The Lever Brothers Factory was a soap factory in the suburb of Balmain in Sydney, Australia, which operated from 1895 until 1988. It employed many people from the local area and its large industrial buildings were a prominent feature of the landscape. Most of the site was demolished in 1996 to make way for an apartment complex, and only three of the original buildings remain.
The factory was on a 10-hectare (25-acre) site near Booth Street and Punch Park at the western end of Balmain, adjacent to White Bay.
The British company, Lever Brothers, was founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever, and Lever Brothers Ltd was incorporated in Australia on 21 June 1894. [1] Soon after this, in 1897, Lever Brothers established a plant at Balmain to extract oil from copra which was shipped back to Liverpool, England. [2] In 1900, the Balmain plant began to manufacture Sunlight soap and glycerine, and other products followed.
Early in 1914, William Lever visited Melbourne as part of a worldwide tour of his company's interests. During the visit, he met with the owners of J.Kitchen & Sons, who were established local soap manufacturers, and offered to amalgamate the two firms. After consideration, it was agreed that Lever Bros would purchase three-quarters of the shares in J.Kitchen & Sons, in return for cumulative preferred ordinary shares in Levers. Levers later bought all the remaining shares and, by about 1923–24, fully owned both companies. Shortly after, the company became known as Lever & Kitchen. [3]
In 1989, the Home and Personal Care businesses of Lever & Kitchen merged with the Australian firm, Rexona, to form L&K: Rexona. In 1993, the company changed its name to Lever Rexona and, in 2000, merged with Unilever Foods to form what is now Unilever Australasia. [4]
At its prime in 1958, the Balmain factory employed as many as 1,250 workers. The complex contained a glycerine refinery, toilet soap plant, and an oil refining and hardening works, [2] as well as many storage tanks, extensive wharves, and a small fleet of lighters and workboats.
The Balmain plant was wound down in the 1970s, having lost its waterfront and glycerine plant to the container wharf development at White Bay. Production eventually ceased in 1988. Together with the adjoining Ampol site, the area was sold in 1996 for the development of the Watervale, Dockside and Somerset Mews apartment complexes. Like many of the other Balmain industries, such as the former Balmain Power Station, the Colgate-Palmolive Factory, and the many shipyards, boilermakers and docks scattered about the Balmain foreshores, the Lever Brothers Factory became a victim of the ever-increasing property values in the area.
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson. Lever Brothers entered the United States market in 1895 and acquired Mac Fisheries, owner of T. Wall & Sons, in 1925. Lever Brothers was one of several British companies that took an interest in the welfare of its British employees. Its brands included Lifebuoy, Lux and Vim. Lever Brothers merged with Margarine Unie to form Unilever in 1929.
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is an Indian fast-moving consumer goods company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of the British company Unilever. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products and other consumer staples.
Rinso is a brand name of laundry soap and detergent marketed by Unilever. The brand was created by Robert Spear Hudson and originally branded Hudson's Soap, which was sold to Lever Brothers of Port Sunlight, England, in 1908. It was introduced in the United States by Lever Brothers Company in 1918.
Port Sunlight is a model village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in its soap factory ; work commenced in 1888. The name is derived from Lever Brothers' most popular brand of cleaning agent, Sunlight.
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools, he joined his father's wholesale grocery business in Bolton at the age of fifteen. Following an apprenticeship and a series of appointments in the family business, which he successfully expanded, he began manufacturing Sunlight Soap, building a substantial business empire with many well-known brands such as Lux and Lifebuoy. In 1886, together with his brother, James, he established Lever Brothers, which was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and which is now part of the British multinational Unilever. In politics, Lever briefly sat as a Liberal MP for Wirral and later, as Lord Leverhulme, in the House of Lords as a Peer. He was an advocate for expansion of the British Empire, particularly in Africa and Asia, which supplied palm oil, a key ingredient in Lever's product line. His firm had become associated with activities in the Belgian Congo by 1911.
Vim is the name of a range of household cleaning products originally produced by Lever Brothers. The Vim brand is currently owned by the German multinational company Henkel, while Unilever retains ownership in Canada and Vietnam.
Sunlight is a brand of laundry soap, laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent manufactured and marketed around the world by Unilever, except in the United States and Canada, where it has been owned by Sun Products since 2010.
Lilleborg AS is a major hygiene and cleaning article company in Norway, owned by Solenis, and formerly owned by the Orkla Group. It was established in 1833, and was one of the first companies in Norway to start manufacturing brand name products. It currently operates three factories in Norway, and employs a total working staff of 595.
Rexona is an Australian deodorant and antiperspirant brand owned by British conglomerate Unilever.
Charles Upfold, Justice of the Peace, was an English soap manufacturer of great prominence in Australia. He was also a Director of Aberdare Collieries Co. Ltd., and the Chairman of the board of management for its railways.
Unilever Pakistan Limited, formerly Lever Brothers Pakistan Limited, is a Pakistani fast-moving consumer goods company based in Karachi. It is a subsidiary of the British multinational company Unilever.
Lever & Kitchen was a major manufacturer, now part of Unilever.
Gossage is a family name of soapmakers and alkali manufacturers. Their company eventually became part of the Unilever group. During World War II, all soap brands were abolished by British government decree in 1942, in favour of a generic soap. When conditions returned to normal post war, the Gossage brand was not revived by Unilever though the company name is still registered for legal purposes. The online 'Times Index' shows meetings of the Gossage company board until the early 1960s.
Pears Glycerin soap is a British brand of soap first produced and sold in 1807 by Andrew Pears, at a factory just off Oxford Street in London. It was the world's first mass-market translucent soap. Under the stewardship of advertising pioneer Thomas J. Barratt, A. & F. Pears initiated a number of innovations in sales and marketing. English actress and socialite Lillie Langtry was recruited to become the poster-girl for Pears in 1882, and in doing so she became the first celebrity to endorse a commercial product.
Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton was an English industrialist from Leeds, Yorkshire.
W. H. Burford and Sons was a soap and candle-making business founded in Adelaide in 1840 by William Henville Burford (1807–1895), an English butcher who arrived in the new colony in 1838. It was one of the earliest soapmakers in Australia, and up to the 1960s when it closed, the oldest. In 1878 he took his two sons Benjamin and William into partnership as W. H. Burford & Sons. Its expansion, accompanied by a number of takeovers, made it the dominant soap manufacturer in South Australia and Western Australia. Its founders were noted public figures in the young city of Adelaide.
The Unilever Research & Development Port Sunlight Laboratory is the multinational consumer goods company Unilever's main research and development facility in the United Kingdom. It is located in Bebington, Merseyside.
Unilever Philippines, Inc. is the Philippine subsidiary of British multinational consumer goods company Unilever. It is based in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig since 2016. It is a manufacturer of laundry detergents and soaps, shampoos and hair conditioners, toothpastes, deodorants, skin care products, household cleaners, and toilet soaps with an annual sales of over 40 billion pesos. It employs over 1,000 people nationally. It is the largest polluter in the Philippines.
Unilever Nigeria Plc is a publicly listed company with trading and manufacturing interest in the consumer goods market. In 2014, it was listed among the top 20 most valuable companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Unilever Nigeria PLC is a subsidiary of Unilever Overseas Holding B.V.
Sunlight Chambers is a listed residential and commercial building on Bigg Market in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was designed by architects William & Segar Owen in a modified Baroque style and was named after Lever Brothers' Sunlight detergent brand.
Media related to Lever Brothers, Balmain at Wikimedia Commons33°51′44″S151°10′49″E / 33.862320°S 151.180406°E
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