 36b, 64c, 68c

merger history 30
merger with Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon 17, 45c, 54a, 70a, 106a
salt production of 70a
Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO) see also under
specific divisions
founding history 17, 36b, 45c, 54a, 70a,
106a
merger history 18, 30, 35–36a, 80d, 88,
106a
merger with AKU 18, 24a, 36i, 44b–45a,
45c
Koninklijke Zwanenberg-Organon see also
Koninklijke Zout-Organon (KZO)
acquisition of Kortman & Schulte 17, 80d,
104d
acquisition of Noury & Van der Lande 17,
36b, 104d
diversification 104d
founding history 36b, 104c
merger history 17, 30, 88
merger with KZK 17, 45c, 54a, 70a, 106a
merger with Noury & Van der Lande 76
“Royal” designation 16, 104c
takeover of Laboratoria Nobilis (Intervet)
104d, 110a
Koninklijke Zwavelzuurfabrieken van het Ketjen
see Ketjen
Koog aan de Zaan site (Duyvis) 96a–96b, 97
Kortman, Constant 79
Kortman & Schulte see also Delfshaven site
acquisition by Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon 17, 80d, 104d
founding history 12, 79
introduction of Zilverzeep 12, 80b
joint advertising with AKU 80c
merger history 30, 36a, 80d
production of iodine 80a–80b
production of soaps 12, 80b–80d
production of soda 79–80a
production of synthetic detergents 17,
80c–80d
Kraijenhoff, Gualtherus (Guup) 22, 45c–46a
Kristinehamn site (Casco) 174c
Kroon voor de Was 80b
Krupp 138b
Kvävebolaget 150b
KZK (Koninklijke Zout-Ketjen) see Koninklijke
Zout-Ketjen
KZO (Koninklijke Zout-Organon) see Koninklijke
Zout-Organon
L
L/70 40 mm gun 15, 122b, 140a–140b
La Cellophane 205c
La Seda de Barcelona 24c
Label Inks 28a
Laboratoria Nobilis 16, 17, 106a, 109, 110a see
also Intervet International
Láboratorios Saltor 18, 110a
lacquers 54i, 74i see also under different brand
names
Laqueur, Ernst 100, 102b, 102i
Lars Foss Kemi A/S 158c
Lars Montén & Co. 15, 180b
Latham, Thomas Paul 202c
Le Corbusier 58i
Leblanc process 226a
Lee of Fareham, Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st
Viscount 206i
Leeropaan ® 102b
Leiden site (Sikkens) 52c
Leigh site (Courtaulds) 12, 202c
Lend-Lease 208b
Leo, Anders 164
Lesonal 54a, 106a
Lever Brothers 226b
Levinstein Ltd. 226a
Lewis Berger & Sons 19, 194a, 196c
Library of Science and Technology 144i
Lignox ® 152c
Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik AB
acquisition by Barnängen 180b–180c
acquisition by Superfosfat 16, 122b, 145b
end of superphosphate production 15
founding history 10
production of candles at 178
Lilljeqvist, Rudolf 148, 149–150b
Limerick site (Akzo) 18
Lincrusta ® 194d, 197
linseed oil 50i, 96a–96b, 96i
Lion Fat and Oil 114b
liquid chlorine 68c, 152a–152b
Liverpool FC 195, 196b
Liverpool School of Tropical Science 240b
Livial ® 19, 106b
Livorno ® 96d
Ljunga Saltpeter 144c
Ljungaverk site (Superfosfat)
hydro-electric power station at 13
library at 144i
opening of 144a
production of fertilizers at 15, 144b–144c
production of plastics 145a–145b
production of synthetic rubber 145a
Ljunglöf, Robert 180b
Loda ® 80d, 104d
logos see also trademarks
Akzo 18, 38i, 45c, 80b
AkzoNobel 254c
British Dyestuffs 227
Brunner Mond 227
Casco 174a
Crown ® 195
ICI 28c, 228b
Nobel Industries (British arm) 227
United Alkali 227
Lohse, Richard Paul 60
London site (ICI) 228c, 229
Loudon, Aarnout A. 22, 24b–24c, 38i, 252a,
252c, 254a
Louis O. Werneke 28a
Lowland site (Enka) 117
LR-lim 15, 174a
Lucite 247b
lye (sodium hydroxide) 12, 150b, 152a see also
caustic soda (natrium hydroxide)
Lyndiol ® 17, 27, 106a, 107
M
MacPherson ® Paints 196c, 197
madder (Rubia tinctorum) 158a
malaria 240b–240c
Malmö site (Akzo Nobel) 253
Malmö sites (Nordström & Sjögren) 164, 165,
166a, 167, 168
Manning, Dermot 232b
Månsbo site (Superfosfat) 12, 144a, 144i, 146
Marcus Hook site (Courtaulds/AVC) 204c
Margarine Unie 14, 101
Marine & Protective Coatings 254c, 258i
marine coatings
delivery of 219
and environmental issues 220i
powder coatings 216c, 220a
production of 15, 215–216b
Marvelon ® 19, 26c, 106b
Mattcement 174a
Mattsson, Ove 176a–176b, 252a
