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| Born | 19 September 1851 Bolton, Lancashire |
| Died | 7 May 1925 | Age 73 |
Lever Brothers 1885
In 1885 brothers William Hesketh Lever (1851–1925) and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916) formed the British manufacturing company Lever Brothers.
Beginings
The Lever brothers were born in Bolton England. William & James worked in their fathers small grocery business. A local Bolton chemist, William Hough Watson, had invented a new process to make soap, using glycerin and vegetable oils or palm oil, rather than tallow fat. In 1885 the brothers bought the small soap works in Warrington making Watson a partner.Soap
They first called their product 'Honey Soap' then later named it "Sunlight Soap". The product sold quickly and production soon reached 450 tons per week by 1888, within a decade it is on sale in 134 countries. Larger premises were built on the Wirral Peninsula at what was to become Port Sunlight "Model Village" or, self-contained community company village for the working staff to live.
UniLever 1930
Lever wanted to expand and in 1930 merged with the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and under the Unilever badge have further expanded to include:
It is now the world's third-largest consumer goods company.
