Unilever Leeds, in the north-east of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

off the A6120 Leeds Outer Ring Road, is a large cosmetics factory and research site of the Anglo-Dutch company

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

that makes all of its

deodorant A deodorant is a substance applied to the body to prevent or mask body odor due to bacterial breakdown of perspiration or vaginal secretions, for example in the armpits, groin, or feet. A subclass of deodorants, called antiperspirants, prevents s ...

products for the UK. It is the largest deodorants factory in Europe. The factory supplies the whole of Europe.

History

Unilever is the UK's and the world's largest manufacturer of deodorants. Around 180m Unilever deodorants are sold in the UK each year. Unilever has three times the market share of its closest competitors. In the mid-1990s, the UK was producing 10% of the world's, and 25% of Europe's, aerosol products.

Structure

The site is situated north of the roundabout of the A64 and A6120. Due to the flammable substances ( LPG and

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

) stored on site to create the

propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...

s, the site is regulated by the

Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 (COMAH) are the enforcing regulations within the United Kingdom of the Seveso III Directive devised in Brussels following the Seveso disaster. They are applicable to any establishment storing ...

. The cosmetics industry across Europe is regulated by Cosmetics Europe.

Research

The site employs around 50 people to test its products on; people are subjected to temperatures up to 56C. One of the main substances in aerosol anti-perspirants is aluminium chlorohydrate. There are around 150 scientists on the site. The site has worked with DCA Design International Ltd of Warwick, for design of its aerosol cans Large collection of Axe products

Products

It makes compressed aerosols. It produces close to a billion deodorants a year. It can produce around 3,665 aerosols per minute across 12 packing lines. The site also has 3 roll-on packing lines with a total output of 750 bottles per minute between them. ''The Times'', 4 March 2006

References

External links