Mayer, Joseph 116a
Mayolande 96d
McCook site (Armour) 16, 114b, 116b
McGowan, Sir Harry 226c, 228a–228b
McKenna, Reginald 226c
MDI (Diphenyl Methane Di-isocyanate) 238b
meat trade 104c, 114a
Medical Division (ICI) 17
Mees, August Mari 50d, 58
Meitner, Lise 236b
Mekog fertilizer 64a
melamine 145a, 147
Melchett, Alfred Mond, 1st Baron see Mond,
Sir Alfred
Mellor, J.G.G. 196a
Membrana business unit 46b
Menformon ® 14
mepacrine 240b
Mepal 147
Mercilon ® 19, 26c
metasilicate 15, 152a
Methoxone ® 16, 242c, 244a–244b
methyl methacrylate 235a
Meyer, Kurt 232c
Michels, Anton 232b
Miljonprogrammet 166c
mills 73, 74a, 74c, 75, 95–96a
Mitchell, Reginald 235a
Mixit ® 54c
Mo och Domsjö AB (MoDo) see MoDo
Moabite Hospital 240a–240b
Mobile site (Courtaulds) 212a
MoDo (Mo och Domsjö AB) see also Berol
Kemi AB; MoDoKemi AB; under specific
sites
acquisition of Berol 16, 186a–186b
acquisitions 190b–190c
agreement with Fosfatbolaget 190a–190b
divestment of chemicals operations 18,
190c
name change to MoDoKemi AB 18, 190c
production of ethylene glycol 15
MoDoKemi AB 18, 190b–190c see also Berol
Kemi AB
Molina, Mario 246b
Mölndal site (Berol) 186a
Mölndal site (MoDo) 190b, 191
Mond, Ludwig 224, 226a, 230i
Mond, Sir Alfred (later Lord Melchett) 226b,
226c, 228c, 230a, 230c, 240a
Mond Nickel Company 228c
mondo nuovo, Il (film) 60
Montgomery, J.G. 152a
Morgenthau, Henry 208b
mourning crepe 11, 202a–202b, 209
Muromatte Flat Oil Paint 196a
Mutar, Mr. 207
N
NAA (alphanaphthaylacetic acid) 244a–244b
Nacka site (Casco) see Stockholm site (Casco)
Nacka site (Superfosfat) see Stockholm site
(Superfosfat)
National Franchise Board for Environmental
Protection (Sweden) 152a
National Starch 247c
natrium hydroxide (caustic soda) 68i
Nature 236b
Nazi occupation 42c, 104a–104b
Nederlandse Bell Telefoonmaatschappij 86i
Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek (Enka) see Enka
Nederlandse Staatsmijnen (DSM) 45
Neoprene (synthetic rubber) 145a–145b
NeSBIC 20
NewCell ® 26c
nickel 228c
Nitro Nobel AB
acquisition by KemaNord 18, 134c, 145b
divestment of part of 122c
founding history 26b, 122a–122b
merger history 30, 134c–134d, 145b, 145c
offices 132
271

272
range of products 135
Nitro Reparatie Zwart 52a
Nitro Rubbol ® 52a
nitrogen 226b
nitroglycerin
accidents with 122a, 126b, 126c, 134a
invention of 11
Nobel’s development of dynamite 26a
Nobel’s experiments with 122a, 126b
Nitroglycerin AB see also Nitro Nobel AB
founding history 11, 26a, 122a, 126c,
133–134a
merger history 14, 134b–134c, 144c–145a
name change to Nitro Nobel 17, 26b, 122a
product range of 134a, 134c
Nitrolit 134c
NK (Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek) see Enka
Nobel, Alfred see also Nitroglycerin AB; Nobel
Foundation; Nobel Prize
and blasting gelatin 11, 26a, 126c, 134a
death of 26b, 126c, 128b
desire for peace 138d
as entrepreneur 121, 126a, 126c,
128a–128b, 133–134a
founding of British Dynamite Co. 226a
founding of Eka 150a
interests in Bofors 126a–126b, 134b,
138c–138d
invention of blasting cap/detonator 11,
122a, 126b
invention of dynamite 11, 70i, 122a, 126b
as inventor 26a, 126b–126c, 134a
laboratory in San Remo 127
origins 26a, 125–126a
portrait of 124, 131
private life of 128a–128b
testament of 128b–128c, 129i, 130
Nobel, Immanuel 26a, 126a
Nobel, Ludwig 26a
Nobel Chematur 122b
Nobel Consumer Goods AB 145c
Nobel Dynamite Trust 12, 26a, 128a
Nobel Explosives Ltd. 225, 226a, 227
Nobel Foundation 12, 26a–26b, 128c
Nobel Industries AB see also Courtaulds
Textiles plc
acquisition of Berol AB 19, 122c
acquisition of Bofors AB 122b, 134b
acquisition of Crown Berger 19, 122c
acquisition of Eka 122c, 154a
acquisition of Sadolin & Holmblad 19,
122c, 160b–160c, 176a
Bofors scandal 26b, 122c, 140b–140c
divestments 122c, 140c, 145c, 182
founding and expansion 19, 122b–122c
Gamlestaden financial crisis 19, 26b, 122c,
182
link with ICI 28c
map of site locations 118
merger history 23, 24c, 26a, 26c, 30, 114d,
116c, 145b
merger with Akzo 30, 123, 145c, 170a,
