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ICI celebrates 80 years of Innovation

ICI 80th Anniversary

7th December 2006

ICI celebrated its 80th birthday on 7 December.The company was formed in 1926 from the merger of four British chemical companies to challenge the world's other major chemical producers.

The four were alkali company Brunner, Mond; Nobel Industries, a major explosives concern established in 1870 by Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite; United Alkali; and British Dyestuffs.

The agreement to create ICI was made during a transatlantic voyage aboard the liner 'Aquitania' and the company was formally incorporated on 7 December 1926, with 33,000 employees.

The principal products of the new company included chemicals, explosives and accessories, fertilisers, insecticides, dyestuffs, non-ferrous metals and paints. In its first year of business, 1927, ICI sold 27 millionGBP worth of products and made a pre-tax profit of 4.5 million GBP.

The company rapidly built a reputation for innovation in science and technology and grew organically. Examples of this process of evolution included:

  • ICI's business in pharmaceuticals stemmed from pioneering research in medicinal chemistry carried out by organic chemists of the dyestuffs business.
  • The development of alkyd resin paints and the formation of today's ICI Paints stemmed from the nitrocellulose technology of the explosives business.
  • ICI's activities in petrochemicals originated from work on the production of petroleum fractions from coal, using knowledge gained from the synthesis of ammonia.
  • ICI pioneered the development of polyamide (nylon) fibres in western Europe, helping to lead the company's business in man-made fibres.

The transformation of ICI from a bulk chemicals producer to a specialty products and paints company started in 1997 with the purchase of Unilever's Speciality Chemicals businesses. This was the critical move in establishing today's ICI, a leading specialty products and paints company that continues the Group's heritage of innovation and scientific research for the benefit of society.