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Croda International plc is a British speciality
chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...
company based at
Snaith Snaith is a market town and parish in the civil parish of Snaith and Cowick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town is close to the River Aire and the M62 and M18 motorways. The town is located west of Goole, east of Knottingle ...
, England. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
.


History

The company was founded by George William Crowe and Henry James Dawe in 1925. Crowe bought an abandoned waterworks facility at
Rawcliffe Bridge Rawcliffe Bridge is a small hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south-west of Goole and lies just south of the M62 motorway. It forms part of the civil parish of Rawcliffe which lies just to the north ...
for £7, which would later be used to manufacture the company's first barrels of
lanolin Lanolin (from Latin 'wool', and 'oil'), also called wool yolk, wool wax, or wool grease, is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. Lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep breeds that are raised specifically fo ...
, a natural protective fat present in sheep's
wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...
. The company was named ''Croda (''a combination of the first few letters of his surname with that of his partner, Dawe). Crowe and Dawe began working on a process to extract lanolin from sheep’s wool for various industries, including uses in cosmetics, as a waterproofing agent, and as a dressing for leather. At the time, the UK imported lanolin, having no domestic lanolin production at all. Dawe's extraction process failed initially and Dawe left the company. Philip Wood, Crowe's nephew, was appointed manager of the site in 1925, and Wood worked closely with a Belgian chemist to develop a new extraction process. By the end of the year Croda had successfully produced its first batch of lanolin. The company struggled to remain profitable to the end of the decade until a report from the National Physical Laboratory was published describing the rust prevention properties of lanolin, creating new business opportunities for the company. The lanolin market was still in its infancy as the World Depression began to take hold in Britain, but Croda was able to expand their domestic market and exports through the 1930s as Wood refined Dawe's production process and gradually developed a wider range of product applications for lanolin. To aid in
military production during World War II Military production during World War II was the arms, ammunition, personnel and financing which were produced or mobilized by the belligerents of the war from the occupation of Austria in early 1938 to the surrender and occupation of Japan in ...
, Croda began producing camouflage paints, gun lubrication and cleaning oils, insect repellents, and other resources the British Empire required. When Wood died in 1949, aged 46, the board decided to run the business by committee, with Wood's son Frederick Wood appointed sales director. In 1950 Fred relocated to New York to set up the company's U.S. subsidiary, Croda Inc. In 1953 Fred returned to the UK and was appointed Croda's managing director, aged just 27. Under Fred Wood's management Croda experienced a sustained period of rapid growth. Leading cosmetics companies started using its products in the 1950s and at that time it also began to expand internationally: it moved to its present location in 1956. In 1957, Croda Inc. acquired Hummel Chemical Company and began manufacturing in a new Newark, NJ plant. It was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
in 1964. It expanded rapidly in the 1960s acquiring United Premier Oil in 1967 and British Glues & Chemicals in 1968. In 1970, Croda acquired L&H Holdings and A B Fleming for ink and synthetic resin production and acquired Midland-Yorkshire Tar Distillers in 1975. In 1990 it developed
Lorenzo's oil ''Lorenzo's Oil'' is a 1992 American drama film directed and co-written by George Miller. It is based on the true story of Augusto and Michaela Odone, parents who search for a cure for their son Lorenzo's adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), leading to ...
, a product famously used to treat
adrenoleukodystrophy Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a disease linked to the X chromosome. It is a result of fatty acid buildup caused by peroxisomal fatty acid beta oxidation which results in the accumulation of very long chain fatty acids in tissues throughout the bo ...
. In 1998 it bought Westbrook Lanolin. More recently it has concentrated on
speciality chemicals Speciality chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products which provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. Some of the categories of speciality chemicals are adhesives, agr ...
and in 2006 it announced that it had reached a deal with ICI to acquire ICI's Uniqema for a total consideration of £410 million. It announced an offer to acquire Plant Impact, an agricultural bioscience business, for £10 million in February 2018. In November 2020, it was announced that Croda will be purchasing Spanish home-products company Iberchem for €820 million. The planned purchase was intended to increase the company's sales of fragrance formulations in various markets including China and the Middle East.


Operations

The company's products include: *
Surfactant Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or interfacial tension between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming ...
s which are used as ingredients for cosmetic creams and lotions. *
Dietary supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in order ...
s containing speciality
lipid Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...
s, such as omega-3 oils. *
Fatty acid In chemistry, particularly in biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an unbranched chain of an even number of carbon atoms, fr ...
amide In organic chemistry, an amide, also known as an organic amide or a carboxamide, is a compound with the general formula , where R, R', and R″ represent organic groups or hydrogen atoms. The amide group is called a peptide bond when it is ...
s which add "slip" to plastic surfaces, so plastic bags can be peeled apart easily. These products are sold to other manufacturing companies. Croda has factories in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.


References


External links


Official site
{{Authority control Chemical companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1925 Chemical companies established in 1925 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies based in the East Riding of Yorkshire 1925 establishments in England