176b, 251–252a
Nobel Industries i Sverige AB 19, 176a
Nobel Laureates 129i, 144b–144c, 145a, 180c,
240b, 242c
Nobel Prize 13, 26a–26b, 128c
Nobel-Dynamite Trust Company Ltd. 226a
Nobelite (explosive) 138i
Nobilon 21, 110c, 254b
Nol site (MoDo) 190b
Nomosquito 186a
Noordwijk 52b
Norbio 20, 110b
NorCasco 174b
Nordbanken 122c, 145c, 170a, 182
Nordensen, Harald 180b
Nordisk Droge & Kemikalie A/S 19
Nordsjö (Nordström & Sjögren) see also Sege
site
acquisition by Bayer 166c
divestment by Bayer 170a
employees 164
environmental policies 20, 170b
expansion after WW II 166b–166c
founding history 13, 165–166a
merger history 19, 30, 122b, 145b, 166c,
170a
paint deliveries 166a, 169
production of Bindol ® 15
production of paints 17, 166a–166c, 170b
staff canteen 171
Nordsjö Idé & Design stores 170b
Nordsjö Tinova ® VX 166i
Nordsjö ® (brand) 170a
Nordsjö ® Farver 160b
Nordsjö ® −Sadolin ® 170a
Nordström, Axel 165, 166b
Nordström, Olle 166c
Nourical 74c
Nourij, Jan 73
Noury & Van der Lande see also under specific
sites
acquisition by Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon 17, 36b
competition from Van Hasselt 92b
diversifications 74c
founding history 10, 73
international expansion 15, 74b–74c, 76a
merger history 30, 36a, 64c
merger with Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon 76
oil production 73
production for paint industry 74a, 74b–74c
production of citric acid 15, 74a
production of peroxides 74b
production of pesticides 76
production of pharmaceuticals 74c
takeover by Koninklijke Zwanenberg-
Organon 17, 104d
unsuccessful takeover bid for Organon 74c
during WW I 74a
Nourypharma 17, 74c, 76a
Novadelox ® 74b
Novartis 247b
nuclear energy 236a–236c
nuclear fission 236a–236c
Nuplex Industries 20
NuvaRing ® 20, 28b, 106b
nylon
invention of 208a, 232c, 235b–235c
production after WW II 238a
production by AKU 24a, 44b
production by British Nylon Spinners 15,
235b–235c
production by Courtaulds 208c
O
Oberbruch site 34
Oegstgeest 52b
Ögren, J.F. 179
oil embargo
and plastics research 246c
and synthetic fiber production 24a, 45c
oil manufacturing 52c, 73, 74a, 95–96a, 96i
Old English Sheepdog 240a, 241
Oleochemicals Sdn Bhd 19
Olins, Wally 38i
Olsson, Mr. 184, 185
OPEC 24a, 246c
Oppau site (BASF) 228i
oral contraceptives
health issues 106b
Organon and the production of 17, 18, 19,
26c, 27, 28a, 106a–106b, 107
resistance against 106a–106b
Orgalutran ® 106b
Organon see also Organon BioSciences; Oss
site
annual turnover 106c
and Diosynth 18, 28b
divestment of Teknika unit 20, 31, 106c
founding history 14, 100, 101, 102a, 102i,
104i
international expansion 102b, 104a
Jewish management 104a–104b
merger history 16, 21, 30, 36a, 36b, 64c,
76, 104c, 106c
pilot plant 105
production of anti-depressants 18, 20,
106b–106c, 107
production of hormonal products 14, 15,
16, 17, 19, 102b, 104b–104c, 106b
production of insulin 102a, 103, 104i
production of oral contraceptives 17, 18,
19, 26c, 27, 28a, 106a–106b, 107
unsuccessful takeover by Noury & Van der
Lande 74c
during and after WW II 104a–104c, 104i
Organon BioSciences
acquisition by Schering-Plough 21,
28c–29, 31, 106c, 110c, 254b
founding history 21, 28c, 106c, 254b
Organon Teknika 19, 20, 31, 106a, 106c
Oss site (Organon) 106a
outsourcing 46b
Ovarnon ® 102b
Overschie site (Kortman & Schulte) 80c
Ovestin ® 17
Ovo-Diphterin ® 110a
Ovowop ® 102b
Oxford School of Pathology 240c
Oy Casco 174c
ozone layer 246b
P
Packaging Coatings 212b, 258i
paint deliveries 166a, 169, 219
paint factory, interior 192
paint mixing systems 54c, 166c–166d
Painters’ Museum (Sikkens) 20, 48, 56i
paints see also aircraft coatings; marine
coatings; powder coatings
definition of 54i
manual preparation of 156, 157–158a
production by Holzapfel Limited 12
production by ICI 247b
production by Nordsjö 17, 166a–166c,
170b
production by Walpamur 194c–194d
Paints division (Crown) 196b
Palme, Olof 140b–140c, 187
Palmer, Thomas 194d
Paludrine ® 16, 235a, 239, 240b–240c
Paper Chemicals division (Eka) 152c
paper industry 76i, 152a–152c, 154a–154b
