What became one of the largest soap companies in the world moved to the Wirral to the west of Liverpool in 1888 and is still there today. Why did this company Lever Brothers go there and why did William Lever the founder of the company have such an impact on the area?
The village named after a soap
In 1887 William Lever decided that his soap works at Warrington to the east of Liverpool was not big enough and started looking for a new site. He decided to build another factory on the banks of the Mersey near Bebington and New Ferry to the south of Birkenhead. He chose this site because it had good potential transport links by road, rail and to the River Mersey.
By March 1888 work had started on building the factory and a village for the workers, which was called Port Sunlight. Sunlight was one of the brands of soap that Lever Brothers made.
Soap started to be made at the new factory on 25 June 1889. By February 1895 about 1600 tonnes of soap per week was being made and this figure increased to 2400 tonnes a week in 1897. By 1900 the factory was producing other brands such as Lifebuoy, Lux Flakes, Monkey Brand, Vim scouring powder and Rinso and in 1914 60,000 tonnes of soap a year was being produced.
The north west soap company expands and goes international
Like many other companies of the day, Lever Brothers expanded by taking over rivals such as Prices Patent Candle Company and also started to make different products such as margarine, cattle feed and other foods. One of the reasons for this was that the same raw materials such as oils and fats were used to make soap and margarine. Lever Brothers built oil mills at Port Sunlight and a margarine works at Bromborough Port to the south of Port Sunlight. The company's research facilities were also expanded at Port Sunlight. Lever Brothers merged with the Margarine Union, a Dutch company, in 1929 to form Unilever and as part of this larger company Lever Brothers and Port Sunlight became just one of many Unilever sites throughout the world.
Although many of the factories built on the Lever Brothers site at Port Sunlight because of this expansion are no longer there, the original soap factory office building remains. Port Sunlight is now one of the company sites in the United Kingdom of Lever Fabergé, part of the Unilever group of companies.
For further information see our stories on the architecture of Port Sunlight and the Lever Brothers factory at Port Sunlight.
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