| Tata Chemicals Europe | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Location City: | Northwich, Cheshire |
| Location Country: | England, United Kingdom |
| Key People: | Dr Martin Ashcroft-Managing Director. |
| Industry: | Chemicals |
| Products: | Sodium carbonate (soda ash), sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, sodium sesquicarbonate |
| Parent: | Tata Chemicals |
| Homepage: | Tata Chemicals Europe |
Tata Chemicals Europe (formerly Brunner Mond (UK) Limited) is a UK-based chemicals company that is a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals Limited, itself a part of the India-based Tata Group. Its principal products are soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride and associated alkaline chemicals.
The original company was formed as a partnership in 1873 by John Brunner and Ludwig Mond. They built Winnington Works in Northwich, Cheshire and produced their first soda ash in 1874. The business was incorporated as a limited company in 1881.[1]
In 1911 it acquired soap and fat manufacturer Joseph Crosfield and Sons and Gossage, another soap company that owned palm plantations. In 1917, the company's trinitrotoluene (TNT) factory in Silvertown, London exploded having caught fire.[2] In 1919, it sold the soap and chemical businesses to Lever Brothers.[3]
In 1924 Brunner Mond acquired the Magadi Soda Company of Kenya and in 1926 Brunner Mond was one of the four main companies – along with British Dyestuffs Corporation, Nobel's Explosives Limited, and the United Alkali Company – which took part in the merger which created the massive industrial combine Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Alfred Mond – son of Ludwig and Chairman of Brunner Mond – was a key figure along with Harry McGowan of Nobel's in bringing this merger about. The Brunner Mond business was absorbed into the Alkali Group of ICI, becoming one of the largest and most successful companies in the world (ICI acquired Crosfield and Gossage's chemicals business from Unilever in 1997.) The Alkali Group became the Alkali Division in 1951. This merging with the Runcorn-based General Chemicals Division in 1964 to form Mond Division. This became the Soda Ash Products (Group) of ICI Chemicals and Polymers from 1986 until divestment.[4]
During the early twentieth century the company built managers' and workers' houses in Hartford, Cheshire.[5]
The British and Kenyan soda ash businesses of ICI were segregated from the rest of the ICI in 1991 and then demerged from ICI as Brunner Mond Holdings Limited. In 1998, this company acquired the soda ash production capabilities of Akzo Nobel in The Netherlands to form Brunner Mond B.V.[6]
Brunner Mond B. V. acquired British Salt, a Cheshire-based brine supplier, in 2010 for around £93 million. This vertical acquisition gave longer term raw commodity price certainty and an economy of transport distance for one of the company's largest factories. Brunner Mond B. V. was bought by Tata Chemicals in 2006. In April 2011, Brunner Mond was re-branded Tata Chemicals Europe.[7]
In 2022, Tata Chemicals Europe set up the UK's first industrial-scale carbon capture and usage plant, which can capture 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.[8]