paraquat 244b
Parkes, Alexander 230c
Parksine 230c
Passione d’amore (film) 60
patents
for Eau de Cologne 88i
German 228i
German, anti-malarial drugs 240b
of Hartogs 42i
of Mond 228c, 230i
of Nobel 11, 122a, 126b, 126c
for Novadelox ® 74b
for polythene 234a
for Remeron ® 28b, 106b–106c
swine fever vaccine 110c
the Twaron ® −Kevlar ® dispute 12, 24a–24b,

46a
for viscose 12, 44i, 202c, 204a–204c, 204b
Paton, John 234a
Pavulon ® 18
peanuts 98i
peat 74i
PEEK (polyether ether ketene) 246c–247a
Peierls, Rudolf 236b, 236c
Penaat, Johannes (zoon van Willem) 50b
Penaat, Willem 49
Penaat, Willem Albert (zoon van Willem) 50b
penicillin 15, 240c
Penser, Erik
acquisition of Bofors 19, 26b
acquisition of KemaNobel 19, 122b
creation of Nobel Industries 19, 145b–145c
Gamlestaden financial crisis 122c, 145c,
170a
weapons deal scandal 26b
Perciwall, Ewert 174c
Performance Coatings business 254c, 258i
Perkin, W.H. 226a
Perkin, William Henry 238b
Permoglaze ® 196c, 197
Pernaemon ® 14, 102b
peroxides 74b, 76i, 92b, 92c
Perrin, Michael Wilcox 232b, 234a, 236c
Perspex ® 15, 232a, 235a–235b
PES (polyether sulphone) 246c
pesticides 68c, 76, 242c, 244a
PET (polyethylene terephthalate) 246c
Petitot, Jean 160i
Petrie, Charles 216a
petrochemicals 122a, 145b
Pharma businesses
acquisition by Schering-Plough 28c
creation of 26c, 252c
divestment of Chefaro 106c
reproductive medicine market 28b
Pharma division (Akzo)
Chefaro part of 18, 20, 92c
financial support for Fibers division 46b
reproductive medicine market 24c
pharmaceutical industry 242b
Pharmaceuticals division (ICI) 20, 242b, 247a,
247b
Pharmaceuticals division (KZO) 36c, 106a
Philips Dunbar 18
Phillips Petroleum 234c
Phoenicians 68i
Phosphores Chemicals 21
Physical Chemistry Group (ICI) 232b
pigments 74a–74c, 156, 158a, 158c
Pinchin Johnson and Associates Ltd. (PJA) 10,
17, 210a, 216b–216c, 219
Pinorin Japan (laquer) 50a–50b
PJA (Pinchin Johnson and Associates Ltd.) 10,
17, 210a, 216b–216c, 219
plastics 16, 145a–145b, 232a–232b, 246b–246c
see also polythene
Plastics division (ICI) 15, 232a
Plexiglas ® 235a
Pliny the Elder 242c
Poland 46b
pollution
BT Kemi scandal 18, 160a–160b
reduction of 224, 246b
of waste water 154a
Polution Abatement Technology Award 246b
polychloroprene (synthetic rubber) 145a–145b
polyester 24a, 235c–236a, 237
polyether ether ketene (PEEK) 246c–247a
polyether sulphone (PES) 246c
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) 246c
Polymer Chemicals 258i
polythene
improvements to production process
234a, 234c–235a
invention history 15, 232a–232b, 233
production of 234b–234c, 238a
use in radar 234b–234c
polyurethane foam 238a–238b
Popular Science (magazine) 246b
Porcillis ® AD Begonia 110c
Porter Paints 212b, 220a
potash (potassium carbonate) 15, 114b
potassium carbonate (potash) 15, 114b
potassium nitrate 15, 144b
Potter, Charles 194b
Potter, Harold 194b
Potter & Co. 194b–194c
Potts, Ralph H. 114a
Poultry Biologicals 18, 110a
powder coatings 20, 216c, 220a, 221, 253, 259
Powder Coatings (AkzoNobel) 254c
power-looms 202a
PPG Industries 212b
Predictor ® 18
Premier Foods 247b
Printing Inks 20
Procion ® 17, 238c
proguanil see Paludrine ®
propranol 242c
Pruteen 244c, 246a, 246c
Pulp & Paper Chemicals 20, 154a–154b, 176i,
258i, 260
pulp industry 76i, 152a–152c, 154a–154b, 186b
Pure Chemicals 36i
Puregon ® 20, 28b, 106b
PVC 16, 145a
PVS Chemicals (Belgium) 64c
Q
QDHS technology 166i
Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement
196c
Quick-Drying High Solid (QDHS) technology
166i
quinine 240b
Quorn ® 246a, 247b
R
radar, centimetric 234b–234c
radiation, nuclear 236b
Randall, J.T. 234b
Rank Hovis McDougall 246a
Rattee, Ian 238c
Raventos, James 243
rayon see also viscose
collapse of market for rayon 44b–45a
growth of production of 204c–205a
invention history 202c, 204a
production of 36a–36b, 204c–205b, 208c
Recter 19, 98a
Red Hand Compositions Company 216c, 219
red propeller brand 216a
Reed, Albert E. 196a
Reed Elsevier PLC see Reed International
P.L.C.
