Synthomer plc, formerly known as Yule Catto & Co, is a British-based chemicals business. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The company traces its roots back to 1863, when

Andrew Yule Andrew Yule (2 November 1834 – 18 July 1902) was a businessman who founded Andrew Yule and Co. Early life Andrew was born in Stonehaven- Fetteresso, Scotland, the third and youngest son of Robert Yule, a clothier, and his wife Elizabeth. He h ...

founded a trading house known as '' Andrew Yule & Co.'' in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. At the same time Andrew's brother,

George Yule George Yule may refer to: * George Yule (businessman) (1829–1892), Scottish merchant and politician in India * George Yule (linguist) (born 1947), British linguist * George Udny Yule George Udny Yule FRS (18 February 1871 – 26 June 1951 ...

, set up ''George Yule & Co.'' in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, which acted as British agency arm of Andrew Yule & Co. When in 1919 Andrew Yule & Co. and George Yule & Co. were sold to the US banking group J.P. Morgan & Co. and its British merchant banking affiliate Morgan Grenfell & Co., both were turned from a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...

into a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United St ...

. That same year Thomas Catto (1879–1959) was sent to India to take over the management of the firm from

Sir David Yule Sir David Yule, 1st Baronet (4 August 1858 – 3 July 1928) was a Scottish businessman based in British India. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' judged him "arguably the most important businessman in India" and quoted his obituary ...

(1858–1928), a nephew of Andrew Yule. David Yule continued to hold the title of Chairman but had no active part in the operations of the business. In 1920 Thomas Catto and David Yule changed the name of the British purchasing arm of Andrew Yule & Co., George Yule and Company, to ''Yule, Catto & Company Ltd.''Jones, p.325 Due to increased taxation, the devaluation of the

Indian rupee The Indian rupee ( symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency in the republic of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 ''paise'' (singular: ''paisa''), though as of 2022, coins of denomination of 1 rupee are the lowest value in use w ...

and the abolition of the managing agency system, Yule, Catto & Co decided in 1969 to sell its shareholding in Andrew Yule & Co. to the Indian government.Jones, p. 297 With the acquisition of ''Revertex Chemicals'' in 1980, Thomas Catto's son,

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

(1923–2001) started to turn Yule Catto & Co. into an international speciality chemicals and building products manufacturer. Since 2007 the group has been transformed from a diversified chemical business to a focussed speciality polymer business. In 2012 the company changed its name to Synthomer on the basis that the majority of its business already traded under that name. In July 2019, Synthomer announced that it was going to buy

OMNOVA Solutions OMNOVA Solutions Inc., is a global manufacturer of emulsion polymers, specialty chemicals, and functional and decorative surfaces. OMNOVA was founded in 1999 when GenCorp spun off its Decorative & Building Products and Performance Chemicals bus ...

for an enterprise value of $824 million; the transaction was completed on 2 April 2020. In October 2021, Synthomer announced the acquisition of Eastman Chemical adhesive activities for $1 billion.

Operations

The company has three activities: polymer chemicals, pharma chemicals and impact chemicals.

References

Sources

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Companies based in Essex 1863 establishments in England Harlow Chemical companies of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Specialty chemical companies Companies based in London Chemical companies established in 1863 Companies established in 1863 *