38-543: British Celanese was a chemical company based in England. Formed in 1916, it survived as an independent company until 1957 when it became a subsidiary of Courtaulds . The origins of the company lie with two brothers, Henri and Camille Dreyfus . In 1912, they set up "Cellonit Gesellschaft Dreyfus and Co" in Basel , Switzerland . In 1916, the brothers were invited to live in Britain by
76-475: A privately held company based in Hong Kong , operates nine facilities that produce more than 120 million garments annually. Its products include lingerie, underwear, nightwear, swim and beachwear, formalwear and casualwear, jackets and coats, babywear and socks. [REDACTED] Media related to Courtaulds at Wikimedia Commons Peter Alfred Taylor Peter Alfred Taylor (30 July 1819 – 20 December 1891)
114-500: A year until 2015. In May 2006, Sara Lee sold Courtaulds Textiles (but not its pension debt) for an undisclosed sum. It was bought by a consortium led by PD Enterprise Limited, a private company based in Hong Kong. At the time, Courtaulds had about a thousand employees in the UK, of whom 300 were employed at a tights factory. Times Brenda Barnes commented that Sara Lee had effectively "given away"
152-594: The Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination . After unsuccessful candidatures at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1858 and Leicester in 1861, he was elected unopposed as a Liberal MP for Leicester in February 1862. At his election, when his programme included abolition of church rates and separation of church and state, he was attacked as ‘anti-everything’. He was a member of the Emancipation Society , founded in 1862 to promote
190-505: The British Government, to produce their recently developed cellulose acetate dope for the war effort; the canvas skins of aircraft of the time were sealed and made taut with nitrocellulose dope, which was easily ignited by bullets. They developed the necessary plant and "British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Co" was registered on March 18, 1916. The British Government patented the process developed by Henri Dreyfus, which lowered
228-578: The Contessa lingerie chain and McIlroys had been sold by 1995. In 2000, the American-based Sara Lee acquired Courtaulds Textiles in a hostile takeover for £150million. "Courtaulds Textile" remained as a division of Sara Lee, unlike the chemical merger, which saw "Courtaulds" disappear into Akzo Nobel . In the early 2000s, many jobs and factories were eliminated, especially in the UK, where manufacturing costs were higher. Marks and Spencer
266-455: The Italian rayon manufacturer SNIA Viscosa from Riccardo Gualino . A German director of VGF, Karl Scherer, replaced Gualino as head of the firm and cut output drastically. The foreign intervention was seen as humiliating by the fascists. In Europe Courtaulds expanded its cellulosics business both directly and in joint ventures , including British Cellophane . In 1945 Courtaulds remained one of
304-533: The Tencel division with other fibre divisions under the Acordis banner, then sold them off to private equity ( CVC Capital Partners ). In 2000, CVC sold the Tencel division to Lenzing AG , who combined it with their "Lenzing Lyocell" business, but maintained the brand name Tencel. At this time "Tencel" production was at 80,000 tonnes/year. In September 2000, Courtaulds Fibers Inc. was found guilty of negligence for polluting
342-713: The aerospace business has annual sales of approximately $ US240 million, employs 1,200 people. In the US it manufactures sealants in Glendale, California, US and Shildon , England; coatings and sealants in Mojave, California, US; glazing sealants at Gloucester City, New Jersey, US; and also coatings at Gonfreville, France. The business also operates 14 application-support centres in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. After its demerger, Courtaulds Textiles sold off its retail businesses;
380-718: The business, now known as Courtauld & Taylor , by building further mills in Halstead and Bocking . In 1825 Courtauld installed a steam engine at the Bocking mill, and then installed power looms at Halstead. His mills, however, remained heavily dependent on young female workers – in 1838, over 92% of his workforce was female. By 1850, Courtauld employed over 2,000 people in his three silk mills, and he had recruited partners including (in 1828) his brother, George Courtauld II (1802–1861) and (in 1849) fellow Unitarian social reformer Peter Alfred Taylor (1819-1891 – son of Peter Taylor who died
418-636: The cause of the northern states in the American Civil War . He was a vice-president and one of the few middle-class supporters of the Reform League , constituted early in 1865 to campaign for manhood suffrage and the ballot, and appeared on league platforms during the parliamentary reform crisis of 1866–7. He attempted to achieve unity with the National Reform Union , which sought the more limited aim of household suffrage. With John Stuart Mill he
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#1733084489412456-406: The chance to improve a poor education they might have had. The Taylors were closely involved in the movement for Italian unification and Giuseppe Mazzini was a frequent visitor to Aubrey House. A reception for Giuseppe Garibaldi was held at Aubrey House during his celebrated 1864 visit to London. Clementia's "Pen and Pencil Club" at Aubrey House, at which the work of young writers and artists
494-498: The company closed a viscose plant in Calais , France, allowing its other plants to boost output to 93% capacity, compared with an industry average of 75%. The share price doubled in the first three years following the demerger. CEO Sipko Huismans had focused the company on rationalisation and cost cutting, saying "We have to cut costs. We can't count on sales growth to pay us more or to allow us to buy more of our favorite things." In 1993