Reed International P.L.C. (later Reed Elsevier
PLC) 194a, 196a
refrigeration 238a–238b
Remeron ® 20, 28b, 106b–106c, 107
rennet 91–92a, 92c
Research Council (ICI) 230a
Resicoat ® 56a
Resins 21
Richter, J.H.M. 110a
Ridley, Harold 235b
Riebensahm, Walther 104i
Rietveld, Gerrit 58i, 59
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 256
Ripplewood Holding LLC 21
Robert Ingham Clark 216c
Roentgen, Wilhelm 236b
Roermond 74b
Roget & Gallet 88i
Rohm and Haas Company 235a
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano 208b, 236c
Roosvicee ® 88
Rose, Frank 239, 240a, 240b–240c
Rotterdam site (Boldoot) 86c
Rotterdam site (Ketjen) 64b
Rotterdam site (Kortman & Schulte) 79
Rotterdam sites (KZK) 68c, 70b
Rotterdam sites (Van Hasselt) 91, 92a
Rowland, Sherwood 246b
Royal Society of Arts 246b
rubber, synthetic (polychloroprene) 145a–145b
Rubbol ® A–Z ® 15, 50d
Rubbol ® Japanlak sneldrogend 14, 50d, 51
Rudbeck, Olaf 26a
Runcorn site (ICI) 245, 247b
Rutherford, Ernest 236b
RX ® Glue 15, 174b
S
SABIC 247b
saccharin 64b
Sadolin, Gunnar A. 13, 158b
Sadolin, Knud 158b
Sadolin & Holmblad A/S see also Copenhagen
site (Sadolin & Holmblad)
acquisition by Nobel Industries 19, 122c,
145c, 160b–160c, 176a
BT Kemi scandal 18, 160a–160b
cinema commercial 162
environmental policies 160b
expansion after WW II 158c, 160a
founding history 13, 158b
management team of 159
merger history 30, 158c
product range of 158c, 160a
production of enamel 158c
production of paints 14
production plant 163
Sadolin Farveland ® 18, 160a
Sadolin ® (brand) 56a, 160c
Sadolin ® Wholesale Center 160b
Sadolins Farver 13, 158b
safety regulations 76
Saffil 247b
Sail Hammer 114a
Salata ® 15, 96d
salt
harvesting of 68i
in Holland 12, 14, 67
production of 66, 70a–70b
storage 70i
use of 70i
Salt Chemicals division (KZO) 36c, 106a
“Salt Convention” 14
Salt division (Akzo) 20, 70b
Salt Union 247b
saltpeter see potassium nitrate; sodium nitrate
(Chilean saltpeter)
Samuel Courtauld & Co see also Courtaulds
abortive bid by ICI 17, 210a–210b, 236a
acquisition of Cellon 17, 210a, 216b
acquisition of International Paints 18,
210a, 216b–216c
acquisition of PJA 17
collapse of market for silk 11, 202b
diversification and expansion 208c, 210a
expansion and growth 202a–202b,
204b–204c
financial losses and recovery 205b–205c
focus on British market 210b
founding history 10, 202a
job losses 210c
273

274
listing on stock exchange 13
loss of AVC 15, 208a–208b, 210b
production of nylon 208c
production of viscose 13, 44i, 204a–204c
reorganizations 18, 202c, 210c
split into two companies 210c
synthetic fibers market crisis 210b–210c
during and after WW II 208a–208b
San Remo site (Nobel) 127
Sandtex ® 196c, 197
Sassenheim site (Sikkens) see also Sikkens
Painters’ Museum
Car Refinishes Instruction Center at 18, 54c
hoarding advertisement 53
installation of new oil mill 52c
move to new buildings at 15, 52a–52b
visit of Churchill to 53
“Savon de l’Exposition” 12, 180a
Scabicidol 74c
Schering-Plough
acquisition of Organon BioSciences 21,
28c–29, 106c, 110c, 254b
acquisition of Pharma businesses 28c
Schnitger, F. 214
Schönox 176a
Schröder House 59
Schulte, Herman 79
Schweppes 246a
Scola, Ettore 58i, 60
Securum 19, 123, 145c
Sege site (Nordsjö) 16, 166b–166c, 166d, 170a
Self-Polishing Copolymer (SPC) 220i
SembCorp 247b
Senate Foreign Relations Committee 208b
“Shantung School” 16, 180c, 183
shipping, environmental inpact of 220i
Shirley Institute 236a
Sicova 52c
Sikkens, Geert Willem 49
Sikkens, Wiert Willemszoon 35, 49
Sikkens Celluloselakfabriek 52a
Sikkens Group see also G.W. Sikkens & Co.;
under specific sites
founding history 52c
listing on stock exchange 16, 52c
marketing strategy for car refinishes
systems 56a
merger history 23, 30, 36c
