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| ICI Paints, 1985 |
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| Brief Description: The ICI Paints adminstrative offices. |
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| Subject Date: May 1985 |
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| Creator: Reg Harrison |
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| Owner: Slough Library |
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| Contributor: Slough Library |
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| Full Description: Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was formed in 1926 by the merger of four of the largest chemical companies in Britain - Nobel Industries, Brunner Mond, British Dyestuffs and United Alkali. Nobel Industries had been founded by Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and instigator of the Nobel Prizes. The reason for the merger was to create a company big enough to respond to competition from Europe. In its first year of operation, ICI employed 33,000 people and made sales of £27 million.
In the early 1930s ICI bought out a local company, Naylor Brothers (London) Ltd, which had a paint factory in Wexham Road, and from then on has been one of the town's largest employers. The Wexham Road site was expanded in the 1960s and the 1980s.
ICI's best known product is probably Dulux paint, which was introduced in 1953, and the Dulux dog is one of the most easily recognizable characters in British advertising. The breed, the Old English Sheepdog, was fairly uncommon when the Dulux dog first appeared in the 1960s, but due to the influence of the adverts soon gained greatly in popularity.
ICI is responsible for over 33,000 patented inventions. Their first great invention was polyethylene, which was discovered in a laboratory accident. Other notable inventions include Perspex, Paludrine (an anti-malaria drug), and the weedkiller Paraquat.
One of the most well-known figures in the history of ICI is it's former chairman John Harvey-Jones, who joined the company upon leaving the Navy in 1956. He worked his way up through the company, becoming Sales Manager in 1965, and joining the main board in 1973. He was Chairman from 1982 to 1987, but is best known for the 1990 TV series 'Troubleshooter'.
In the 1990s the company was split into two. A new company, Zeneca, took on some areas of business, leaving ICI to concentrate on paints and chemicals. ICI Paints are still based in Slough. |
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| Collection: Reg Harrison |
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| Place: Slough; Central ; Petersfield Avenue ; Wexham Road |
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| Dimensions: 7.8 x 12.5 cm |
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| Subject: Factories |
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| Name Subject: ICI Paints ; Imperial Chemical Industries |
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| Content Type: Photo Colour |
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| Location: Slough Library |
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| Local Ref: Harrison Collection, Volume 8 p.20 |
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| Unique ID: sl-sl-h0720a_icipaints-i-00-000.tif |
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| IPR: Slough Library |
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Results summary