532-700: The company employed 23,000 and had £2 billion in annual revenue, with 30% of revenue from the United States, 40% from Europe and 15% from Asia-Pacific. Seeking to expand its business, specifically in Asia-Pacific, Courtaulds plc delivered part of its development in joint ventures, particularly with Akzo Nobel . It sought to merge with Akzo-Nobel, which the EU approved subject to the sale of Courtauld's aerospace business. In 1998 it merged with competitor Akzo Nobel . The name "Courtaulds" disappeared. Akzo Nobel combined
570-553: The company was dumping "an average of 12 million litres of water a day, loaded with acids, zinc, murky solid materials and other contaminants.... Tests in 1986 showed the company's waste killed healthy trout within five minutes." In the interwar era, Courtaulds, along with its domestic rival, British Celanese , both benefitted from tariff protection extended to the rayon industry by the Finance Act of 1925. In 1927–28 Courtaulds and Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken (VGF) gained control of
608-453: The company, a process that culminated in the demerging of its textile activities as a separately quoted company in March 1990. In 1962 a hostile takeover attempt by Imperial Chemical Industries was defeated. Throughout the 1980s, Courtaulds conducted research on solvent-spun cellulose fibres, using amine oxides. This process had previously been suggested by Eastman-Kodak, but their patent
646-495: The construction, and the original site covered 121 hectares . 52°54′40″N 1°24′40″W / 52.911°N 1.411°W / 52.911; -1.411 Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom -based manufacturer of fabric , clothing , artificial fibres , and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds plc and Courtaulds Textiles Ltd . The company
684-420: The costs of acetic anhydride production, an important reagent in the production of cellulose acetate . At the end of World War I , the British Government cancelled all contracts and the company changed to produce acetate fibres . In 1923 the company name was changed to British Celanese Ltd, a contraction of cellulose and ease. Softer and stronger, as well as being cheaper to produce than other fabrics used at
722-701: The environment outside its plant in Axis, Alabama , US with carbon disulfide . 1991 emissions were more than double those of the nine other plants in Alabama combined, and made minimal improvements to abide by the 1990 amendments to the United States' Clean Air Act . In Europe, Courtaulds had taken much more stringent emissions-reduction measures. In October 2000, PPG Industries announced it had agreed to buy Courtaulds Aerospace for $ US512.5 million. Based in Glendale, California , US
760-478: The family company of Samuel Courtauld & Co, later becoming a partner. The wealth from the company was what allowed him to develop and fund his radical interests, something which he conducted in concert with his wife. Taylor was an anti-vaccinationist. He commented that vaccination was a "delusion-a baseless superstition; that it afforded no protection from smallpox". He was President of the London Society for
798-591: The first factory to produce it in Coventry UK in 1905. The early yarns were first woven into fabrics at the Halstead Mill in Essex in March 1906, but the process remained troublesome until further inventions improved yarn strength. However, in a few years the process became highly successful and was responsible for transforming the silk weaver into the world's leading man-made fibre production company. Courtaulds also entered
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#1733084489412836-468: The following year). By this time, Courtauld was a wealthy man but was also suffering from deafness . He had planned to spend more time on his country estate Gosfield Hall near Halstead, but continued to play an active role in the company until just before he died in March 1881. His great-nephew Samuel Courtauld (1876–1947) became chairman of the Courtauld company in 1921 but is chiefly remembered today as
874-680: The founder of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London . William Julien Courtauld was also a benefactor of the arts: he gave artworks to the Essex County Council chamber at Chelmsford and the town hall at Braintree in the 1930s. Wishing to reduce their dependence on natural silk, in 1904 Courtaulds acquired the Cross and Bevan 's patents to the viscose process for manufacturing artificial silk or rayon from dissolving pulp . They set up
912-784: The four groups which dominated the man-made fibre industry in Europe (counting the German VGF and the Dutch AKU as one group, and including also the CTA—later merged into Rhone Poulenc in France, and Snia Viscose in Italy). Courtaulds' activities in continental Europe consisted in a wholly owned, one-factory viscose fibre business employing some 3,000 people in France, a 50% share in a similar business in Germany (of which
950-500: The market of cellulosics ( viscose and acetate ) in North America with the setting up of the American Viscose Corporation (AVC) in 1909. The investment in the US was highly successful, but its sale at a knock-down price was enforced in 1941 as part of the negotiations which preceded Lend-Lease . Courtaulds was Canada 's only rayon manufacturer in the 1980s, and was criticized for polluting Cornwall, Ontario . By 1989
988-561: The other 50% was owned by VGF, the major competitor), and a minority shareholding which controlled 20% of the voting capital in the Italian firm Snia Viscosa, also primarily a viscose fibre producer. This activity expanded until the 1960s, when these products were replaced by newer developments. In 1964 Courtaulds acquired Fine Spinners and Doublers for £14 million and the Lancashire Cotton Corporation for £22 million. Carbon disulfide , used in rayon production, increases