paints for car refinishing systems 17, 54a,
55
part of Coatings businesses 54a
part of Coatings division (KZO) 36c, 54a
Sikkens Painters’ Museum 20, 48, 56i
Sikkens Prize 17, 58i, 59–61
Sikkens Prize Foundation 58i
Sikkens ® Car Color Selector 54a
Sikkens ® coatings 256
Silent Spring 246a
Silfversparre, Arent 138d, 140a
silk 11, 201–202b, 235c
Silveroid 228c
Sinaspril ® 88
Sjögren, Albin 164, 165
Sjögren, Sven 166c
Smit, Piet 64a
Smith and Walton 196a
Smitt, Johan Wilhelm 126c
smokeless gunpowder 126b, 126c, 134a
Smooth Velvet ® 196c
Sneek site (Sikkens) 57
Snia Viscosa 210b
SOAB (Svenska Oljeslageri Aktiebolaget) 190b
soaps, production of
by Armour & Co. 12, 16, 17, 114a–114b
by Barnängen 180a–180b, 182
by Boldoot 13, 86
by Consumer Products division (Akzo) 88
by Dial Corporation 19, 114d
by Kortman & Schulte 12, 80b–80d
at Widness 224
Sobrero, Ascanio 11, 126b
social responsibility 28b
Société Central de Dynamite 12, 128a
soda
production of 17, 68c, 79–80a
use of 80i
soda ash 226a, 230i
Söderblom, Åke 180b
Södertälje site (Berol) 15, 186a
sodium carbonate see soda; soda ash
sodium chloride see salt
sodium hydroxide (lye) 12, 150b, 152a
sodium nitrate (Chilean saltpeter) 80a
sodium perborate 152a
Sodium silicate (water glass) 14, 52c
Soesbeek, Klaas 22, 45c
Softsand ® 196c
SOG 247b
Sohlmann, Ragnar 128b
Solo ® Gloss 196b
Solutia 92c
Solvay Company 114d
Solvay process 226a, 230i
Sovpren 145a
SPC (Self Polishing Copolymer) 220i
Specialty Chemicals business 258i
Spitfire (fighter plane) 235a
spray gun 50d
Standard Oil of Indiana 234c
Statsföretag AB 190c
Staudiger, Hermann 232a, 232c
Stauffer, Hans (nephew of John Sr.) 116a
Stauffer, John Jr. (son of John Sr.) 116a, 116b
Stauffer, John Sr. 114d
Stauffer Chemical Co.
acquisition by Akzo America 19, 114d, 116a
acquisition by ICI 247b
founding history 12, 113, 114d
listing on stock exchange 116a
merger history 30
production of commodity chemicals 114d
Stearn, C.H. 204a, 205i
Steigenberger, Louis 194a
Stenungsund site (Akzo Nobel) 116c, 116d,
122a, 145b
Stenungsund site (Berol/MoDo)
amine plant at 188
headquarters of MoDoKemi 18
inauguration by King Gustav VI Adolf, 189
Olof Palme at 187
petrochemical ethylene plant 17, 190b
Stepan Co. 114c
Stephen, W.E. 238c
Stephenson, John 242b
Sterisol AB 180c
Sternfeld bakery 72
steroids 17, 18, 104c
Stockholm site (Barnängen) 180a
Stockholm site (Casco) 172, 174c, 174i, 175
Stockholm site (Superfosfat) 120, 144a
Stockholms Benmjölsfabrik 122b, 145b
Stockholms Superfosfat Fabriks AB see also
Fosfatbolaget AB; under specific sites
acquisition of Barnängen 180c
acquisition of Casco 174c
acquisition of Liljeholmens Stearinfabrik
16, 145b
acquisition of Nitroglycerin AB 14,
144c–145a
expansion 144c
focus on petrochemicals 122a, 145b
founding history 11, 143
library of 144i
merger history 30, 122a, 134b–134c,
145b–145c
name change to Fosfotbolaget AB 17, 122a
production of carbide 15
production of plastics 16, 145a–145b
Stora Kemi 19
Stora Kopparberg 122a, 145b
Suckling, Charles 242a, 243
sulfa drugs 240b
Sulfamethazine 240b
sulfur dioxide 16, 64b
sulfuric acid
emissions of 64i
history and use of 64i
production of 12, 15, 63, 64a–64b, 64c,
144a
Super Lepus ® 140b
superphosphate 15, 143–144b, 145a, 174c
Surface Chemistry business 116d, 190c, 258i
surfactants 26c, 116b–116d, 186b, 186i
Surfactants 190c
Surfactants America 116c
Sustainability Report 261a–261b
Sutherland, E.J. 74b
Svedberg, Theodor (The) 145a, 180c
Svedopren 16, 145a
Svenska Oljeslageri Aktiebolaget (SOAB) 190b
Sveriges Riksbank 128c
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
128c
Swallow, John 232b
Swan, Sir Joseph 202c
Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences 126c
Swedish State Railway 126c
Syngenta 247b
Synthese 16, 52c
