Johann Adam Benckiser (30 December 1782 – 7 May 1851) was a German chemist who was the founder of Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH, a major German chemicals business. The business has been part of

Reckitt Benckiser Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merg ...

, a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

, since 1999.

Career

Benckiser founded a business in

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...

, Germany specialising in industrial and consumer goods industrial chemicals in 1823. He initially made

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbol ...

and ammonium chloride. Karl Ludwig Reimann, a chemist, joined the business in 1828 and married Benckiser's daughter. Benckiser died in May 1851. Since then the company has been owned and enlarged by the Reimann family. In the 1980s it became a substantial company under the guidance of manager Peter Harf.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benckiser, Johann 1781 births 1851 deaths 19th-century German chemists People from Pforzheim Businesspeople from Baden-Württemberg