1026-439: The risk of heart attacks and strokes in rayon workers (among other health risks, some of them known since the 1800s). Data on these additional risks came out in the 1960s. Courtaulds worked hard to prevent publication of this data in the UK. Courtaulds was one of the earliest companies in the UK to establish an economics department. In the three decades following World War II that department made notable contributions to
1064-552: The time such as satin or taffeta, Celanese was used in the production of garments. In the interwar era, the company benefited from tariff protection extended to the rayon industry by the Finance Act of 1925. British Celanese was the first factory in Britain to produce propylene and from it isopropyl alcohol and acetone in 1942. Clarifoil production developed out of cellulose acetate yarn technology. Clarifoil full-scale production commenced from 1947. Henri Dreyfus died in 1944. Camille Dreyfus died in 1956. In 1957, British Celanese
1102-431: The understanding of investment appraisal and the formulation of British, and later European, trade policy. The function also played a significant role in the development of Courtaulds from a rather sedate, man-made fibres producer to the world's largest textile manufacturer, a position the company attained in the mid-1970s. The economics department then influenced the early stages of the subsequent extensive restructuring of
1140-580: The unit. In 2007, Courtaulds Textiles employed around 20,000 people across 16 countries in Europe, North America and Asia. It had moved most of its manufacturing jobs offshore, most of which was divested in joint ventures for flexibility. One of these joint venture was Slimline (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lanka 's largest apparel manufacturer, employing 1450 people and with a turnover of 25 million British pounds, and Courtaulds Clothing Lanka, which employed 700 people to make men's underwear. The whole company had an annual turnover exceeding £1billion. PD Enterprise Ltd.,
1178-511: Was a British politician , anti-vaccinationist and radical . Taylor was born in London . He was the son of another Peter Alfred Taylor, a silk merchant, and the nephew of Samuel Courtauld . He was educated at a school in Hove , Sussex , run by J. P. Malleson, his uncle and the Unitarian minister for Brighton . Here he met Clementia Doughty , whom he married in 1842. In the late 1830s he joined
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1216-745: Was a parliamentary spokesman for the Jamaica Committee , formed in response to Edward John Eyre 's brutal suppression of riots in Jamaica during the Morant Bay rebellion . In 1863 Taylor bought the freehold of Aubrey House , a large detached house in the Campden Hill area of Holland Park in West London. The Taylors opened the Aubrey Institute in the grounds of the house; the institute gave young people
1254-685: Was coming from its fibre and chemicals businesses, which were being held back by the textiles business. In 1990, Courtaulds plc demerged itself into two parts: In 1990, the company began pilot production of Tencel , a brand of lyocell rayon. The production of lyocell does not use carbon disulfide , but is more expensive than viscose rayon. In January 1993, the Tencel plant in Mobile, Alabama , US reached full production levels of 20,000 tons per year, by which time Courtaulds had spent £100 million and 10 years on Tencel development. Tencel revenues for 1993 were estimated as likely to be £50 million. In 1991,
1292-505: Was founded by George Courtauld and his cousin Peter Taylor (1790–1850) in 1794 as a silk , crepe and textile business at Pebmarsh in north Essex trading as George Courtauld & Co . In 1810, his American -born son Samuel Courtauld was managing his own silk mill in Braintree, Essex . In 1818, George Courtauld returned to America , leaving Samuel Courtauld and Taylor to expand
1330-580: Was nearing expiration. By the 1990s, this research led to pilot scale facilities and a subsequent patent battle with Lenzing. These companies initially cross-licensed, but the Lyocell process became Lenzing property after the demise of Courtaulds Plc in 1998. The lyocell process does not use carbon disulfide. By the late 1980s, the manufacture of clothing was quickly moving to South East Asia and China . Courtaulds had closed many of its UK factories and moved production to new Asian sites. Further, its main profit
1368-537: Was read and exhibited, became noted. In addition, Aubrey House was known for salons with radical attendees. The Taylor's social gatherings were also described by the American author Louisa May Alcott . A London County Council blue plaque commemorates the Taylors and other notable residents of Aubrey House. In 1873 ill health forced Taylor to retire from London to Brighton, where he founded clubs for working men, notably
1406-527: Was squeezing its suppliers for lower costs. In 2007, 40% of Courtauld's turnover was from sales to Marks & Spencer (though sales had declined rapidly, as of 2006 ). In February 2005, Brenda C. Barnes became the chairman and CEO of Sara Lee, and tried to sell the Courtaulds Textile division. In April 2006, the UK pension regulator required Sara Lee to increase payments into Courtaulds' $ 483 million (£260 million) pension deficit from £20m to £32m
1444-517: Was taken over by Courtaulds . The site is now operated by Celanese . The plant with the exception of Clarifoil finally closed after the last shift on Wednesday 14 November 2012. British Celanese had its principal manufacturing facility at Spondon in Derby. The site was constructed between 1916 and 1918 by Sir Robert McAlpine with £5million provided by the War Office. Over 30 million bricks were used in
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