synthetic fibers market 24a, 44b–45a, 46a–46b,
204c–205a, 210b–210c see also under spe-
cific fiber brand names; under specific fibers
T
T. Duyvis Jansz. (firm) see Duyvis
Tacryl 145b
Talens 54a
tallow 80b, 114a
Tausk, Marius 102b, 104a
Taylor I, P.A. 202a
TDI (toluylene di-isocyanate) 238b
Teesside site (ICI) 244i, 247b
Teknika unit (Organon) 19, 20, 31, 106c
Templeman, W.G. 244a
Tencel ® 212a
Tennant, Sir Charles 226a
Tenormin ® 247a
tensides see surfactants
Terlenka ® 44a
Terra Industries 247b
Terylene ®
invention of 15, 235c–236a
production of 15, 236c, 237, 238a
Tetley, Henry Greenwood 202b–202c,
204a–204b, 205i, 209
Teuge site (Noury & Van der Lande) 73
textile dyes 157–158a
Textillim ® 174b
"The Directorate of Tube Alloys" 236c
'the pill' see oral contraceptives
Thermodynamics Laboratory (Amsterdam) 232b
Thomas, Edouard 207
Thyranon ® 15
Timbuktu 68i
Tinova ® VX 166i
Tintorama ® 17, 166c–166d
titanium dioxide 74c, 154a
TOF-Guard ® 20
toluylenedi-isocyanate (TDI) 238b
Tolvon ® 18, 106b
Tonicum Noury ® 74c
Topham, F. 204b, 205i, 207
trade unions 92c
trademarks 180a see also logos

Tricel ® 210a
Tromp, Cees 56i
Twaron ® 19, 24a–24b, 46a
Twickel Estate 67
U
UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy
Authority) 236c
Unilever 18, 20, 101, 247c
Union Carbide 234a
United Alkali 225, 226a, 226c, 227
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
(UKAEA) 236c
University of Leiden 232a
uranium 15, 236b–236c
Urban, Johan 204a
Usselo site (KNZ) 68c
V
vaccines, veterinary 20, 110a–110c
Vademecum (mouthwash) 12, 180b
Valhallahuset 165, 167
Valspar ® paints 52c
Van den Bos, Adolf Gustaaf 22
Van der Lande, Gerrit 73
Van der Lande, Johannes Christian Lebuïnus
(Jan) 74a–74b
Van der Veer (varnish boiler) 50i
Van Doesburg, Theo 58i
Van Hasselt (firm) see also under specific sites
acquisition by Chefaro 92b
and agricultural prize 11, 92a, 93
competition from Noury & Van der Lande
92b
diversifications 92b–92c
founding history 91
merger history 16, 17, 30
part of Chemicals division (Akzo) 18, 92c
production of fungicides 92c
production of peroxides 92b, 92c
production of rennet 91–92a, 92c
production of rubber chemicals 92b, 92c,
93
Van Hasselt, Johan (son of Willem) 90, 92a,
92b, 92i
Van Hasselt, Willem 91
Van Kaathoven, Hans 104i
Van Lede, Cees 22, 252b–252c, 254a
Van Oss, Jacques 100, 102i
Van Zwanenberg, Salomon (Saal) 100, 102a,
102b, 102i, 104a–104b
Vapona ® 88
varnish 50i
Veracel pulp mill 260
Verbruggen, Elly 111
Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken see also AKU
founding history 12, 204a
merger history 14, 24a, 30, 36a
merger with Enka 18, 36a–36b, 42b, 44b
Verhulst, Hans 58
Vernie of Germany 110a
veterinary vaccines 19, 110a, 110c
Victoria, Queen 202c
Victrex 247b
Vinterviken site (Nitroglycerin AB) 133, 134b
Virgil 242c
Vis, Jacob Pieter 67–68a
viscose see also rayon
collapse of market for 44b
invention history 12, 44i, 205i
patents for 12, 44i, 202c, 204a–204c
production by AKU 24a
production by Courtaulds 13, 44i,
204a–204b
production by Enka 13, 16, 41, 44a
production by Enka-Glanzstoff 46b
production history 44i
production process 44i
Viscose Spinning Syndicate 205i, 207
vitriol see sulfuric acid
VOCs (volatile organic compounds) 166i
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) 166i
Vulnax 36a
W
Wagner-Jauregg, Julius 240b
Wallenberg (banking family) 122a, 122b, 145b
Wallenberg, Marcus 174a
Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd. see Walpamur
(Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd.)
Walpamur (Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd.) 12,
13, 14, 194b–194d, 194i see also Walpamur
Company Ltd. (WPM)
Walpamur Company Ltd. (WPM) see also
Crown Decorative Products
acquisition by Reed International P.L.C.
196a
founding history 14, 196a
name change to Crown Decorative
Products 18, 196b
Walpamur ® 16, 194c–194d, 195
Walton, Frederick 194d
Warburg émigrés 206i
Ward White Group 196c
washing soda see soda; soda ash
Water Board (Sweden) 152a
water glass (sodium silicate) 14, 52c
Watson-Watt, Sir Robert 234b
weapons deal scandal 19, 26b, 122c,
140b–140c
weapons industry see armaments industry
Weber, Orlando F. 226b, 226c
weed killers 16, 76, 244a–244b
Werneke & Mulheran 28a
Westerdahl, N.E. 180b
Whinfield, J.R. (Rex) 235c, 237
White Flyer 114a
Widnes site (ICI) 224
Wijers, Hans 6, 254a–254b, 261a–261b
Wilco 106a
Wilhelmina, Queen 50b
William I, King 63
Williams, Edmond 234a
Williams Holdings 19, 196c
Wilton site (ICI) 236a
wind turbine 255
Winnington site (ICI) 232b
Wisdom of the Body, The (Cannon) 242b–242c
Wishnick Tumpeer Chemical Company 116d
Witco 116d
Witt, Sir Robert Clermont 206i
woad (Isatus tinctoria) 158a
Wolff Olins 19, 38i
Woodley, F. 207
Woodwash ® 196c
woodworking industry 174a–174b, 176a–176b
Woolworth chain 196c
World Health Organization 244c
X
Xylee 44b
Y
Yardley cosmetics 88
yarn factory 213
Yggdrasil AB 145c
Z
Zeneca 20, 247b
Ziegler, Karl 234c
Ziegler process 234c–235a
Zilverzeep 12, 80b
Zoladex ® 247a
Zwanenberg & Co. see also Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-Organon
founding history 12, 101
merger history 14, 16, 18, 30, 36a, 36b,
101, 104c
Zwanenberg-Organon see Koninklijke
Zwanenberg-Organon
275

276

Credits
The vast majority of the photographs and illustrations included in this book are historical.
As AkzoNobel has to a significant degree evolved through acquisitions and divestments,
the information available about these photographs and illustrations is in many cases either not
complete or non-existent. For this reason, the sources accessed to obtain the photographs
and illustrations included in Tomorrow’s Answers Today are listed here.
If holders of rights could be identified and permissions obtained, the name of the holder is
listed instead of the source directly accessed. If known, the photographer or maker of the
illustration is listed in italics below the source or holder of rights.
Agis, Maurice (© c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2008) 59
Airbus Deutschland
M. Lindner 29
Akzo Nobel AB (Communications, Stockholm) 120, 132, 135,
142, 146, 147, 172, 175, 177, 178, 181L, 183
Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes (Sassenheim)
Studio Van der Horst 55
Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc. (Commercial Services, Chicago) 114
Akzo Nobel Deco A/S (Sales, Copenhagen) 156, 159, 161, 162,
163
Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings AB (Communications,
Malmö) 164, 167, 168, 169, 171, 255
Akzo Nobel N.V. (Corporate Archive, Arnhem) 22, 40, 43L, 47,
62, 66, 72, 75, 77, 82, 84, 85, 87, 90, 93, 117, 252, 261
Aviodrome Luchtfotografie, Lelystad 37
Hoedemakers, Paul 69
Leemans, Ad 65
Puffelen Jr., P.J. van 24
Versnel, Jan 39
VGF Photoarchive 34
Akzo Nobel Powder Coatings Ltd (Communications, Felling)
221R
Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry AB (R&D, Stenungsund)
184, 187, 188, 189, 191
Akzo Nobel UK Ltd (Company Secretarial, London) 200, 2003L,
2003R, 207, 209L, 209R, 210, 211
AkzoNobel (formerly ICI Corporate Communications, London)
224, 227, 229, 231, 233L, 233R, 237, 239, 245L, 245R, 247L, 247R
AkzoNobel (formerly ICI Communications, Slough) 243
AkzoNobel Corporate Communications 6, 71
Alfred Nobel Foundation (Stockholm) 124, 127, 130, 131
ANP foto (The Hague) 43R
Bofors (Corporate Archive, Karlskoga) 136, 139, 141T, 141B
Collectie Gemeentearchief (Rotterdam) 78
Crown Paints (Marketing, Darwen) 192, 195L, 195R
Eka Chemicals (Communications, Göteborg) 148, 151, 153, 155
Eran Oppenheimer Foto 258
Hema (Amsterdam) 61
International Paint Ltd (Communications/ Company
Secretarial, London) 214, 217, 218, 219, 221L
International Protective Coatings (Communications, London)
257
Intervet International (Boxmeer) 108, 111L, 111R,
Jones, Peter 59
Judd, Donald (Art© Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, NY /
Pictoright Amsterdam 2008) 61
Lohse, Richard Paul (© c/o Pictoright Amsterdam, 2008) 60
N.V. Organon (Oss) 29, 100, 103, 105, 107T, 107B
Pepsi & Co (Utrecht) 94, 97, 99
REpower Systems A.G. (Hamburg) 257
Rietveld, Gerrit (© c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2008) 59
Sara Lee (Utrecht) 81
Scola, Ettore 60
Sikkens (Trade, Sassenheim)
Julius van Dijk 57
Sikkens Foundation (Sassenheim) 59, 60, 61
Sikkens Painters’ Museum (Sassenheim) 48, 51, 53B, 53T
Studio Van der Horst 58
Studio Toivo Steen 261
277

278

Produced by AkzoNobel Corporate Communications
Editorial Board
John McLaren – Director of Corporate Communications (AkzoNobel)
Peter de Haan – Head of Internal Communications (AkzoNobel)
Berry Oonk – Head of Corporate Branding (AkzoNobel)
Editor Jonathan Steffen, The Corporate Story Ltd, Woking, UK
Assistant Editors Ian Cressie (AkzoNobel), David Lichtneker (AkzoNobel)
Indexing ISB&Index, Stitswerd, Netherlands
Design Manager Pepe Vargas (AkzoNobel)
Design Solar Initiative, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Lithography and printing Drukkerij Tesink BV, Zutphen, Netherlands
279

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